Williams ArenaARENA WILLIAMS (Labour—Manurewa): Thank you Madam Chair. Given what the Minister has just said about the importance of stabilising the real economy I'm proposing an amendment to set that out clearly in the primary legislation. If the committee will turn its attention to the amendment in my name to clause 6. It's to replace clause 6 section 10(1)(a)(i) with Formulating through the MPC and implementing a monetary policy directed to the economic objective of stabilising the real economy." Madam Chair if you'll just let me bring the committee back to my contribution in the first part of this debate I gave some context around the recent economic fluctuations that New Zealand's economy has seen. This relates directly to the economic situation we find ourselves in now and my questions to the Minister about whether or not it is true that this bill would have an effect on our inflation now. So the contention on this side of the House is that had the dual mandate actually caused the Reserve Bank to stay its hand and counteract inflation in a half-hearted way then we would expect to see notable differences in the approach of our Reserve Bank as compared with those economies that have a Reserve Bank with a single mandate. That's not actually the case. The Reserve Bank's approach has not only been in line with international counterparts with a single mandate but they actually chose to tighten their approach to the availability of cash in the economy faster than some of their international counterparts with a single mandate.And so why that's relevant to this amendment that I'm proposing—and I hope the House will take into consideration when voting on it later—is that this is a measure of meeting the Government halfway. It's saying that in our primary legislation we all around this House acknowledge that the Reserve Bank has a role in stabilising not only the effect of price changes on consumers and on working people but also on their ability to get work and if they are laid off from their jobs to be able to find a new job. Having employment—especially for those people on the margins of employment people who are Māori people who are women people who live in regions where unemployment climbs faster than those in the cities—is an important goal of the monetary policy committee and will always be a consideration. We've heard that from the Minister and that is helpful for this debate to advance in that way. So if that is the case if we all agree that our monetary policy should be focused on inflation and should also take into account the effect it has on the real economy and that stabilising the economy is not only stabilising prices it's also stabilising people's experience of the real economy then it is useful for us as a House to say that in the primary legislation. It's useful for us to set out that goal really clearly. You'll have heard my colleague the Hon Grant Robertson talk about the need for the Reserve Bank of New Zealand (RBNZ) monetary policy committee to do two things at once to be able to consider those things. The Minister needs to tell us if she does not have confidence in the monetary policy committee to also take into account the effect of their decisions on employment and people's enjoyment of a stable economy because that would be a radical departure of the Government's approach to what it is telling the RBNZ. And because we haven't had a select committee stage here in this legislation it's also really important that we have a sense of where the Minister is tracking in her intentions with the RBNZ and how things will go forward.Madam Chair if you'll allow me to just comment briefly on the lack of a select committee stage on this. It is a shame I think because the role of monetary policy within our economy is something of the constitutional framework of New Zealand. The RBNZ's role should be independent from Government and this section that I am seeking to amend actually makes that really clear. It says "Formulating through the MPC and implementing monetary policy directed to the economic objective while recognising the Crown's right to determine economic policy." Those are balancing two considerations at once as well; we're recognising that the RBNZ was designed in the 1980s when the Government did not have an independent approach to monetary policy in the same way and that the RBNZ's independent role is really important in establishing consumers' and market participants' faith in our economy and expectations that things will remain stable over time.If we have a Minister who's proposing that the RBNZ was saying one thing and doing another in its 2021 monetary statement then we do need to know that. We need to establish that and that there will be a departure from the way that the Hon Grant Robertson has dealt with the RBNZ. I don't think that that's the case and that's why we should make my amendment."