Hudson BrettBRETT HUDSON (National): Thank you Mr Speaker. It is actually for the first time a pleasure to speak on a bill. We're going to support the New Zealand Business Number Funding (Validation and Authorisation) Bill.Before I get on to the substance I just want to comment on some remarks. Mr Faafoi: a rather gratuitous swipe at officials' advice to the previous Government and for once—unlike Minister Sage—a Government actually taking advice from officials and executing it. Mr Faafoi I think your fixation on the less than relevant might go some way to explaining why the Minister is still outside of Cabinet but give it a bit of focus and you might yet get there.It's only taken till the fourth bill on the Order Paper to finally have a reasonably justified cause to pass a bill under all stages under Budget urgency. The first bill simply put an unnecessary tax on motorists. The second bill put a greater tax burden on people that shouldn't be required. The third bill is going to hurt businesses by placing a $70 million cost on them but finally we have a bill—we finally have a bill—where the Minister is able to articulate very good reasons—Hon Kris Faafoi: Bye bye Brett. You'll be gone—you're a listee.BRETT HUDSON: —as to why this bill should be passed under urgency in all stages.SPEAKER: Order! Order! I might be gone but it's not relevant. If the member's referring to that member he should not refer to me. Thank you.BRETT HUDSON: Wonderful. Nice to know I touched a raw nerve there Mr Faafoi.Hon Kris Faafoi: Ta ta Brett.BRETT HUDSON: You'll get there! You'll get there son just keep working on it!So finally we have a bill where the Minister is able to give good justifications as to why this should come under urgency. The potential implications if this were to go through a full process could be rather detrimental to the interests of businesses and certainly to New Zealand. We do support that this bill be worked through the stages in the way it is. Another remarkable point because we absolutely—we instituted the New Zealand Business Number so of course we support this. What is remarkable is how being in Government changes people's views. I sat on the Commerce Committee last term when the Business Number was enacted and I can tell the House and tell New Zealand that members who sat opposite to us now were not glowing in their praise of the New Zealand Business Number when the National-led Government was seeking to legislate it.In fact it was quite the opposite. The number of times I heard Dr David Clark tell us how it was a complete waste of time a complete waste of money and shouldn't be done is quite remarkable. But here they come with a bill to validate the proper funding for it—which we do support—and all of a sudden they think it's almost the best thing since sliced bread. Well we agree with them on that too because one thing: usage of the New Zealand Business Number as it develops is expected to save New Zealand businesses—how much is it Mrs Jacqui Dean? Is it $80 million a year?Andrew Bayly: $60 million.BRETT HUDSON: $60 million a year. Not quite enough but it's good—$60 million a year—because that Government has just cost New Zealand businesses $70 million a year through the tourist tax but we're most of the way to recovering that gap that they have created through the New Zealand Business Number that we put in.We agree that it has been found that the funding mechanism—which was agreed—is a sensible way where businesses could contribute most of the expense towards a thing that they benefit from most of all. Now it's been discovered that although that was a very sensible idea it wasn't in line with what is permitted under the Companies Act. It is appropriate that we take these steps to not only retrospectively permit that and to validate the payments made but to make sure that we will be able to collect levies for the New Zealand Business Number—80 percent of them at least—from businesses because it does reflect that they are the principal beneficiaries of the system.The system has enormous potential. The reason we put it in place was to help speed interactions and efficiency of interactions between businesses and Government. The previous practice—and it will still exist to some degree or another—is that every entity every business but also actually every individual will have a unique identifier with every Government entity they have to do business with whether it's a lot or a little frequent or very infrequent. The New Zealand Business Number gives a unique identity that can be shared across Government entities which means that certainty of authorisations of identifying the correct parties is so much easier so much more efficient and that will streamline interactions between business and Government. Into the future one hopes it will be expanded so that it can also be used across the private sector as well and can do the same thing to streamline and make more efficient interactions between businesses and their customers' businesses their suppliers and all entities.It is a great idea. I'm very pleased that we instituted it in the first place. While it's regrettable that the advice we took and acted upon wasn't as effective as we would have liked this is a good measure to address that. I commend this bill to the House.