Tabuteau Fletcher: Land Transfer Amendment Bill Tax Administration Amendment Bill — Third ReadingsText is incorporated into the Bound VolumeTabuteau Fletcher: Land Transfer Amendment Bill Tax Administration Amendment Bill — Third Readings[Sitting date: 10 September 2015. Volume:708;Page:6549. Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume.]FLETCHER TABUTEAU (NZ First): Let us be clear Mr Bishop who is shaking his head and grinning at me that this is a poor poor response from this Government. The Government is singing from a song sheet but when you look at the legislation arising from the Taxation (Land Information and Offshore Persons Information) Bill there is nothing in it. There is no substance and you are told by your own experts that it will achieve absolutely nothing even in combination with the other piece of legislation that was supposed to address the issue. Let us be clear. This is in response to what we all know to be a very serious housing price bubble in the Auckland property market. It is still ongoing. It has been growing almost exponentially month after month and even—some of the calculations are telling us—day after day. It is moving at a staggering speed and the problem for New Zealand First is that we already have this problem of Generation Rent and this is just increasing it day by day. It is a huge problem and this legislation is doing nothing about it. Real New Zealanders are worried and the National Party knows that its support base is worried. Here we now have a piece of legislation that unfortunately does not address the issue but will be spun out in the media and the people of New Zealand will be placated and told that something is being done. But it is not. It is absolutely not.Although I am reticent to do this and am always reluctant to hold my colleagues on this side of the House to account I can unfortunately say that over the last few days the Labour and the Green members have spoken more eloquently against this piece of legislation than I have. They have spoken about it being a waste of the piece of paper it is written on and about how hollow it is and how full of loopholes it is and yet here we are and New Zealand First is the only party in the House opposing this absolute waste of time presented to us in the House by this National Government. I say to my colleagues on this side of the House I have believed every word that you have said. You have said it eloquently. Stand behind your convictions and actually show New Zealanders what this piece of legislation is—that it is a waste of time.New Zealand First does support an initiative to increase tax especially on overseas speculators as outlined by the Minister for Land Information in her opening address. But the legislation does not actually do this. It has been rushed through with limited consultation and limited opportunity for New Zealanders to have their say. The legislation does not achieve this. The Government has been advised by its own experts that this legislation—even combined with the brightline or “dim-line” bill as I am so wont to call it—will achieve absolutely nothing. It will not achieve anything. We have been told that by the Government’s own experts. Land Information New Zealand also told this Government that it is not ready. It is not ready to process the data. It does not have the software. It does not have the information and communications technology to process this information and as has been so eloquently pointed out by members on this side of the House it literally means that it will be writing out this information by hand. It just seems like a waste of time when we know from the Government’s own experts that this piece of legislation will not increase tax take and will not put any kind of stymie on overseas speculation in the market.The main home exclusion—we were told that New Zealanders would worry needlessly about having to present their IRD number and yet of other parts of the legislation it was said “Well we’ll have to tell New Zealanders what this means.” but the Government is not willing to tell them about it now. New Zealanders will not worry needlessly. It does not add complexity. It would be a straightforward tick of a box to add this information for all home purchases so that we can actually create a comprehensive land transfer database that produces meaningful information. In terms of the main home exclusion we were told about the greatest connection test. The Minister in her opening address told us that they were going to use case law to help them implement it. Yet the Government’s own legal experts advised this Minister and the Finance and Expenditure Committee that there is no precedent in New Zealand law for this term—absolutely no precedent in case law in New Zealand. It makes no sense whatsoever and the confusion has already begun on that side of the House. The main home should not be exempt from this data collection. We want meaningful data. We can turn that into useful information.Let me just highlight a couple of points that I have spoken about earlier in relation to this combined piece of legislation. There are exclusions. A speculator who buys a piece of rural land—you know the rural lot; a couple of acres that has a few sheep on it—but who then decides to rent it out and then for whatever reason they decide to sell it within the 2-year brightline period is not included in this. Living in the property doing it up and then selling it within the 2-year brightline period—it does not matter if you have got the information; you are not included in the tax provisions of that legislation. Speculators will not be identified. Then I put this to the Minister actually: what are the provisions within this law or even other pieces of legislation for the actual collection of the tax burden required of those overseas speculators who did not actually manage to fall through the multitude of loopholes? Where is it that we will be able to actually go and collect that tax? It has been suggested to this Government that those people pay a bond on the purchase of their homes. Although I would not agree to overseas speculators buying homes in New Zealand at all I think that you would not be able to implement that. It just makes no sense. We want to develop meaningful information.I just want to address something that Mr Bennett said earlier in the piece about Labour’s shifting on capital gains. The problem with this piece of legislation is that what it is doing is actually adding another level of complexity to current and existing legislation. Without doubt categorically this Government has in place already a capital gains tax. It just chooses not to implement it it chooses not to ask its appropriate ministry to implement it and it chooses to call it by another name—I do not know what. But the law says that if you make a gain on the sale of your property you will pay a tax on that. If that is not a capital gains tax I do not know what is. This Government simply chooses not to enforce it and here we are not only creating loopholes but adding more levels of complexity. It seems to be a contradiction in terms but this Government in its absolute—I do not want to say it—has managed to do that. New Zealand First unlike the rest of the side of this House cannot support this legislation even though its intent is something New Zealand First would like to see. It is truly a waste of this House’s time. Thank you.