Moreover, this bill does very little to remedy the flawed tax system. Productivity growth, in particular, has been one of the biggest shortfalls of successive Governments on both sides of the House, and our largest public policy failure. According to the draft report from the Productivity Commission on New Zealand firms, "New Zealand's disappointing productivity performance has held back its standard of living for many years."—and that's a direct quote—and "New Zealand's position among OECD countries would be even weaker if not for the relatively long hours … that people in New Zealand work." The sad thing is that the Government would not even let the Productivity Commission address tax as a tool in their report to be released. How can you have a modernised tax system and not think about the relationship between taxation and productivity and growing the country? Productivity is around 30 percent less than the countries we should compare ourselves with, such as Australia, Canada, the United States, and the United Kingdom. That means it falls to ordinary Kiwis working longer and harder to make up the shortfall, all the while the Government takes more money out of their pockets. Higher taxes prevent innovation and investment in new technologies, and this will, in the future, be the biggest difference to the lives of all New Zealanders. We need to do better, much better, and we can do better. 