Brownlee Gerry; Robertson GrantHon GERRY BROWNLEE (National): The last explanation from the Minister was good and what we would expect but not necessarily agree with entirely. But I just want to speak to clause 117 and the clause 117A. It talks about the bank's functions of implementing in accordance with the Act the monetary policy formulated by the [monetary policy committee]." It goes on to then in 117A talk about the bank is not required to implement monetary policy that is inconsistent with the financial responsibility duties. The question I'm leading to is: at what point does the Minister consider there might be the use of these almost contradictory arrangements inside the bill? Clearly it's a belts and braces - type arrangement. I think it would be good to get some explanation of it.In clause 118 it says that the—well firstly 117A refers to the duty of the bank under clause 45 which of course we have debated but to clarify for people: "The board must ensure that the Bank operates in a financially responsible manner and for this purpose that it [prudentially] manages its assets and liabilities." It goes on with some other requirements that they must do. I'm just a little concerned about what would trigger a circumstance where it was considered that the work of the monetary policy committee was set aside because of some other circumstance that occurred within the bank.It goes on to talk about clause 205A which is you know one of the problems we have: that in order to understand 117A we have to go through to 205A which is a new clause and it talks about the power of the Minister to direct the bank relating to minimum levels of capital and financial risk management. There are a number of other provisions in here that add to that and in that direction the Minister could set out expectations as to the bank's financial risk management. What would have gone wrong in the system to get to this position? Why is it necessary to have it?If you think about the way this is being structured we're going from a governor who has been pretty much all powerful—notwithstanding the points made by the Minister that there have been various provisions in the law for a long time that would allow some ministerial direction—to a point where we have the exclusive powers of the Reserve Bank Governor being shared at least shared by a board of people and we've said who those people can't be but not who those people can be and then of course separate to that the monetary policy committee who are setting out that aspect of the bank's work. So inside this much broader consideration that this Act is going to allow what is it that the Minister can see might go wrong that would lead to a setting aside of the functions of 117 in accordance with the newly inserted piece of law or statute—not quite yet but in the bill the new proposal in 117A?Hon GRANT ROBERTSON (Minister of Finance): I thank the member for his question. So this is essentially a clause in the bill that puts in place the operational requirements of having a board and obviously understanding that there were concerns raised by members of the Opposition during the first part of the debate around the question of the role of the board and is it appropriate. But the board now has a series of responsibilities and this is I would say at the outset a highly unlikely set of circumstances but the advice that we were given was that it was important in order for the board to be confident about the hierarchy of their duties essentially that were the monetary policy committee to—and I repeat again. In the highly unlikely event they were to take a decision that would compromise the overall financial responsibilities of the board to run the bank—for instance a balance sheet - related issue that would make it impossible for the bank to do its job—then this clause 117A then gives them the ability not to implement that decision if that were true. It is and I want to stress as the member himself has actually indicated highly unlikely. It is the belts and braces that he mentioned before. But when one is establishing a board to have the oversight of the operations of the bank this is a necessary measure."