Coffey Tamati; Williams PotoTAMATI COFFEY (Labour—Waiariki): Thank you Madam Assistant Speaker. I am filled with emotion about standing here to talk about the Taxation (Neutralising Base Erosion and Profit Shifting) Bill for the second time actually—as much enthusiasm as I had sitting through the many submissions on the Finance and Expenditure Committee listening to this. This is indeed a hard bill to understand. I want to give special thanks to Therese Turner who was our independent adviser. She wrote up her report with me in mind. She said If you get this Tamati then I'm doing OK." So she pointed that out to me. She also in the introduction to her report back to us said by her own admission "This is the most complex and technically challenging tax bill that I've seen in the 30 years during which I've been a full-time tax professional." That sentiment was also echoed by submitters who were also full-time tax professionals with extensive experience. But of course it is as previous speakers have indicated a very necessary piece of legislation.I do find it also slightly ironic that when it comes to closing tax loopholes the whole debating Chamber is in agreement that we need to close these loopholes up especially from the lens of a small-business owner. As a small-business owner from regional New Zealand when we look and we see the kinds of loopholes that multinationals are finding and getting away with it definitely makes you a little bit angry.This bill was a wee bit convoluted in some of the terms. You had one term which was used three times but was actually talking about the same thing. My case in point is this: "restricted transfer pricing rules" which was also referred to as "interest limitation rules" and in the bill it was referred to as "cross-border related loan rules"—all of them mean the same thing. So trying to wrap your head around not just complex taxation legislation but also having to decipher the jargon in the bill was definitely a challenge. I want to thank all of the submitters that came before us from all across New Zealand that had very certain problems—some problems some praises—with how we were doing things; the officials that sat and pored through all of the amendments that we made as a committee; and again to our adviser Therese for all of the work that she put into this.The purpose of this bill is of course to strengthen the integrity of our tax system and protect our tax base by introducing measures to address the issue of base erosion and profit shifting by multinationals. Now we pored through this time and time again in the submissions process with the main proposals being strengthened interest limitation rules a permanent establishment anti-avoidance rule updated transfer pricing rules hybrid and branch mismatch rules and increased administrative powers for the Inland Revenue Department so that it can more effectively investigate into large multinationals that were seen to be avoiding their share of tax—all riveting stuff.It is definitely a 21st century problem and it requires a 21st century solution. To think that these multinationals have found aggressive tax practices to ensure that they pay very little to sometimes no tax anywhere in the world is reason for action and that's exactly what our committee did as we pored over these submissions. We need to protect the fairness of our tax system here in New Zealand and for that reason whilst we are dealing with this particular piece of legislation now this Government has also established a Tax Working Group to look at more fundamental changes that would improve the structure and the fairness and the balance in our tax system. This is all part of a bigger package because this Government is committed to getting it right through all of those submissions but also through our Tax Working Group which the MP for Hutt South over there is a very big fan of as well—and I know that.Our response to base erosion and profit shifting is generally aligned with Australia and is broadly consistent with the OECD and the G20 action plan although specific proposals are tailored for the New Zealand environment. I don't expect that many regular New Zealanders out there would understand the intricacies of this bill—ASSISTANT SPEAKER (Poto Williams): I apologise to the member. Your time has expired."