New Zealand Business Number Funding (Validation and Authorisation) Bill

Thank you, Madam Chair. It’s a pleasure to rise and speak on Part 1, the part that will, despite one of the members opposite—the deputy leader, in fact, of the New Zealand First Party—wanting to make a mountain out of a molehill, validate the collection of levies up until this point, which, as we have discovered and the Minister of Revenue was advised late last year, do not fit within the legal realms or constructs of the Companies Act.

We have an opportunity which we’re taking in Part 1. Obviously, the bill itself is going to not only make sure that the levies are correct going forward but, in this Part 1, make it clear that although there was an error, the error itself didn’t invalidate the purpose of that levy that was collected and didn’t invalidate the reasons nor the actions that were taken with it in terms of instituting and running the New Zealand Business Number. But it does, of course, just give legal certainty. In fact, it could be no more certain in what it does to set out in legal stone that the levies that have been collected to date are deemed legal.

I do have a question for the Minister, and it may actually be under Part 2, so I’m going to hold it back for that, but I’ll flag the question now so that the Minister can consider it. That is: why didn’t he just choose to continue and make this a levy that would continue to be collected under the Companies Act into the future? Why a New Zealand Business Number Act levy?

Part 1 agreed to.

Part 2 Amendments to New Zealand Business Number Act 2016