Carter David; Williams PotoRt Hon DAVID CARTER (National): First of all for the benefit of the Hon Ruth Dyson I won't take a full 10 minutes because I know that she gets a bit prickly at this time before 5.30 p.m. and is always keen to get on that flight back to Christchurch to service the Port Hills electorate.I listened with interest to the contribution by the Minister the Hon Grant Robertson when he mentioned the importance of the Reserve Bank of New Zealand Act and with that I totally agree. It has been the very foundation to our economy for a long period of time. I listened with interest also to Professor" Fletcher Tabuteau and of course I think I'm very grateful that he's here in Parliament and not now lecturing to students because of course if he was lecturing to students suggesting New Zealand was the first country in the world to have an independent monetary policy an independent Reserve Bank then it's probably unfortunate they were so ill-informed by their lecturer at the time.But what we're doing here and the reason National's not prepared to support the legislation is effectively we're doing two things: we're legislating the process the Reserve Bank uses now and then legislating that it goes and makes its final decision for a committee. We've had the Reserve Bank Governor recently before the Finance and Expenditure Committee and he tells us that's exactly the way the Reserve Bank makes its decisions now. So why we need legislation to do that when it's exactly the way the Reserve Bank operates and has operated for a period of time suggests to me in all honestly that why we've got this legislation before the House is we had a Government formed after the last election that didn't really expect to be in Government. It's rushing round to fulfil some promises and loose comments they made through an election campaign so it's come up with a piece of legislation that it will put before the House. And I guess the good news is—and again we heard comments from the Minister and particularly from the Hon Phil Twyford about how this legislation's been discussed and brought together between the Labour Party the Green Party and New Zealand First. And I think the good news is that the New Zealand First policy announced and pronounced by the Rt Hon Winston Peters on many many occasions that the Reserve Bank Act should also take into account in making its decisions the level of the exchange rate—at least that notion has been consigned to where it should be: the dustbin. And the Rt Hon Winston Peters either has forgotten that he's gone around the country for many years claiming manipulation of the exchange rate should be the role for the Reserve Bank Governor—and that has been forgotten. So I think that's good news.The other comment I wanted to make is around maximum sustainable employment. I don't believe this wording's necessary. I again took the opportunity to ask Adrian Orr as he appeared before the select committee what exactly it means and he was a bit unsure. He was very vague with his answer. And I do take this opportunity of congratulating Adrian Orr on his appointment as the Governor of the Reserve Bank. I think he'll do a superb job but they are words that aren't well defined and could mean all sorts of things to all sorts of decision makers—"maximum sustainable employment".So for those reasons I think in summary while it's always good to have a look at Acts that have been around for 30 years to consider whether they're still relevant the fact that we have a two-phase discussion process being initiated by the Government and the fact that this is the result of the first phase and not the complete phase suggest to me as I said earlier this is a Government surprised to be in a position of power surprised to be in a position where it's got to advance policy. It's come forward with something relatively simple and relatively unnecessary. It'll go before the Finance and Expenditure Committee where no doubt—that committee works very collaboratively well-chaired I might add by Mr Wood—we'll work through the issues and bring it back before the House. But it's unlikely to change the position that the National caucus is taking at this stage. I thank you Madam Assistant Speaker.ASSISTANT SPEAKER (Poto Williams): I understand this is a split call—Dr Deborah Russell."