Hughes GarethGARETH HUGHES (Green): Kia ora Madam Assistant Speaker. Ngā mihi nui ki a koutou. Kia ora. I guess the one term that came into my mind while hearing the National Party speakers was something that the honourable member Michael Wood mentioned which is jumping the shark". It's absolutely ridiculous how they're talking about the 1970s—you know the high inflation rates of 20 percent. They're railing against the idea that a Treasury official will be a non-voting member witnessing the board meetings. The issue of the dual mandate they've spoken as though it's going to be the worst thing ever—the end of the world almost is the sort of picture they're painting—and then at the same time they're saying "Why on earth would you do it when it's not going to do anything at all?" and there's no intellectual coherence in their arguments. So I'm baffled that they still have some sort of record for economic credibility when we see speeches like that. But what this legislation does—if I could wrap it up in four words it's more modernising the Reserve Bank legislation it's bringing in international best practice it's bringing more transparency and then offering more flexibility for the real-world economic conditions the Reserve Bank the Government businesses and Kiwis have to deal with. So it brings in these two changes. The first is introducing the dual mandate. Now price stability is important but what the Government is doing is that by coupling that by making that over the medium term and introducing the concept of maximum sustainable employment—this is critical because what we do know is that across the business cycle there are fluctuating periods where things don't move entirely in tandem entirely at the same time and when you've stuck to a simple band approach we have seen the consequences. Now in this respect I'd like to acknowledge my former Green Party co-leader Russel Norman who in I believe 2013-14—at a time when we saw our Government refusing to act on house prices and bringing this inflationary pressure into the New Zealand economy the Government refused to act. So the Reserve Bank Governor—who of course under the previous legislation was the sole decision-maker and had ultimate authority—was essentially forced to increase the official cash rate because the Government had refused to act which pushed up the New Zealand dollar which hurt the real-world New Zealand economy. This is I guess our main point and in this respect I'd like to acknowledge the work over many years of New Zealand First. The key thing is the real economy and the real impact on New Zealanders and their jobs not just an arbitrary measure which can have counter-productive measures. So look the Green Party absolutely supports this. I think the challenge is going to be that the maximum sustainable employment rates based on the non-accelerating inflation rate of unemployment—how that is going to be communicated to the public because it is a concept which not many people including myself are familiar with. So when it comes to making a committee-based decision the Green Party wholeheartedly supports it. It's something we've been pushing for for a long time. We were unique—unique—in the developed world in the OECD for having a single individual being responsible. This was an example where once upon a time we were out in front of equivalent countries by setting up the Reserve Bank legislation but it wasn't modernised. It wasn't fit for the time because other countries have built it from being a single individual to more people. So I'd like to support this legislation. It is a modernisation. The transparency initiative—that the decision-making group is going to be providing summaries on the internet site—is an incredibly positive step forward because what we have seen previously is that decisions have been made in private the minutes haven't been released and the public the economy and the financial sector are none the wiser. We have to sort of read the entrails to try and reach what the discussions could have been. It's an incredibly positive step that we're going to see a degree of transparency as a result of this legislation. So here's a change the Green Party's previously proposed and it's wonderful to see. Two other changes we have proposed in the past which I think need to be next on the agenda when it comes to discussing our monetary policy are deposit insurance and also how we deal with climate-related disclosure risks—ASSISTANT SPEAKER (Poto Williams): Order! GARETH HUGHES: —to our monetary policy. ASSISTANT SPEAKER (Poto Williams): Stick to the bill thanks. GARETH HUGHES: This is tranche one of the Government's reform of monetary policy—ASSISTANT SPEAKER (Poto Williams): Yes we are reporting back the bill as it's come from the select committee. GARETH HUGHES: That's right. Well I'd like to thank the submitters and everyone involved in the Finance and Expenditure Committee. They've done some good work. This is good legislation. It's a good example of modernising and bringing transparency. There are other changes that need to happen and they'll happen in due course. Kia ora koutou."