Yule LawrenceLAWRENCE YULE (National—Tukituki): It's my pleasure to take a call on the second reading of the Venture Capital Fund Bill and as other speakers have said and as the Rt Hon David Carter said National will be supporting it as it did at first reading. But I do want to correct some things that are being said both by the Associate Minister of Finance and the most recent contribution from the other side from Phil Twyford.This sounds all very good: $300 million going to support businesses who probably need capital in the $10 million to $20 million range as they move from start-up to the next phase of their development. Well we now know that $240 million roughly of that money is simply being reallocated from the New Zealand Superannuation Fund and it's really instructing that fund on how to invest that money. It is important and I do support this that we work where at all possible for New Zealand start-ups to stay in New Zealand. However there are a number of factors that influence decisions made by start-ups as to where they operate from and how they operate. And I do think it's important that we recognise in a global environment where capital can be obtained in other countries that we look at things like business confidence the sentiment around how Government operates. And it is important to recognise that business investment has fallen from 5 percent to 0.6 percent since this Government has been in power. Job growth has dropped from 10000 jobs a month to more than 3000; 22000 more people are on the dole. These are all contributing factors and simply reallocating some money to venture capital will not resolve all those ills nor some of the sentiment including the GDP growth which has fallen to just 2.1 percent from 3.1 percent when this Government took office. So National understands that economic growth is really important for New Zealand and the surest way to prosperity and to how you lift the living standards of New Zealanders. We ultimately support this bill largely because as we assessed the 2019 Budget it's really the only pro-growth policy that was put in the entire list of opportunities and funds that were made available in that Budget. And we do support the need to grow future capital venture capital.We do like some of the changes that were made in the select committee process. We are however worried that the Minister has new intervention powers in terms of setting direction for the Guardians of New Zealand Superannuation. And if you look at how funds have traditionally worked in New Zealand and the New Zealand Superannuation Fund is a classic example then it makes a real difference that those Guardians are impartial. So it is a change to allow the Minister to give some directions to those Guardians. And I sit here and reflect on that. That really allows a lot more political interference than we've ever seen in these types of funds before. And in our view some of that is risky. I also draw to the attention of the House and particularly to the member Mark Patterson who sits just across from me that while venture capital is important there are also a lot of other things that are influencing investment decisions made in New Zealand. And the previous speaker Phil Twyford has spoken about changes to the foreign ownership and investment rules and he particularly focused on housing. What he didn't focus on was the fundamental changes that are occurring in other forms of investment from foreign investment. Traditionally we have welcomed foreign investment into companies that support agriculture to some vertically integrated processes of farm ownership right through to the market to other foreign investment opportunities around viticulture and horticulture—largely all of which have now stopped dead in their tracks with the exclusion of planting trees. Yesterday it was sobering for me to be told at the Finance and Expenditure Committee when the Reserve Bank came in that about 200 large-scale and significant dairy properties in New Zealand were going to be unable to meet their commitments to their banks and were in serious trouble. Now we're waiting to get further information about the scale of those commitments but see what happens is when that happens and there are no alternative buyers and the contraction of the credit industry in New Zealand by things like today's announcement and Government policies—Mark Patterson: So you'd flog them off to foreigners? LAWRENCE YULE: What happens is the value of land drops. All those farmers they lose value right across New Zealand because of that. And now they do not have foreign-owned investment or companies available to help buy some of those distressed assets. Now Mr Patterson might say that's a good thing. Mark Patterson: It is. LAWRENCE YULE: You go and tell—sorry members should go and talk to and that member should go and talk to thousands of farmers in New Zealand particularly in the dairy industry: if that proceeds on that basis with 200 seriously indebted farmers there will be a loss of value to New Zealand companies. So we support the Venture Capital Fund Bill as it's proposed but let's not kid ourselves: it is not the panacea. There are many other things wrong with the economy at the moment largely because of this Labour-led Government.