Hide Rodney: Reserve Bank of New Zealand Amendment Bill — In Committee 
Hide Rodney: Reserve Bank of New Zealand Amendment Bill — In Committee 
[Volume:610;Page:7890] 
RODNEY HIDE (ACT NZ) 
: 
 I— 
Jill Pettis 
: ACT usually praises people before it shoots them. 
RODNEY HIDE 
: They know how to do it in the Labour Party do they not? The Government’s attitude is to shoot them all—shoot the farmers the producers and everyone who is successful. We have heard that tonight from—what is her name? It is Jill Pettis or something. 
I think it is a great thing for this Parliament that after the hard years spent in getting inflation down the Minister of Finance can bring an amendment to the Reserve Bank of New Zealand Act—which is a far-reaching and a very important Act in our financial structure—and have unanimous agreement. We have the Greens supporting global capitalism—[ 
Interruption 
] Dr Cullen says we should not tell them that. We have New Zealand First supporting inflation targeting. I think that is because Dr Michael Cullen has been largely sensible on monetary matters but it also reflects the impact of Dr Don Brash first as Governor of the Reserve Bank and now as a member of this Parliament. 
Dr Brash’s contribution in the Finance and Expenditure Committee is noticeable with regard to this bill. Let us just think about it. He has convinced Winston Peters and Rod Donald to support this bill. I know Clayton Cosgrove the chair of the committee may have gone back to the caucus and said it was him who did that. But the members of that committee all know that it was Dr Donald T Brash whose name is still on every bill in the country—and the Minister of Finance is checking that but Alan Bollard has not got around to signing bills yet—who convinced members of the sanity and the sensible nature of this bill. Is that right Minister? 
Hon Dr Michael Cullen 
: Lots of people. 
RODNEY HIDE 
: Lots of people. He has convinced this whole Parliament that the Reserve Bank of New Zealand Act—which was very controversial in its day—is not something that we should mess with but rather that we should amend in order to make it better. 
I think that is a huge achievement for this Parliament. It is a huge achievement for the political parties and for New Zealand. It is a huge plus for us in terms of our economic management. I too would like to congratulate the Greens on realising that global capitalism is a reality and that what we should do is facilitate the movement of money goods and services exactly as this bill does. 
We are debating the title and we could call the bill the “Donald Brash Comes to Parliament and Sorts Us All Out Bill”. We could call it the “Greens Embrace Global Capitalism Bill”. We could call it the “Winston Peters Calms Down Smells the Coffee and Understands a Little Bit About Monetary Policy Bill”. We could call it the “Michael Cullen Agrees With Roger Douglas and Ruth Richardson Bill”. 
Hon Dr Michael Cullen 
: I supported his Act in the first place. 
RODNEY HIDE 
: I know. When Donald Brash was governor I remember Michael Cullen saying very warm and supportive things at every opportunity about the governor’s wise decisions at the time. He was never once critical of him. He never once said Mr Brash might be getting a bit tough. No Michael Cullen’s memory of that period is fading fast but I remember him being fully supportive of monetary policy. 
I think we can do better with this bill. I make a plea to the Minister of Finance to look around and say who should be chairing the Finance and Expenditure Committee. I say that it should be Don Brash not Clayton Cosgrove.