Ardern Shane: Taxation (Annual Rates Maori Organisations Taxpayer Compliance and Miscellaneous Provisions) Bill — In Committee 
Ardern Shane: Taxation (Annual Rates Maori Organisations Taxpayer Compliance and Miscellaneous Provisions) Bill — In Committee 
[Volume:607;Page:4234] 
SHANE ARDERN (NZ National—Taranaki - King Country) 
: 
 Following on from my colleague in this part— 
Rodney Hide 
: A good speech actually. 
SHANE ARDERN 
: It was a very good speech—very informative. It was most helpful. My colleague touched on a few very good points. I would ask the Minister in the chair to take a call to answer some of the questions that the member raised. Why is it that legislation concerning the Inland Revenue Department can require somebody to pay 100 percent of the tax the department deems to be owing before it has been demonstrated that it is owing? Why is that the case? Why is it that that person will then receive a much lower interest rate than he or she will probably be borrowing to pay the tax? The people who are likely to find themselves in that situation are the entrepreneurs of this country—the sorts of people that the Prime Minister of this “Labour propped-up Government by a few on the side” has said— 
Brian Connell 
: United! 
SHANE ARDERN 
: United Future members who say one thing and vote another way. That Government has said that it will support entrepreneurs. It will support small-business people. It will support the wealth creators of the economy. Here we have a situation where Part 3 of this tax amendment bill being debated in Parliament today does exactly the opposite to what the Government has been talking about doing for the last 3½ to 4 years. In fact it could be enough as my colleague has pointed out for people like tax advisers to become so shy of what could happen—its ramifications to them and their businesses; they could be in breach of the law—that they will not give that advice. 
Dr the Hon Lockwood Smith 
: The penalty is 100 percent. 
SHANE ARDERN 
: The penalties are so tough. Most people know that they do not want to get offside with the Inland Revenue Department and I know in my own farming business and in small businesses around me the amount of effort that people go to to make sure they comply with the department’s requirements. Sometimes it is to an extreme point where they worry themselves and they worry their families. There are many documented cases of where that has happened. Many members of this Parliament have raised those issues and here today despite all the rhetoric about those issues we have legislation that is likely to make them worse. That is absolutely contrary to what the Government has told everybody it will do. It is another layer of cost another compliance that will be hard to live up to and another potential situation for good honest citizens who do not understand the detail of tax law to get themselves slightly out of line with the Inland Revenue Department and to have thrust on them that draconian penalty of 100 percent of what the department deems them to owe. There is no natural justice in that. I suggest that the Minister take a call and explain to us why on this basis the legislation should proceed through this Parliament. 
I also want to touch on the whole issue—once again it is referred to in Part 3; I have just been flicking through and having a look—of two separate tax rates. It is the issue of a different tax rate based on race. I want the Minister to explain that to this Committee once again because the previous Minister in the chair the Minister of Revenue got up and made an attempt to explain it. I congratulate him on that but I certainly was not convinced and I know that the Maori authorities were not convinced either. This Minister in the chair may have a different approach that is more convincing. I suspect he will have a few Maori authorities in his own electorate and I am sure he will have a bit of knowledge of the issue. Maybe he can take some advice from his officials. I would like this Minister to take a call when my time is complete to explain to us why we will have this draconian legislation pass through Parliament under this Labour-led Government and why it feels we should have our tax laws based on racial grounds rather than any other criteria that would be sensible to apply. 
The Minister may not consider taking a call right now. He might consider waiting until the Minister of Revenue comes back. That will be fine but one Minister somewhere in this Government needs to explain to the rest of the New Zealanders who are listening today and who are wondering about this legislation why we are proceeding with it given the overwhelming advice of a range of people in the select committee my colleague was part of who suggested that this was not the right approach. Why has the Government finally decided that it needs to proceed with Part 3 of this bill today when there is an overwhelming majority of people who have said it is not right?