Bayly AndrewANDREW BAYLY (National—Hunua): Thank you Mr Speaker. It's a pleasure to be talking on this New Zealand Infrastructure Commission/Te Waihanga Bill in its second reading. It was a good summary from the Hon Shane Jones; I especially like the comment about delivering because on this side of the House we do know how to deliver stuff. That's the important thing: to be able to actually not just have a plan but to actually put it in place—it's called execution. It's called actually doing what you say you're going to do.So as you know National is supporting this bill because as the Minister did acknowledge the genesis of this bill actually was with National. I think it is good that the House comes together to work our way through this bill as it progresses through the House because infrastructure is such a fundamental issue for the New Zealand economy. In some ways it's probably one of the most important issues for Governments because if you're talking about economic development one of the ways to facilitate growth is actually through judicious and careful expenditure in the area of infrastructure—at times we do it well; at other times we don't. I think this bill and the resulting commission will go some way to doing this.Just in the context of Government expenditure on infrastructure we all think about the roading issue. At the moment one of the most disappointing things is that we spend about $3.3 billion a year and at the moment we're about $800 million; so we're dreadfully underspending our roading budget. But the level of rail investment; water and waste water which is primarily around local council spend but huge costs to the economy; corrections; schools; defence; digital; and social investment—and all those things are part of what is under the jurisdiction of Government. I think the way that that's delivered and procured and funded is absolutely essential towards underpinning a successful economy here in New Zealand.I think that's the issue we have at the moment: an absolute lack of clarity around what is the future workflow of infrastructure. It's interesting the Minister talked about Fletchers. A little while ago about 18 months ago I went to see Michele Kernahan who at that point was running the Fletcher Building construction component and she was saying how all the people that we—and I say we" the construction industry and largely funded by the Government of course a lot of those people have left Christchurch to go to Australia because there was an overwhelming infrastructure boom going on and as it is right now in places like Victoria and New South Wales. And because we did not have a clear pathway of what the new projects were a lot of those people have already left our shores. Australia's recently announced a $100 billion infrastructure spend which of course is a flag to every large infrastructure builder and funder around the world that they are serious about doing it and putting in place the right mechanisms to make it happen.So New Zealand competes in that market place. Financiers particularly have an option of where they want to spend the money and where the perceived risks are and where the continuity of projects is. I think that's what the key part of the formation of this infrastructure commission is about. So the principle objectives are to focus on developing broad public agreement a long-term infrastructure strategy enabling coordination of infrastructure planning and thirdly providing advice and best-practice support to infrastructure projects. So that's all very good and I think it will go a long way.But I don't think we should just blindly assume that this is going to be the panacea for all our ills. Probably the biggest issue with the commission is that it is purely an advisory function; I personally think that's a mistake. I think the ability of the commission to do its work effectively will require more than just being seen—Hon Shane Jones: Bring forward an SOP! Will the caucus support an SOP?ANDREW BAYLY: —as a strong advocate. It is a very important—thank you Minister—aspect that there are times when this needs to show absolute leadership and have the ability to monitor and to be able to go back into projects and to make sure that best practice is occurring. I think the sophistication or lack of procurement in New Zealand is quite an issue. So that is a key aspect of that.Finally I just want to acknowledge the good quality appointments that have been made. It is Raveen Jaduram Minister; he is the CEO of Watercare and a very well-known person. But I think generally the board being put in place is very professional. I think that one of the crucial changes that the Finance and Expenditure Committee made was to encompass local government infrastructure in the planning going forward; it was a very important aspect. On that basis we'll be supporting the bill."