Seymour DavidDAVID SEYMOUR (Leader—ACT): Thank you Madam Assistant Speaker. I rise on behalf of the ACT Party in opposition to this bill—this piece of ministerial vanity and economic vandalism. Make no mistake: the people of New Zealand are being deceived that they can somehow get something for free. They are being promised that by speeding up or slowing down the printing presses a group of people—no longer an accountable individual; a committee of people—can somehow get them jobs. And it's instructive to look at the cover sheet—very well designed by the previous Government I might add—and ask yourself: what is the problem that they are seeking to solve with this piece of legislation? There is not one there. They say that somehow monetary policy could be used to stabilise the real economy—only at the expense of price stability and price instability simultaneously destabilises the real economy. It cannot be done and it is impossible that this bill can deliver what it promises to deliver.Now the kind analysis that in civilised debate we are supposed to offer is that people who put forward dopey vandalising bills such as this have good intentions but they are misguided. They have brought in the rhetoric that they had when they were campaigning on university campuses and applied it to the big boy's job of being the Minister of Finance. But there's another possibility because if it is impossible that fiddling with the money supply will improve economic stability and employment then what other motivation could a Minister have? He hasn't put one in the regulatory impact statement. What else could possibly be his motivation? And it's this: we heard from the Minister about the dark old days of 1989. Well just prior to that we had a very different politician in charge; a guy called Muldoon. And he came along and he said Ah ha ha." And every time there was an election he ramped up the printing presses and got the short-term sugar hit and then New Zealanders got the economic instability that followed.Now some people might put two and two together and ask themselves: why is it that a Minister is solving a problem that does not exist and devolving a set of decisions not to one individual who is totally accountable and whose job depends upon maintaining price stability but to a committee of people—a range of people—that he will have influence on the appointment of? Could it be that this is not just dumb policy; this is actually evil policy. This is an erosion of the independence of the central bank. This is the current Government attempting to take control of the printing presses—not quite Venezuelan style; just in a sort of smaller capacity than they're used to. It is a way that this Government will be able to influence the supply of money and I bet this House that when this is in place and when their committee is making the decisions we will no longer have independent monetary policy; we will have a pattern that will be detectable in a few electoral cycles which will tell us that the money supply goes up and inflation goes up and the economic sugar hit comes out right before an election and then once the election is gone they take the punch-bowl away and the New Zealanders get the economic instability that the Reserve Bank of New Zealand Act was designed to take away.This is a black-letter day in New Zealand lawmaking. The Minister either has no idea what he's doing or he has every idea what he's doing. He is seeking to corrupt the independence of the Reserve Bank. He is seeking for political advantage to take away the price stability that New Zealanders have enjoyed for the past 29 years and what a shameful day to erode those policy settings that a previous Labour Party proudly put in place. I am very proud to be opposing this stupid bill. Thank you."