Donald Rod: Public Finance (State Sector Management) Bill — In Committee 
Donald Rod: Public Finance (State Sector Management) Bill — In Committee 
[Volume:622;Page:17914] 
ROD DONALD (Co-Leader—Green) 
: 
 The amount of hot air that comes out of the mouths of those members opposing this bill is extraordinary. I wish they would shed a little more light and a little less heat on the subject. I am still waiting for the National Party the New Zealand First Party and the ACT party to put forward any amendments to this bill. If the bill were so terrible one would think they would want to try to fix it. But has there been a single initiative on the part of those parties to improve this bill? No there has not been whereas the Green Party has engaged constructively in this debate. I would like to thank Simon Power for acknowledging that in his last speech. 
My last constructive contribution is to Part 6 because the Greens have another amendment that we would like to put on the Table. I am pleased to advise the rest of the Committee that the Minister of Finance has decided to support our amendment. It is an amendment to clause 199(1)(a) which will insert after the words “registered bank” the words “or registered building society”. It is an extraordinarily positive step forward for the Government to acknowledge that building societies play a crucial role in the New Zealand financial sector and that they are appropriate institutions for Crown entities to deposit their funds in. If members read the commentary on this bill they will see that the bill was amended in the select committee to accommodate the Taranaki savings bank TSB Bank Ltd in which I declare an interest. It is a fantastic institution where not only I do my personal banking but the Green Futures Superannuation Fund does its banking. So the bill has been amended to ensure there is no discrimination against the Taranaki savings bank. I would like to say that now as a result of the Government agreeing with my amendment this bill will no longer discriminate against building societies. 
That is an important step for building societies. At the moment there are numerous bank preference clauses in many pieces of legislation that stop Government departments tertiary institutions hospitals and schools from investing their hard-earned savings in building societies. So adding building societies to clause 199 is a significant step forward in recognising that building societies not only play a crucial role in our society but should not be discriminated against. Indeed we have had the reverse situation up until now. By only banks being referred to there is an implied Government endorsement which I think is unfortunate and unfair. 
So I am pleased to propose amendments to clause 199 and clause 177 to fix this anomaly and in proposing those amendments I acknowledge what an important role building societies play in New Zealand. I do declare an interest. I have a $10 account with the Southland Building Society and I am currently studying that society as part of the Business and Parliament Trust which is an excellent exchange for members of Parliament to learn more about businesses. I can tell members that there are 10 building societies in New Zealand. They have 150000 members. They have assets of $2.7 billion. The oldest was established in 1862. The Southland Building Society which I am studying had a record year this year. I was pleased to be at its AGM. Its assets were up by 12.7 percent to $1.5 billion which is roughly half the assets of all building societies. Its equity was up 14.6 percent. Its advances were up 19 percent. Its pre-tax operating surplus was up 11.5 percent to $18 million. 
Thank goodness it still exists and thank goodness Stephen Franks did not get his way when he was acting as an adviser to the old board and advised it to sell the building society to Westpac! Chapman Tripp which he worked for at the time was paid $290000 for its advice and thank goodness the parochial Southlanders ignored that advice and decided to keep their building society in local ownership instead of selling out to yet another foreign-owned bank. We need our building societies and Kiwis recognise that. They do not like foreign-owned banks. They do not like profits going offshore. They want to support local financial institutions such as building societies and the TSB Bank Ltd. The Minister in the chair Harry Duynhoven comes from Taranaki and I know that he has been a strong advocate of that bank. 
I am pleased that the Government has agreed to support my amendment to enable Crown entities also to save with their local building society.