White HelenHELEN WHITE (Labour): I'm pleased to take a call on this bill and I'm quite interested in the process but I think that the average public member probably doesn't know why I would be so I'm going to try and explain it. The first thing about the Superannuation Fund to get a hold of if you aren't familiar with it is that there's this thing that is called the guardians". The guardians are people who are a board and they're independent from the Government and they manage funds. They manage two funds: one is a super fund that is big and broad and it's meant to really make sure that everybody has investments across the board and then there's another fund which is called Elevate and it actually invests in all the little enterprises which have been funded a little bit but just need that bit more to become bigger and become more thriving companies. So it's a really interesting job that those people do and they're extremely skilled.One of the things that's really important about them is that they're independent and so here I totally agree with the Opposition. It's incredibly important that if we're going to change the nature of that investment we change it so that we are entrenching that independence of those groups so they're not doing the bidding of the Labour Government or the National Government one day. That's not going to happen because those people are going to look after the interests of the investors—that's all Kiwis—and they're not going to be influenced. So absolutely that's something that we should all keep an eye on. As my friend Rachel Brooking—who's the chair of the Finance and Expenditure Committee and cares deeply about these things—says it's already kind of entrenched in the legislation that that won't happen.So it's an important step that people have thought about before but by all means it's something that we should talk about at the select committee and make sure it can't happen. I certainly don't want it going into a hospital because the suggestion would be it would be like a profit-making thing and I don't want that to happen because the investment is not for that purpose. What I would like to see happen with such money if there is a controlling interest ability which is the change is that the Superannuation Fund does invest in some of those big projects in New Zealand that need doing that probably aren't suitable for the Government but they might be suitable for a big super fund—things like perhaps long-term rental. Overseas we have super funds that build big apartments in places like Belgium and those apartments are actually privately run but they're run by the big super funds. So they've got these big institutional investors going that really care about things like long-term rentals and having homes etc.What is happening here is the legislation's been through one stage where it's been guarded against a big investment in one thing and we've got to the point where the guardians themselves and the way they've conducted themselves are so good that actually if the guardians took a controlling interest we'd probably see investments from other super funds come alongside it because they'd know this was a well-managed project. So actually we're hopefully encouraging a whole other layer of investment that we need in this country super fund to super fund or other big investor. I think we're all agreed that this is the time for this to happen because the fund's got to that point where it's mature.I also point out that actually one of the things that is in this legislation is that the guardians are going to have to establish a statement of policies and standards and procedures. So they're not just going to do whatever they want without anyone knowing; there'd be a thoughtful and transparent process that says "These are the kinds of things we decided to invest in." I'm particularly keen on someone investing in a dry dock up north because if they do that—it's a big investment and not many can but if they did something like that well actually that would be really good for Auckland because we'd get rid of all the big boats that clean themselves in Auckland harbour and they'd go to a place where they could be actually environmentally friendly and cleaned and we'd have a better and prettier harbour. And it would help obviously my friend Emily Henderson up in Whangārei because there is an opportunity for work etc. there. So that's the kind of potential I can see in this legislation. I can see it doing good things and I can see the actual obligation to consult with the other parties being part of really that entrenchment of this as an independent thing as a good thing to do but not necessarily something that we should have as a party political point.So yes I'm absolutely mindful. This would be the guardians being able to make those decisions not with my choice—I couldn't necessarily lobby for a dry dock—not with Mr Woodhouse's choice; he couldn't lobby for a hospital but actually they will make rules and they will apply them and they will make good investments in this country. So I support this legislation going to the select committee."