Goldsmith PaulVENTURE CAPITAL FUND BILLNEW ZEALAND SUPERANNUATION AND RETIREMENT INCOME AMENDMENT BILLThird ReadingsDebate resumed.Hon PAUL GOLDSMITH (National): It's my pleasure to speak on this Venture Capital Fund Bill. If you look back at the Budget this year 2019 this is the only measure that could be arguably possibly described as a pro-growth policy. Everything else was just extra spending but you could argue this one. We intervene in the New Zealand economy to invest a lot in terms of the production of scientific ideas and innovation. We spend about $1.5 billion a year on science more broadly. We generate a lot of ideas through the university system. But as a country we're relatively unsuccessful at translating ideas into successful large companies. There's a few that go and the private sector develops those very well. So the question is: is there a shortage or a limiting factor in the shortage of capital available for what's called series A and B funding rounds for the development of new companies in the economy?There is an argument that there is a difficulty in accessing that funding and so this fund—which puts $300 million of taxpayers' money into a fund to co-invest in such companies—we think is something that could make a difference if it's done very well. So we're prepared to support it.I suppose the broader point that I'd make however is that it's part of a wider Government economic policy which has been failing this country. If we look back at the situation we've got ourselves in today we've got a Government that inherited a rapidly growing economy with surpluses as far as the eye could see and within two short years has turned that into a slowly growing economy in deficit. That transformation is remarkable. The absence of any clear economic growth strategy from this Government—we're starting to reap the whirlwind of that in very short order. I don't think anybody would have predicted that the turnaround could be as quick as what we've seen today: two broken promises in terms of the debt and also going into deficit.When I look at Budget 2020 which follows on from the Budget that brought in this venture capital bill when you look at the priorities—just transition a future of work Māori and Pasifika child wellbeing and mental wellbeing—they're all very worthy but there is nothing about growing the economy and nothing about economic growth. That's what's missing from so much of what this Government is about. With the previous speaker Chlöe Swarbrick you've talked about saying that growth isn't everything. Of course it's not everything. People's happiness in life is related to family relationships the quality of our environment and a whole host of things. The economy is not everything but it's important. If growth is slowing that's fewer opportunities for New Zealanders to look after themselves and their families to spend on quality investment and healthcare and all those sorts of things that we like. This Venture Capital Fund may if it's well organised and well operated and well run make it easier for start-up New Zealand companies to get access to capital to grow in early stages. We hope that some of them will succeed. Many of them won't—that's the nature of venture capital. So we'll be watching with great interest as to how this develops. But if you are serious about growing the economy more broadly this is by no means the most important thing. It's about getting the basic settings right for the economy that can restore confidence so that people will invest generally.Why investment generally has been drying up in this economy is particularly in relation to three things really. The Government has driven up costs significantly right across the industrial relations space. Secondly it's created an enormous amount of policy uncertainty in every every angle that you look at. And thirdly it's demonstrated rank incompetence in the way that it carried out KiwiBuild and particularly infrastructure. So we've heard big announcements today about infrastructure but for two years this Government has done very very little indeed. So the slow tram has still not started down Dominion Road and it never will. So that's what's making people nervous about things. So National supports this bill but we do make the point that if you really want to grow the economy there is a lot of other things that need to be done. Thank you very much.