SpeechRt Hon DAVID CARTER (National): National just wants to record that it objects to a truncated select committee process. The Standing Orders have been developed over a long period of time to allow reasonable select committee processes that should only be truncated under very special circumstances and what the Minister has just taken us through is a range of reasons as to why there's suddenly urgency. The first question that I would ask of the Minister is: what's suddenly become urgent that wasn't evident to him as Minister 18 months or two years ago? He has had an enormous amount of time to develop this legislation and get it before the House without now thumbing his nose at a democratic process. He further said that this is a simple bill. It is not a simple bill when he's instructing the guardians of the New Zealand Superannuation Fund to give over $240 million to this created venture fund of $300 million. That is an issue that I think the select committee needs to examine very very carefully. The New Zealand Superannuation Fund has been extremely successful and one of the reasons that it has been successful is because politicians have not interfered with it. This is the first time since it was established in from memory 2006 or 2007 that we now have a Government moving to politically interfere with the decisions that the guardians of the super fund make. So to argue that it is a simple bill is simply not true. The second reason given by the Hon David Parker is that the funding needs out there are suddenly urgent. No this economy has been in decline since the Labour - New Zealand First - Green Government came to power. There is a complete lack of confidence from the business sector which Mr Parker has chosen to ignore. I think I can recall his comments on some business surveys saying they are just rubbish—Hon David Parker: Junk. Rt Hon DAVID CARTER: Junk." he said. Rubbish junk—well if he's proud of that remark I'm surprised. And he's now saying that the funding needs are urgent. Can I suggest to Mr Parker that the funding needs became more urgent the day he said to New Zealand businesses when they lacked confidence that they were junk. The third reason he gives is the pending potential liquidity crisis led by international circumstances and I accept that there are clouds gathering on the horizon because of international pressures not helped by politicians around the world with a bent on stopping the ability of nations to trade as freely as they have previously been able to. There are clouds gathering on the New Zealand horizon because of international factors but don't think that those factors are only international; they are also demonstrated very clearly by the lack of business confidence in this Government. Mr Grant Robertson shakes his head as if to say New Zealand businesses are tremendously confident in the process of this Government. Get out there during the next week of recess and go and talk to businesses. Hon Grant Robertson: I'm out there. Rt Hon DAVID CARTER: He says he's out there. Well then he'll come back next week a lot better informed than he is now. So I don't want to take long in this debate except to register that the Standing Orders have been developed over a long period of time to allow select committees to do their job and to do it properly. We have no idea at this stage whether there will be many submissions to this legislation. There may be because of the interest in superannuation as an issue to all New Zealanders and the fact that the Government is now looking to take $240 million out of the New Zealand Superannuation Fund to establish its New Zealand Venture Capital Fund. There may be a lot of submissions and bear in mind that if the Minister also bothered to talk to the chair of the Finance and Expenditure Committee he would be able to find out that the select committee is already very very busy—Hon Grant Robertson: Oh I'm sorry you'll have to do some work. Rt Hon DAVID CARTER: I'm not sorry at all. It's the legislation the Government has put before us Mr Robertson. I'm happy to do the job and examine it properly but I don't believe that under these circumstances the need to report it back by 2 December has been adequately explained by this Minister. In summary it's being done for a couple of reasons in my opinion: one to restrict the ability of people to make submissions—or to restrict the ability of the select committee to adequately hear those submissions—and the second reason and probably the more appropriate reason is that this Government has very little on the Order Paper and therefore is trying to truncate the process to get the legislation out of the select committee by 2 December so that it's actually got some work to do as we come back after a lengthy Christmas recess. The Standing Orders are developed for good reason. New Zealand's democracy is one that I think is held in high regard right around the world. One of the reasons that it's held in high regard is because of its select committee process and I don't believe it's appropriate for the Government to move this particular motion in an attempt to truncate a select committee process that is an icon of the New Zealand democratic system. Mr Parker should be ashamed of himself for coming into the House today and truncating that very process."