Young Jonathan; Williams PotoJONATHAN YOUNG (National—New Plymouth): Look we support research and development without any shadow of a doubt and because of that we were prepared to put our support behind this bill. However we have seen considerable lags. I think one of the areas that I want to highlight here in this third reading speech is the lack of certainty around the complexity of the pre-profit situation that many true R & D companies face. We have an example in my electorate of New Plymouth: a company that actually has received funding in the past from Callaghan Innovation and also has received funding from the United States Department of Energy—such was the quality of their research—but they are a company that essentially in the development of their product which is a wave energy device have invested considerably of their finance and an R & D tax credit is not going to be of great assistance to them. They actually need a grant format. I raise this issue because we know that this Government has said that we are facing a transition in terms of the energy mix in New Zealand and here is a company—that even with the former Government received some support through Callaghan Innovation—that is at a critical stage. The Azura wave device by EHL based in New Zealand—Egmont Hydraulics Ltd—has received support from overseas support from this Government yet in a tax credit regime will find it very difficult to continue. What they can do which I think would be tragic is that they can sell up equity in order to raise the cash flow needed to take it to the next step but what happens when they do that is they lose control of their intellectual property. They lose control of the opportunity for Taranaki industry and engineering and the know-how that's in New Zealand to actually develop this technology and this opportunity that could be marketed worldwide. If we are truly in a transition where we want to ensure that the technology and the smart people behind it can progress into new energies and new innovation then we must have an R & D regime that will support that. For example if a company spends $50000 on R & D and can qualify for a 15 percent rebate that's $7500. We need substantially more funding available that's going to bring that real sea change that's going to bring the real ability to do some strong innovation in this country. I also want to in my closing remarks just say something in terms of that 1.35 percent to 2 percent increase in R & D spending that the Opposition speak about. Back in 2016 recorded by Business New Zealand the expenditure in innovation grew from around about—the percentage that existed there over that period of time the increase in those two years was around about 17 percent. So to say that we have inadequate funding or an inadequate growth for investment in R & D is not substantiated by the record. Look we support R & D investment if we can get more money into our industries. The concern has been in the past—and I know the bill seeks to address this—that companies may shift their designation of expenditure to R & D in order to qualify and there needs to be obviously a huge amount of investment to monitor this which essentially becomes money that becomes lost to the system. Look in closing can I just say that I was disappointed that the minority view was denied by the committee as well. I think that that is really not in the good faith in which our select committees operate. As I chair my select committee we have never once ever denied a minority view because we believe that this Parliament needs to operate where all views are heard. Can I say that all that indicates is that the Government was very sensitive about this issue and didn't want the public to hear what the Opposition had to say. Thank you very much for the opportunity to speak on the third reading of this bill. Some elements we obviously support but we are greatly disappointed that this is not going to take the country forward in the way that we believe it should.ASSISTANT SPEAKER (Poto Williams): I understand this is a split-call. Michael Wood—five minutes.