Wood MichaelMICHAEL WOOD (Labour—Mt Roskill): Thank you very much Madam Deputy Speaker. I'm really delighted to be able to stand up and speak strongly in favour of the Taxation (Annual Rates for 2018-19 Modernising Tax Administration and Remedial Matters) Bill in this its very first reading. At the beginning of my comments I just want to give a little teaser: a little taster of some of the outstanding benefits that this tax bill is going to offer New Zealanders.We've quite recently come past the time of year at which many of us do our tax returns and those people who make charitable donations through the course of the year will be aware that at the moment we have quite a cumbersome process whereby you sort of have to save up your receipts from the charity that you gave the money to you put them in an envelope somewhere on your desk and at the end of the tax year you have to fill out a special separate form—you can do it only via hard copy—and you've got to mail the receipts in stapled to that form if you want to get your return.DEPUTY SPEAKER: I thank you for the advice but could you not bring me into it.MICHAEL WOOD: I'm sorry Madam Deputy Speaker. The people of New Zealand can do this—although I'll leave it there—to get their tax return done and to get their return on their charitable donations. One of the things that this bill does is it makes that process far less cumbersome for New Zealanders. It will enable people to file their receipts from their charitable donations at the very time they make that donation so that they don't risk losing the forms and therefore probably won't end up getting the benefit of that donation back. It then enables them effectively to get a credit against those donations in with their income tax return at the end of the year effectively bringing the two processes together. That is one of the small benefits that this bill offers New Zealanders and it really speaks to the broader theme of the bill which is about making our tax system simpler for New Zealanders easier to access and making sure that we treat people more accurately through the tax system at all points.We've heard a number of speakers in the debate so far speak not about that point but about a number of the other areas in which the bill simplifies and improves the tax system. That is why to my mind—and echoing the comments of my colleague Deborah Russell—it's deeply disappointing that the Opposition at this point of the legislative process at least is choosing to quite unusually vote against this tax bill despite all of those things in there which are actually going to improve our tax system. On this side of the House we know that the Opposition takes a different view in respect of tax rates but by tradition this is a bill in which members of the House from both sides engage in the process and engage in the issues but in respect of confirming the tax rates for the year which is simply about making the tax rates of this current tax year actually appropriated in a legal way there is generally unanimity around the House.I'd actually encourage some of the members on the other side of the House who have spoken against this bill because of the tax rates to actually reflect on the comments of the Hon Judith Collins who only a little bit earlier this year in a New Zealand Herald story said that she didn't think that she would go ahead with tax cuts if it was up to her that they were not a priority for her and that—here I quote directly from the Hon Judith Collins the previous Minister of Revenue under the previous National Government—What they're saying to me is and certainly in my area in South Auckland … is we need infrastructure"—that is instead of tax cuts.So when we hear the passionate arguments on the other side of the House against this bill because of the current tax rates and in favour of those tax rates being reduced that is the question: what is the trade off? What is the trade off? If those rates are to be cut what are they going to trade off? Are they going to trade off infrastructure improvements? I don't think so. Are they going to trade off increased investment in our education and health systems? Are they going to trade off those measures that Mr Bayly in his speech referred to as being good for low-income people or people who have families—those measures in the Families Package that are going to lift 64000 kids out of poverty?That's the thing about the tax rates: we know on this side of the House that there is no free lunch—there is no free lunch. If we want to invest in the social and the economic infrastructure of our country we need the revenue to do so. And I have not yet heard one speech from one of those members who are going to oppose this bill telling us how they will bridge that gap.As I said there are many many positive measures in this bill and I just want to touch on a couple more of those. The first one is that—and this is one of the things that I was asked about a great deal in a previous role as Labour's revenue spokesperson—this bill moves us towards a position of New Zealanders not having to pay secondary tax through the course of the year. You could talk to tax experts and they would say "Well actually the secondary tax system actually all sort of washes up in the end. We have to tax people that way but they can get a refund and it all balances out." But the reality is that those New Zealanders getting hit with the impost of a higher secondary tax rate through the year on low and medium incomes often really struggle.What is happening through this bill is that we are harnessing the benefits of the Business Transformation process we are harvesting the benefits of previous pieces of tax legislation which allow the IRD to collect more accurate and timely information and we are giving the IRD the tools to more accurately tax people who may be in two or three different jobs at the right tax rate at the right time so that they don't have to apply a higher secondary tax rate to that taxpayer. That is going to make life so much easier to those people who are often struggling week to week month to month to pay the bills from their pay. I think that is huge progress and there are going to be many many New Zealanders who are very pleased with that measure indeed.The final measure I want to touch on is the way in which this bill makes further improvements to our KiwiSaver system. KiwiSaver has been an enormous success. Over $40 billion of savings are invested through KiwiSaver schemes in New Zealand—one of the signal successes of the previous Labour Government. What this bill does is pick up on a range of recommendations to improve our KiwiSaver regime fundamentally to give people more options to feed into KiwiSaver. So we introduced two new rates of 6 percent and 10 percent. I think one of the speakers opposite previously made the point that jumping from 4 percent to 8 percent was potentially quite a high bar for people who might want to consider increasing their savings. By providing that 6 percent option I'm quite confident we're going to see more Kiwis in KiwiSaver and more Kiwis saving more through KiwiSaver and that has got to be a good thing.I'm very pleased this bill is coming to the Finance and Expenditure Committee. It's a very hard-working and talented committee with members from all sides of the House and we'll give this bill the rigour that it deserves. Tax is a complicated area. We need to look at it closely we need to listen to the advice of officials and we need to listen to the feedback that we receive from the public through the submissions process and I'm sure that we'll all do an assiduous job of that and make sure that this bill returns to the House in as good a shape as possible.A message I would just like to leave for those members opposite is to say this: that actually what they're doing in voting against this bill at this stage in the House today is a very unusual thing to do—it's a very unusual thing to do. If they want to associate themselves with the good things in this bill that are going to improve our tax system that are going to make things easier for New Zealand taxpayers and better for New Zealand taxpayers that are going to ensure that people pay their tax accurately—if they want to associate themselves with those good measures—they can't have it both ways. They can't vote against it and then also take the political benefit of supporting those measures. So I think between now and the further readings of this bill I would encourage those members—and Mr Goldsmith who led off the debate as the Opposition revenue spokesperson—to just reflect on that a little bit and I would encourage them to engage in this bill and the measures within it in a constructive way so that we can improve the tax system and make it as effective as possible for all New Zealanders which is what this bill will do and I commend it to the House. Thank you."