Seymour David; Dyson RuthDAVID SEYMOUR (Leader—ACT): Thank you Madam Speaker. It's a great pleasure to rise on behalf of the ACT Party in opposition to this bill and to speak to you late in the evening about a matter of grave national importance. I have to say the speech that I just heard from the member who has just resumed his seat would have to be one of the most confused and confusing contributions to this House that I've heard in a very long time. He didn't know his outputs from his outcomes. Well let me try to help the member Andrew Bayly with what this bill is about. The Public Finance Act was a world-leading piece of legislation. It required the Government to keep proper accounts on an accrual basis so that New Zealanders could assess the performance of their Government and understand what was really going on and not have the wool pulled over their eyes as it had been pulled by the likes of Sir Robert Muldoon and his predecessors in Government as Minister of Finance. But added to this world-leading piece of legislation tonight are a series of outcome measures—not output outcome measures—that will be as confusing to the public and anybody trying to get an idea of what's really going on as Andrew Bayly's speech because the problem is this Government is proposing to have Treasury try to measure the wellbeings of New Zealanders when what it should be doing is measuring the outputs of Government. If we want to improve New Zealanders' wellbeing here's a few things that Government departments could be doing. I'd be very happy as an Aucklander if Government departments introduced proper infrastructure and possibly priced roads correctly so that we didn't spend so much of our lives in congestion—that would help our wellbeing. I'd be happy if this Government or any Government for that matter would try to run a corrections department that rehabilitated just some of the prisoners so we didn't find that 50 per cent of people released from prison were back inside within four years. I'd be happy if we had a Government that ran an education system that did not leave one in five New Zealanders functionally innumerate and illiterate according to the OECD by the time they reached 15—that would help our wellbeing. I'd be happy if we had a Government that when it came to the ownership of public assets didn't own 28 State-owned enterprises (SOE) many of which are losing money in competitive markets and for which there is no basis for the Government to own—for instance a post office a television station or a weather forecasting business. I'd be happy if the Government focused on its ownership of State assets which is hopeless—Greg O'Connor: It worked for Air New Zealand. DAVID SEYMOUR: We hear from Greg—I forget Greg's second name but Greg from somewhere in Wellington. Greg says that he thinks it worked for Air New Zealand. Well he's absolutely right; the partial privatisation of Air New Zealand has been a success and there's a lesson in that. Privatisation increases the productivity and effectiveness of firms. We should do more of it. But in any case the Government could do a lot better if it also focused on better performance for the regulation that it makes. If the regulatory systems didn't constantly impose costs on New Zealanders without even having identified the problems the Government was trying to solve—and it happens regularly in this country—then I would be very very happy. But unfortunately this perversion of the very good Public Finance Act is going to distract from the performance of the Government giving the Government the excuse of focusing only on the wellbeing of New Zealanders rather than the performance of Government departments and its contribution to that wellbeing.It is a distraction; it is an excuse; and it ironically will lead to worse wellbeing for New Zealanders to the extent Government can influence it. Thank you Madam Speaker.ASSISTANT SPEAKER (Hon Ruth Dyson): Just a reminder to the member that it's one of the rules of the House to refer to members by their full name.David Seymour: I just forgot his name.ASSISTANT SPEAKER (Hon Ruth Dyson): Well then don't use his first name.