Mathers MojoMOJO MATHERS (Green): I would firstly just like to start by congratulating the previous speaker Andrew Bayly on this possibly being the first time I seriously contemplated turning down my hearing aid in the House. Anyway the Green Party supports the intent of this bill. We support keeping Kiwibank in Kiwi ownership and we support the amendments that have been put forward. The reason why we support it is that we understand the value of keeping strategic assets that have been built up by generations of New Zealanders and keeping them in the hands of New Zealanders so that we can all benefit in the future.There is no question that the public ownership of Kiwibank has significant strategic benefit to New Zealand. I think it is worthwhile reflecting on a bit of history. Prior to Kiwibank we had an enormous problem in New Zealand because of the lack of competitiveness in the banking sector. The four big Australian banks were sucking—and it still continues—huge profits out of New Zealand to disappear overseas. But do you remember the days of $3 monthly base fees and exorbitant transaction fees? If you do not remember you are probably not old enough to be a member of Parliament. It was the arrival of Kiwibank that changed that. Having a State-owned bank has been an incredibly important market mechanism to promote competition in the banking sector and surely that is something that we should all be able to get behind because that competition has helped ensure that some of that profit is returned back to customers rather than disappearing off overseas. That is incredibly important.If we do not commit to keeping Kiwibank in public ownership there is a real risk that further down the track we could see Kiwibank becoming yet another foreign-owned bank. This is the last thing that New Zealand needs right now. So the Green Party policy is to retain Kiwibank in full public ownership which is what this bill does.But we would go further than this bill. At the moment Kiwibank is constrained because the Government is treating Kiwibank like a cash cow rather than empowering it to act more in the public interest. The Green Party policy is to strengthen Kiwibank to act in the public interest and to empower it to act even more effectively and competitively with the four Australian banks. We believe that this stronger competition will see all banks cutting lending rates more rapidly and passing on a greater proportion of savings to Kiwi households and to businesses rather than syphoning off the profits overseas. To achieve that outcome we need to ensure not just that Kiwibank remains in public ownership; we need to help it grow faster. That is why we have launched a policy that says we would inject more capital to enable it to expand more into commercial banking and allow it to keep more of the profits instead of being treated as a cash cow by the Government and change the corporate intent of Kiwibank to enable greater priority to be placed on market leadership.We would do all of these things but the fundamental principle that this bill puts forward tonight is just the start which is to keep it in Kiwi ownership in public ownership. We support this bill. Thank you.