Jones Shane: Reserve Bank of New Zealand Amendment Bill — First Reading 
Jones Shane: Reserve Bank of New Zealand Amendment Bill — First Reading 
[Volume:632;Page:4224] 
SHANE JONES (Labour) 
: 
 I stand to address and obviously support the Reserve Bank of New Zealand Amendment Bill and follow on from Mr Key’s remarks. Indeed the select committee that will be dealing with the bill is endowed with great industriousness. I must say that our committee is well stocked with fruit. Of course Mr Key has had more than his share because part of what he has had to say was very fruity but he likes the watermelon which no doubt caused the media to observe that he is blessed with a watermelon smile. But also as the watermelon seeds lie around the table they are joined by the apple seeds which is how we refer privately to those two very hard-working boys from Hawke’s Bay—the “Johnny Appleseed” boys. So we look forward to working together on the committee dealing with the bill. 
There are a couple of important portions that we must never overlook in relation to the bill. Firstly it has enabled us to achieve a level of equivalency in terms of not only the Reserve Bank of New Zealand pitching in and bearing a significant part of the burden to effect trans-Tasman harmonisation but the counterpart organisation in Australia will also bear that burden. That is quite different from how the media unfortunately had exaggerated the issue some time gone by saying that New Zealand’s Reserve Bank was going to be assimilated and to disappear and become analogous to the state of Tasmania. 
Secondly we need to bear in mind that underlying the trans-Tasman strategy is the Government’s ongoing drive to reduce the costs of doing business trade and commerce between our two economies. I know that our friends from the Opposition will point out that they could do it better but they have only really got two ideas at the moment and they are enveloped by those two ideas. In fact they are obsessed by them. The first is that we can continue to maintain services grow the economy and slash the tax base. They will continue to trot out that line but unfortunately for our colleagues in the Opposition—and they will be there for many a year to come—the country did not buy that line. 
The second is that they are obsessed at the moment with the leadership issue and that unfortunately impedes their ability to—[ 
Interruption 
] I hear the man from Hamilton who when he is not using a scalp-brush is offering inanities to Winston Peters. He needs to learn that one cannot attack the kaumatua of the House without having earned one’s stripes; and one does not get the korowai until one has the experience I tell the man from Hamilton. 
There are only two things that enliven that animate our friends from the Opposition. The first is tax cuts which the country did not buy because people realise that they would degrade services and undermine the viability of the State’s ability to deal with our vulnerable members in society. The second is that they are unable to articulate or portray any alternative because they are obsessed with their own leadership issues. As a consequence of being embarrassed by that they make gratuitous and very unwise remarks about the prospects of members on this side of the House. I look forward to dealing with the bill in the select committee and it will be dealt with in a very professional fashion hopefully in the spirit of consensus.