Swarbrick ChlöeCHLÖE SWARBRICK (Green—Auckland Central): E te Māngai tēnā koe tēnā koutou e te Whare. It probably makes sense to start my contribution by just referring to some of the comments made by the ACT Party speaker Damien Smith just before he sat down about the productive economy. We have extensive research in this country not least in the recent IRD and Treasury reports released last month that show us that in fact we have tax and trust settings in this country which are actually anti the productive economy. They are channelling and funnelling resources and capital into unproductive assets where they sit and they accumulate more and more of that untaxed wealth. These are the fundamental premises that we're talking about when we're talking about this Taxation (Annual Rates for 2023-24 Multinational Tax and Remedial Matters) Bill to bring it back to the legislation.So to bring it back to the legislation is to talk about the tax settings that we have available to us and obviously this being a piece of legislation debated under Budget urgency. We're talking about the revenue that the Government is affording itself to pay for the things that all of us need. And I found it really fascinating listening to the Leader of the Opposition Mr Luxon on the radio on RNZ on Wednesday morning when he said We have to grow the economy and if we do that we grow the tax base and growing the tax base helps us to pay for things." He was so close—he almost got it. He was nailing it and then he understood and he outlined explicitly that taxes pay for things and Governments of all stripes do that taxation based on the values and the ideologies and the things that we believe in about how our economy should best be geared.So what's outlined in this legislation: well as others have well canvassed the key kind of thing here is the raising of the trustee tax rate to 39 percent. That of course is to bring it into line with the top income tax rate of 39 percent. Actually funnily enough as members of the Opposition themselves have raised this is all about making sure that we address potentially distortionary impacts in terms of where people are putting their money in order to potentially avoid paying taxes. And as we canvassed just yesterday in the House as well—actually Andrew Bayly put it best a while ago in one of the many debates that we've had this term on the state of taxes and the economy and productivity and otherwise where there is and I quote "such a thing as legitimate tax avoidance". That is the inherent problem—the way that we have set up our economy our tax and our trust rules such that people can get around the system and those who have the most resources end up paying far less than is fair but also far less than they should be in terms of just actually an equivalence with the average New Zealander.Another really important thing in this legislation is the establishment for multinationals headquartered in Aotearoa to be required to pay a top-up tax to the IRD if their effective tax rate is lower than 15 percent. This of course is part of an international push by the OECD to implement a set of rules to stop a race to the bottom in corporate taxation. Also really peculiar points from the Opposition there about how we're somehow ceding our sovereignty to the OECD. I thought the whole point of tax systems being aligned internationally is that we actually ended up with far better coordination and again not being one of those countries that people come to in order to avoid taxation—taxation which and it appears there's at least consensus across the House helps to pay for the public infrastructure the public services and the public good that all of us need and use and that keeps this country going.Another really important component of this legislation is around changing the tax treatment of backdated lump-sum ACC and Ministry of Social Development payments. This is just effectively about ensuring that there is an equivalence too were there to not be a lump-sum payment but those payments were properly paid out that somebody is not getting taxed higher on them and therefore that we don't end up with a situation where they have lower contributions than would have been fair had those been paid out properly in the first place. It's just about fairness.Another really important component as of course canvassed by speakers is the Government matching the 3 percent contributions to KiwiSaver made by those on paid parental leave. Here I need to shout out to my Green colleague the Hon Julie Anne Genter who in her capacity as the Minister for Women last term I believe had some conversations with Government colleagues about initiating this process of work. And as others have alluded to we see particularly disproportionate impacts on women who do take paid parental leave and aren't able to make those contributions when it comes to retirement savings in particular.As others have and Mr Speaker I hope you'll allow me to reflect on the broader context that we are debating in this legislation and therefore in this Budget as we sit under Budget urgency on not this Friday but Thursday given that we're stuck in Thursday as far as the House rules go—DEPUTY SPEAKER: Well we've been fairly broad to date Ms Swarbrick so we'll start moving towards the bill.CHLÖE SWARBRICK: Mr Speaker—absolutely. The point though is that this legislation concerns the taxation rates that the Government is setting that it is addressing some of the distortionary impacts inside of our current tax and trust system but that there are other places that they could go. This exists within the context of the Government releasing just last month those IRD and Treasury reports that tell us about the fact that the wealthiest 311 families in this country pay less than half the effective tax rate of the average New Zealander. So to the core premise and principle of this bill—that is increasing fairness and equity of our tax system—there was an opportunity to go far further.The majority of New Zealanders agree as reflected in the Newshub poll this week where we saw that 52 percent of New Zealanders want to see this Government or would support this Government implementing a wealth tax something which the National Party seems to think that the Labour Party is cooking up—I think that would in fact be Green Party policy but none the less we would hope that the Hon David Parker does do those things that the National Party thinks are currently being cooked up because the majority of New Zealanders agree and support it and it would enable us to grow the tax base to pay for things that all of us need to see.Some economists estimate that we have a deficit of approximately $100 billion in our public infrastructure. We will always be playing catch-up unless we address these things. In this country every 40 or so years we have a form of economic transformation. In the 1930s and 1940s we instituted the welfare State and we paid for it by imposing greater taxes on those who had profited handsomely during a time that was incredibly challenging for many. In the 1980s and 1990s there was a concerted effort to shred that social contract and my colleagues in the ACT Party seem to be advocating for the continuation of that shredding of the social contract.I just finally do need to address the point that was also made about this apparent or supposed attack on landlords in this country. And again it's a constant refrain that we hear from members of the Opposition whenever we're talking about fair tax—DEPUTY SPEAKER: Yeah well just talk about how that appears in the bill.CHLÖE SWARBRICK: Mr Speaker it—DEPUTY SPEAKER: Because that's what we're here to talk about Ms Swarbrick.CHLÖE SWARBRICK: Understood—DEPUTY SPEAKER: I've been fairly indulgent to date so just—you've got two minutes left. So let's just—when you bring a point like that up just relate it to the bill.CHLÖE SWARBRICK: Mr Speaker appreciate the fact that others have been raising far broader points throughout this debate and in responding to those points I think it's well within my remit as a member but none the less the Greens will support this bill. It can and should go a lot further because as the Minister well knows there are far bigger distortions in our tax system which result in unproductive outcomes and I look forward to submissions from the general public at the Finance and Expenditure Committee."