SpeechSTEPH LEWIS (Labour—Whanganui): Thank you Mr Speaker I appreciate the opportunity to rise and take a call on the New Plymouth District Council (Perpetual Investment Fund) Bill or otherwise known today as the PIF bill. I'd like to begin this afternoon by congratulating my colleague Glen Bennett and my neighbour—we share a boundary just south of Ōpunake on the Taranaki coast there in the South Taranaki District; a beautiful part of the country. But congratulations Glen on shepherding this bill through the House your work is really good. I also want to acknowledge the work of the Governance and Administration Committee in considering this bill and hearing from submitters. And I also want to acknowledge Glen for his work with the district council to bring this bill to Parliament so we can see the wonderful work that they are all doing in New Plymouth.I'll continue as many speakers before me this evening have done and link back to my connections to New Plymouth. In fact when I was in what was then called form 1 at Waverley High School we hopped on a bus and went all the way to New Plymouth and competed in the Smokefree Stage Challenge. So we spent the whole day in New Plymouth which to us coming from Waverley was pretty big smoke and competed against the other high schools across the region in the performing arts known as Smokefree Stage Challenge so there was a great deal of fun. And I want to acknowledge that this PIF does go a long way to contributing to the community in New Plymouth and the assets in New Plymouth that we consider iconic including things like the TSB Festival of Lights which happens at the start of each year over the summer period.I've had the good fortune to go up to the Festival of Lights myself. I took my daughter there a couple of years ago on our summer break and wandered round the park in the dark with her toddling along—as she was then—looking at all of the light installations in awe and also trying to play on the park and climb up slides that were far too big for her at the time. And I'm not quite sure how we managed it but wandering around in the dark in the park there we somehow managed to get lost. But it's assets like that that are a real benefit to communities like New Plymouth—to the Taranaki region as a whole.As an MP who's also based in Taranaki I know how much that assets like that even contribute to the whole region. They draw in people from outside of the region. We benefit in South Taranaki and Whanganui from people travelling from Palmerston North which has had a couple of mentions tonight all the way through my electorate through Whanganui up through Waverley Pātea Hāwera Eltham Stratford—you get the picture indulging in the beautiful Taranaki Arts Trail. Some might veer off and go around the coastal highway and indulge in the scenery that way. Then they get up to places like the TSB Festival of Lights which as I said is an asset that New Plymouth is able to put on as a result of this PIF fund—DEPUTY SPEAKER: Probably time to indulge us in the bill now Ms Lewis.STEPH LEWIS: —and that's why it's important that we as a Parliament take steps to ensure the longevity of this fund so it can continue to contribute to the New Plymouth community and as I said even to the wider region as a whole for years and years to come.As some of my colleagues across the House have said this evening the fund wasn't always managed as well as it could—and perhaps should—have been. We saw it losing around $113 million in value over five years following the global financial crisis. So through this bill what we want to ensure is that we don't see a situation like that occur again. We really do want to ensure that this fund is around for generations to come because it has done some tremendous things—that they've been able to achieve.So this fund was established as a result of the sell-off of the New Plymouth shares in Powerco company and like I say they've been able to invest in some incredible assets across the region. May I make one suggestion which perhaps my colleague the member of Parliament for New Plymouth Glen Bennett might like to take back to his electorate and the fund managers could maybe consider: install a few more electric vehicle (EV) chargers across the city. As someone who has recently purchased an EV it's a bit challenging having to wait in the queue to use the EV charger at New World in New Plymouth. So I would encourage them to consider maybe putting that on the agenda for future investment with the fund potentially to benefit the community.The heart of this bill is ensuring that future investment is absolutely for the benefit of the New Plymouth community. That is really important to make sure that we continue to identify key strategic assets that benefit New Plymouth and that is what this fund does. That is why I take great pleasure in commending this bill to the House. Thank you.DEPUTY SPEAKER: The time has come for me to leave the Chair for the dinner break. The house will resume at 7 p.m.Sitting suspended from 6 p.m. to 7 p.m.