Mallard Trevor: Taxation (Tax Administration and Remedial Matters) Bill — In Committee Third Reading 
Mallard Trevor: Taxation (Tax Administration and Remedial Matters) Bill — In Committee Third Reading 
[Volume:675;Page:20766] 
Hon TREVOR MALLARD (Labour—Hutt South) 
: 
 I do not think we often get bills that more clearly define the difference between the people who are ruling in the interests of the wealthy and high-income earners and the people who care about middle-income New Zealanders and about common sense. I throw back to the Minister in the chair the Minister of Revenue his comments that helped him do so well at a previous election and I point out to him that this bill the Taxation (Tax Administration and Remedial Matters) Bill is not about revenue in the end. I agree with him on that. It is about a brake on transferring wealth to avoid the revenue system in other ways. 
He knows well the thousands and thousands of cases of Kiwis who through use of trust arrangements gain Working for Families. He knows of the kids of the farmers all over the country who drive Ranger Rovers to university and then get full student allowances. They drive to university in Range Rovers owned by the family trust and then they claim allowances while poor kids and middle-income kids—people whose families are earning way below the average income—are not eligible for those allowances. The Minister knows that the brake on the transfer of assets and also income to trusts is gift duty. It is one of the brakes—I think administrative stuff and legal fees are one of them—but it is one of the very important brakes. It does not stop the process but it slows the process. 
It means that for very large assets it can take decades to transfer funds from an individual to a trust or through the forgiving provisions which I am sure the member is aware of. I know that a lot of members opposite are aware of the provisions that forgive and therefore gift. 
Hon Lianne Dalziel 
: They loan and then they gift. 
Simon Bridges 
: Hey I drive a Hyundai man! 
Hon TREVOR MALLARD 
: They loan and then they gift and Simon Bridges is proud of it. He says “I have ripped off the tax system! I make middle-income people pay tax while I avoid mine!”. That is what Simon Bridges says and he is proud of it. I think it is amazing that we have a young member who is meant to be principled but who is so proud that poor people pay tax so he can avoid it—poor people pay tax so he can avoid it. 
I want to know whether the people of Ohariu-Belmont in the Minister’s electorate are aware of that fact because most of them are wage earners and salary earners—the vast majority of them—and I want to know whether they are happy with him acting for the privileged in the way he is doing now. 
You know I agree with the vast majority of his argument on abolishing gift duty. There is not a lot of money in it—there is not a lot of money in it. There is some administration involved in administering it and there is a lot of money spent on lawyers and accountants—far far too much. I mean there is nothing wrong with the photocopier as far as many of these trusts are concerned in my opinion. But this change is designed to let people of privilege hide their wealth hide their income and rip off the State. I am sick of the biggest beneficiaries of the tax system being the rich. I am sick of the Prime Minister getting $1000 a week in tax cuts while the GST goes up on my beneficiaries. I am sick of an arrangement being made to void the tax liabilities of people who are the wealthiest. 
This Minister I believe actually deep down knows what he is doing is wrong. He used to have principles—he used to have principles. We discussed these matters in the past. What he is doing to suck up to his ministerial colleagues is taking a bill through that privileges the rich.