Bennett Glen; O'Connor GregNEW PLYMOUTH DISTRICT COUNCIL (PERPETUAL INVESTMENT FUND) BILLThird ReadingGLEN BENNETT (Labour—New Plymouth): I move That the New Plymouth District Council (Perpetual Investment Fund) Bill be now read a third time. We've finally got here after not too long; several months of to-ing and fro-ing and working—I'm glad to say—across the House collegially to get to this place today. This piece of legislation is around generational investment for the people of the New Plymouth District. The New Plymouth District Council (Perpetual Investment Fund) Bill—or let's just call it the PIF"—will help to protect one of New Plymouth District's key financial assets.The PIF is around the release of a key cornerstone of the New Plymouth District Council's financial strategy and approach. There are considerable benefits that I'll talk about. Not only does the annual release help to reduce rates but the maintenance of the substantial PIF reduces the council's borrowing costs and supports the council's AA+ credit rating—and of course at this point in time rates are something we talk about a lot. So it's important to do everything we can to ensure that we alleviate the challenges and hopefully add some cherries and some good things on top as well.I note there have been some questions on how the PIF is used in terms of the general rates. Let's just talk about supporting the social the economic the environmental and the cultural wellbeing of the New Plymouth District. And this is simple as we use this fund because the council's general rates funds support so many services and promote these wellbeings within our district.The general rates are used by the council to fund things such as our beautiful parks like Pukekura Park; like our Festival of Lights which has gone on for decades and decades in that park; to fund our world-leading and award-winning coastal walkway; our wonderful and modern art gallery the Govett-Brewster Art Gallery and the Len Lye Centre; Puke Ariki our museum and our library. It supports our pools it supports our sports grounds our marae and our urupā grants. It supports Venture Taranaki as well as—can I mention—the second round of the pop-up Festival of Lights which is coming up very shortly which is around celebrating and commemorating Puanga or Matariki as many of you would know it as in other parts of the country. Also look at things like our airport and Te Rewa Rewa Bridge and things that we as a region that we as a district have been world leading in have been champions and award winners of and this PIF has been part of supporting our rates over many years and I'll talk more about that.What this means is that a small amount the council gets each year from the PIF does provide the support for our community wellbeing. Because the PIF reduces the total rates requirement it does make it easier for the council to promote wellbeing initiatives within our community and I'm grateful to the council for that. It also significantly reduces the rates bill for members of the community which is obviously an absolute blessing as we deal with the costs of living and other challenges facing us as a nation and as a globe.I understand that the council has looked at the best use of the PIF release several times in the past and has concluded that the general rates are the most appropriate way to do so by using the PIF to benefit as many members of our community as possible. The main alternative to using the PIF is to fund certain services or capital works which means that the benefit of the PIF only end up being used by the users of those services or works. Now I'm grateful that our council has over the years been very forward thinking and I believe that this piece of legislation that they've brought to this House and that I've had the privilege of supporting and shepherding through as I said at the start is around that generational investment into the people of the New Plymouth District. It's important to remember that this bill does provide some clear legal direction—that the PIF is to benefit the New Plymouth District community—but the bill then leaves the "how" to the council to determine into the future. That "how" is determined in consultation with the New Plymouth District community.That brings me to my next point and that is where the bill does not leave it to the council to determine its future. The thing is that the bill provides for the PIF to be used in a sustainable perpetual manner and that the council will be required to manage the PIF in a way that maintains or increases its value. That means it should be growing and that inflation or other areas where there may sometimes be small releases are to ensure this fund is held in perpetuity. Now I look back at when the PIF was first set up. There's a history behind the electricity reforms of the early 1990s: we ended up with an organisation—Powerco—that council owned the majority of shares in. In the early 2000s that was looked at and the diversification of the investments was looked at by the New Plymouth District Council. Then the decision was made to sell off Powerco and set up the PIF. It began with about $259 million and as of just a few months ago—this year—it's sitting with $349 million in it. We want to lock that in to ensure that future generations will benefit from it. That's why we look at a rather conservative release of around 3.3 percent of the PIF on the year on balance. And of course this is the market reality. We need to be cautious; we need to be careful to ensure that future generations will benefit from this fund.We also want to acknowledge that the PIF is there for those tough times for the vulnerabilities that we have as a region when it comes to natural hazards and other disasters. We look at what's gone on with cyclones on the East Coast and we look at the challenges that we face on the West Coast. And we also look at all our beautiful Taranaki maunga which is standing tall—standing tall—looking over us and looking after us but we also know that the numbers have been done and there's a 50 percent chance in the next 50 years that that mountain could erupt. If and when it does we have checks and balances in place with the PIF so that we can ensure that access is there—not for the sake of vanity projects or elected members showing off but for any needs when it comes to a crisis or a challenge. To activate the exemption process would require the council to first be satisfied that under the bill doing so is the best course of action for the benefit of both the current and the future communities. Well that is not easy to do. It clearly applies to recovering from those major once-in-a-generation events and we have that in place.Second council would need to modify the governance deed with the New Plymouth PIF Guardians. Doing so would require a 75 percent majority vote of our councillors again ensuring its safety. The bill therefore puts in place a strong legal test which is then followed up by the existing strong political test. These combine into a double locking of the PIF to ensure that the council and community have certainty around this financial asset.Finally I want to acknowledge all of those who have been involved in the work on the PIF. I know that we have His Worship Mayor Neil Holdom with us today; we have Gareth Green the chief executive of council; we have Joy Buckingham group manager corporate services; and Greg Stephens the senior policy adviser who has been more than overly helpful and supportive both to me in this process and I know to the council. To Jonathan Salter and to Mark Butcher the chair of the New Plymouth PIF Guardians we say thank you for all the work that you are doing to ensure that the region the district of New Plymouth has this investment. Generations before have been wise with their investments to ensure it's in place and you are ensuring that you are doing what is right and being wise for generations to come. So I thank you for that and I commend this bill to the House.DEPUTY SPEAKER: The question is that the motion be agreed to."