Robertson GrantHon GRANT ROBERTSON (Minister of Finance): Thank you very much Madam Speaker. Before I respond to some of the comments from Mr Bayly and talk about the bill I want to acknowledge the hard work of officials in putting together taxation legislation. It's complex it's large it often covers many topics—hence the name of the bill that you see in front of you here—and it's a very difficult piece of work. So I want to acknowledge all of the officials who have contributed to the legislation that is in front of us and indeed contribute to the taxation legislation generally as we go through the many bills in that space that Parliament covers each term.We often hear from the Opposition about the importance of addressing the housing crisis and the need for action and the need to provide solutions. And then a Government steps forward with a package that will make a significant difference in housing affordability and the Opposition says Oh no not that—something else." Well the something else that we keep hearing about are things like changing our planning laws. Yes we need to do that and we are doing that and we have a plan to replace the Resource Management Act we've got the National Policy Statement on Urban Development moving through and we will make those changes.But none of that would address the fact that we've got a lack of infrastructure that we need and so therefore the Government steps forward with a package on that. But saying that it's all just supply ignores the fact that the housing market is always a balance of supply and demand measures. So yes we must build more houses and we are; yes we must make sure that the infrastructure is in place; yes we must support first-home buyers more to be able to get into that housing market; and yes we need more apprentices and we're putting more apprentices in place for our construction industry as well. But if we completely ignore the demand side of the equation then we're only doing half our job here and so I think the changes that were put forward in this bill are important ones to be able to manage that demand side of the equation.I think I want to clear up a couple of Mr Bayly's misconceptions in that speech he just gave. The extension to the brightline test covered in this piece of legislation here is prospective. So all of those people he's talked about who made decisions those decisions stand. We're talking about an extension about when one buys the property going forward and I refer Mr Bayly to the excellent wiring diagram that the Inland Revenue put out yesterday as part of this announcement to show what happens to people who are currently in that situation. What this bill does is look forwards and what it also does—and critically in this initiative—is that that extension to the brightline test does not apply if you're building new property. And this is the trick because we have to address supply and demand together. And what we've been hearing—and we've all been getting different feedback about this over the last 24 hours—is particularly from property developers saying "This is an opportunity. This is a chance to build and to shift that investment from the speculative part of property investment to property development to building that extra supply that New Zealanders need." That's what we're hearing from property developers around the country—is that they see that this is the opportunity with the interest deductibility changes which also do not apply if you are going to do new builds.And so here is a package that actually seeks to do two things at once. It seeks to give first-home buyers a better shot but it also seeks to address some of the supply issues that we're facing. And so Mr Bayly in his comments didn't really reflect that.The other element of this bill which has got a little bit of attention this morning from people—I would have thought the Opposition would have given this a bit more attention when they were debating the bill—is the fact that we have clarified the change of use rules when it comes to your home. Now the interesting thing for me here is that there seems to be some form of amnesia on the other side of the House because firstly the brightline test was brought in by National and when they did that they actually did have a formula which said that your main home is your main home but it set up a cliff-face that that was 50 percent—50 percent. The change made last night means your main home will never be part of the brightline test when it is your main home but after a 12-month buffer period we will actually measure when it's your main home and when it's not. That's actually fairer on everybody and builds on what National already did. So this is quite clearly something where they don't want to remember what they did and actually the provision is fairer.The bill also clarifies the issue of short-stay accommodation which was a gap both in the initial creation of the brightline test and then the extension. This is not when you live in your home and you might rent it out once or twice; it's when you don't and it's short-stay accommodation—that is now captured inside the brightline test as well. They are important integrity measures to make the brightline test work in the way that it was intended.It is vital for New Zealand that we get on with building more houses and create build-ready land. It is vital for New Zealand that we ensure that the mix of supply measures we have can also support first-home buyers with affordability. On this side of the House we know that the level of house price rises we've seen in recent months is completely unsustainable. It is unsustainable from an affordability point of view but it's also unsustainable from a broader economic stability point of view unless we're prepared to act and that is what we have done. Time and time again in New Zealand Governments have been asked by people to act in this space. We have gone after a tax loophole and we've closed it. We've used the lever that already exists through the brightline test here and extended that. This package is a big part of making a difference in the lives of New Zealanders and of first-home buyers and I'm very pleased to support the bill."