SpeechDr ANAE NERU LEAVASA (Labour—Takanini): Noa'ia 'e Mḁuri. Madam Speaker kia orana. It is a pleasure to take a call on the local bill—the New Plymouth District Council (Perpetual Investment Fund) Bill second reading sponsored by my colleague the great MP for New Plymouth Glen Bennett which he says is the sunniest place in New Zealand. I'm from Takanini so the things we have there is the home of the ANZ netball Robinhood Stars netball team. But I know many have said their relationship in terms of Taranaki. To be honest I don't have a close relationship. All I know is the local MP—I know the resident and list MP Angela Roberts but I know it's a great place because I looked at the list of All Blacks that they've produced as well—Waisake Naholo we have a couple of the Barrett brothers who've played there also we have Chris Masoe. So many other All Blacks that have done great work in our rugby system as well.It is always great to see that there is a genuine relationship between local council and their local MP as well. And I want to acknowledge the awesome and hard-working effort of Glen Bennett as well. As a former local board member in South Auckland it is very important to maintain those relationships with our central government colleagues in order to advocate and help our local communities despite the political landscape in that area. And this is just a great example of that—the local MP doing his bit in shepherding this bill through the House.This is my first time speaking on this bill. I don't have the great privilege of sitting on the select committee—the Governance and Administration Committee—but I just want to acknowledge their work in the process of this legislation. Just to reiterate the background of this bill—and I know many have but just for the thousands who have tuned into Parliament TV I just wanted to share that history with them. We know that the—Hon Member: It's like an All Blacks game!Dr ANAE NERU LEAVASA: Yes. The Perpetual Investment Fund—or the PIF—was established on 9 November 2004 following the proceeds of selling their shareholding in Powerco Ltd. That has therefore provided a sustainable fund where the annual release has helped to subsidise the general rates for that community. If it's working properly in terms of the medium terms of releasing that money it is to make sure that the capital value is there to grow and also to subsidise the rates. However we know in the global financial crisis following that crash this PIF had lost $113 million in value over five years which subsequently led to the council considering its options leading to this bill.I know that the NPG—or New Plymouth PIF Guardians Limited—which is the council-controlled organisation that manages the PIF were one of the submitters who came through during the process. I think it was five submitters that came through. It's not about quantity; it's about the quality of submissions that came through. The district council the NPG Glen Bennett himself and a couple of the other submitters commented on the different clauses to make sure that they had their voices heard. I just want to comment on the different clauses that make this bill the right way to proceed.I know that clause 7 sets up the two principles in order to make sure this bill does what it's intended to do. We've heard about the investment that this fund does in terms of the social economic environmental and cultural wellbeing for our community in New Plymouth. Cultural because again we talk about rugby—that's part of the social-cultural aspect of the community. And if that—Anna Lorck: Football.Dr ANAE NERU LEAVASA: Oh football. Yes that's right. Just to acknowledge the Women's World Cup that's coming up in Aotearoa New Zealand and the many communities that'll be supporting our women wāhine toa during that process. [Interruption] Yes.Clause 4 in terms of the boundaries—and we heard from our colleague from the Green Party Teanau Tuiono talking about making sure that boundary changes may happen in the future but we saw that the district council did comment that they have managed it effectively and can do so if that was to happen as well.Clause 8 of the bill is really important because we have NPG the guardians also supporting this clause because the clause sets it out to be independent making decisions on the fund independent of the politicians or personal interest regarding the time period of releasing that fund. So it's really good that the district council and the guardians that manage this bill through the select committee process have supported this clause to go through.So that's my connection to Taranaki New Plymouth. I commend this bill to the House.