Faafoi KrisHon KRIS FAAFOI (Minister of Broadcasting Communications and Digital Media): Thank you very much Madam Assistant Speaker. It's a very sad day when the Opposition gets a prime opportunity to debate an issue that is obviously making some headlines at the moment and really fluffs their lines because that is what has happened. I've been watching this debate and it's my pleasure to wrap proceedings up because I can't make head or tail of what the Opposition's argument has been today. Is it that they love the Provincial Growth Fund—because I heard Andrew Falloon saying Give us more. We love it—give us more." and then I heard another speaker call it a slush fund. So it's a sad and sorry day when the National Party can't even get the basic—I don't know what's happening to the person putting their notes together because they used to be disciplined. But the lack of key messaging that has come through in today's debate really disappoints me because the National Party used to be a party that was disciplined and right on message. But today when given the opportunity of a debate I see them floundering. Paul Goldsmith made a decent first attempt but really those after have really really struggled. I want to pay homage and respect to the Hon Shane Jones someone who on both sides of the House has had great respect because the previous Government saw fit to make the Hon Shane Jones a roving ambassador in the Pacific with distinction around our fishing. So they saw the great talent of the man and the relationships that he could have and the value that could have to New Zealand. That's why we saw the great potential in him in making sure that as Minister for Regional Economic Development he could take the coalition agreement around the Provincial Growth Fund and do something with that and make sure that the nine years of neglect under the previous Government was actioned to make sure that those people in those regions like Northland and like Tai Rāwhiti—could make sure that there was hope and opportunity for them. So back in 2014 when the Hon Shane Jones was a hard-working Labour member of Parliament he visited this outfit the Manea trust who were advocating obviously for the project that they had and Mr Jones wrote to the Ministry of Business Innovation and Employment saying "Hey look this is a really worthy project. We should look into it." Now when in November 2017 Mr Jones became the Minister for Regional Economic Development having already had a relationship with the trust he said "Hey folks because of this I'm going to step back." and he declared a conflict of interest perceived. Now as my colleague Kiri Allan has pointed out there are different conflicts of interest. In this case because Mr Jones had actually been to this outfit before had seen the merit of it and had said "We should take this and do something with it." he said "Because I'm a decision maker in the Provincial Growth Fund process I'm going to recuse myself from being in this decision-making process and I'll remove myself."—which is absolutely the right thing to do—after he got some advice. Now the Opposition has been "barking at cars" around what Mr Jones has reportedly done or not done and I think he has already said himself that maybe it could have been a little tidier if he had recused himself from a specific meeting that wasn't specifically about the Manea trust but was a broader Provincial Growth Fund meeting. So in the big scheme of things knowing someone having engaged with them five years ago and then declaring a conflict of interest perceived after getting advice from the Cabinet Office isn't the big drama that the Opposition would lead people to believe. I think once people figure out the facts of that case they realise that this is actually nothing about nothing—which brings me to my final point. My final point is that the Leader of the Opposition himself was on Morning Report I think either today or yesterday morning when he said "Oh look we don't want to be barking at every car." and that's the problem with this: they are. It's not getting any resonance because this issue is a big pile of nothing. Hon Gerry Brownlee: Then stop talking about it.Hon KRIS FAAFOI: Well I'm quite happy to take up the next 45 seconds Mr Brownlee. So the Leader of the Opposition can continue to bark at cars. His colleagues know that that barking at cars isn't giving them the resonance that they need out there in the public and certainly this issue isn't going to be the big game-changer that they know they need—the big game-changer that happens to be the person that is sitting in that seat.The debate having concluded the motion lapsed."