Yule Lawrence; Williams PotoLAWRENCE YULE (National—Tukituki): My apologies Madam Assistant Speaker. I know how much everybody wants to get home. Look it's my pleasure to take a short call on this Reserve Bank of New Zealand (Monetary Policy) Amendment Bill. As we've said and as this side of the House has articulated already there's a great deal in this piece of legislation that we're supportive of and I see no reason why we won't go through with supporting an independent monetary policy committee and that sort of notion.But actually I do want to talk about the dual mandate from a slightly different perspective than other speakers because I am struggling to understand what exactly we are trying to fix. For 30 years—Chlöe Swarbrick: It's in the bill mate. It's in the bill.LAWRENCE YULE: I understand it's in the bill. For 30 years we've had a wonderful system. The economy has gone incredibly well. We have single-mindedly focused on inflation and done an incredibly good job at fixing that. So if you look at the current state of the New Zealand economy and the state of the Government books—and the state of unemployment in New Zealand which is around 4 percent a very low level by international comparisons—then you have to say: what are we trying to fix? Because when this Opposition now but Government then left Government the New Zealand economy was in incredibly good shape and the benefits of that are flowing through even now. If you lose focus on things in life in my view and you broaden it too much you lose the focus. We have focused on inflation for 30 years since the Reserve Bank of New Zealand Act came into place with an independent person doing so because inflation is actually like rust: if you don't keep focusing on it it destroys everything in an economy. My concern about this bill is as you start looking at employment and long-term employment issues as well the Government takes its focus off that as does everybody in the New Zealand economy. So I stand here today just before we rise for this week and say this side of the House is not convinced that a dual mandate first is warranted or secondly will make any difference. And thirdly I worry it'll make things worse because when the economy's not going so well decisions will have to be made and decisions when you have a dual mandate will automatically compromise the single-minded determination of various Governments to focus on inflation. There can be no other way. It will compromise that and I believe personally as does this side of the House that inflation is one of the greatest evils in any society and in any Government. If you have a low-inflation environment employment is actually generally very high—you know there is very little unemployment—and I worry that this bill as it's written and as it comes in seeks to spread that concept into two parts. I think that actually we risk undermining the very success of this economy of the Reserve Bank of New Zealand Act of the Reserve Bank Governor and of all the things that that particular regime has helped get New Zealand through today. So I'm happy to speak against this particular part of the bill and I look forward to the select committee working through the good parts. Thank you.ASSISTANT SPEAKER (Poto Williams): I understand this is a split call. Michael Wood you have five minutes.