Woolerton R Doug: General Debate 
Woolerton R Doug: General Debate 
[Volume:640;Page:10487] 
R DOUG WOOLERTON (NZ First) 
: 
 Yesterday just after question time New Zealand First attempted to introduce a bill that would have changed the Reserve Bank of New Zealand Act or at least widened the targets the Reserve Bank governor is asked to adhere to. But we hope that after a little chit-chat with the National Party and a few others we may indeed succeed in getting that bill into the House rather than taking a pot-shot by using the ballot system. I hope that we do. 
New Zealand First has long said that the Reserve Bank of New Zealand Act with its focus on just inflation is a pretty blunt instrument for us to use to run monetary policy in this country. We think that if the Reserve Bank governor was asked to consider—and I am sure he would be glad to—other things such as employment the effect the Act may have on exporters and things of that nature then he would have a broader base on which to decide whether to put up interest rates intervene in the market and sell dollars or buy dollars if the situation changes at some time in the future. After all they are things we have to grapple with in this Parliament. They are very real things and they are the sometimes conflicting issues that people have to consider and that the Minister of Finance has to consider when it comes to monetary policy in this country. I say this with some certainty because it has been mentioned many times in this House that the Finance and Expenditure Committee of which I am a member has been asked to look at these very situations. 
All of the reasons that people give us for retaining the Reserve Bank of New Zealand Act as it is are in fact in respect of things that are happening now. I have been told as late as this morning during a select committee meeting by Mr Foss of the National Party that any alteration to the Reserve Bank of New Zealand Act would put fear into the financial markets put up interest rates and put up the exchange rate of the dollar. 
Shane Jones 
: What an exaggeration from Mr Foss! 
R DOUG WOOLERTON 
: I hear my worthy chairman Mr Shane Jones interjecting. He is right. Those very things are happening now. I believe that if something is not working it is no use sticking just to the ideology. We have to look in some depth at ways to fix the problem. 
Sadly up until this point we have seen both the bigger parties in Parliament take a hands-off attitude to this problem. I have to say though that we are now hearing the Labour Government say that something must be done. It is not promising anything but it is saying that it is happy for these issues to be looked at. New Zealand First is hopeful if not confident that the National Party will see sense and at least send the bill that we are proposing to a select committee so that we can look at it in a proper bipartisan manner. 
I think that the people of New Zealand are not too worried about ideology at this point. If there is an answer out there somewhere to their problems they want to know that it is being investigated by this Parliament and that something may come of it. It is no longer tenable for us to have a situation where house prices go up and the demand for consumer products goes up so in attempting to dampen that demand the Reserve Bank governor puts up the interest rate. Putting up interests rates attracts more money from the Japanese—the interest rate currently in Japan I am told is 1.5 percent—then the dollar goes up accordingly. That is no longer tenable. We must do something. 
The debate having concluded the motion lapsed.