Clark David: International Finance Agreements Amendment Bill — In Committee 
Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume 
Clark David: International Finance Agreements Amendment Bill — In Committee 
[Sitting date: 19 February 2013. Volume:687;Page:7960. Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume.] 
Dr DAVID CLARK (Labour—Dunedin North) 
: 
 I rise to speak to clause 2 of the International Finance Agreements Amendment Bill in respect of the commencement and I also want to speak to Brendan Horan’s Supplementary Order Paper 175 which tries to tackle the challenge that is presented with an international organisation making decisions about when things come into force and tries to align New Zealand’s decision making with that. 
I wish to speak in favour of the current arrangement in the legislation on the strength that it permits the Government to bring legislation into line as the process naturally runs its course. I think Mr Horan raises a valid point so I am not suggesting that he is not raising a point worthy of debate because I think it is worthy of debate. But I think on balance it is important to give the Government that flexibility. Our real beef is with removing from the legislation the further consideration of important issues and those are updates to the articles that will in future be made by regulation. 
I would be very interested to hear the Government take a call on why it is not interested in having proper parliamentary scrutiny over those articles. I am sure the Minister in the chair the Minister for the Environment will leap to her feet shortly and engage passionately in this debate because I have seen her following the issues closely and nodding as the points have been made by the Opposition so I think she is considering those issues and I do look forward to her response. It is a serious issue that has been raised and parliamentary scrutiny is something that we should not let go of lightly. 
What we are talking about here is legislation that relates to approximately NZ$1.8 billion. This is legislation that we are debating in the House and we are giving it the proper parliamentary scrutiny but I think it pays to remind ourselves that this is actually a considerable sum of money and a considerable investment that New Zealand makes in its relationship with the IMF. We should not forget and we should not trivialise this because we largely agree on the principle of supporting the IMF and we certainly as Labour and National parties have agreed by and large that the IMF should exist in order to promote economic growth that is sustainable. I took the Government to task in my earlier address about whether it is really meeting those obligations; whether it really is addressing the balance of payments problem that we have as a country. The IMF projects it to be the worst in the developed world in the current year. This Government as yet has shown no leadership on addressing that problem so those concerns remain. 
When we are talking about NZ$1.8 billion I think it is worth asking when this should come into effect. What is the proper process for this legislation to come into effect? It seems to me that the provision in this part of the legislation is in fact adequate. The subclause that says the Act comes into force after the date on which it receives the Royal assent “except as provided in subsection (2)” is an attempt to ensure that those things that need to come in immediately can come into play. The second subclause which comes into force at a date appointed by the Governor-General by Order in Council is an attempt to deal with those things that do not need to come into effect immediately but can come into effect later as and when needed to line up with the international decision-making process. 
On the surface this seems like a very sensible commencement clause notwithstanding the issues that Mr Horan raised. So Labour will be supporting this clause as indeed it is supporting the whole bill because it does support the purposes of the IMF around economic stability around meeting that balance of trade issue and around making sure that there is sustainable economic growth in countries—something New Zealand unfortunately is not modelling at present but which we believe would be of value to all countries. All growing countries can provide the necessary services to their citizens that make them able to maximise their potential. 
So Labour will be supporting this bill. We question the Government’s record on some of these issues but we support the intent of this legislation which is to meet our international obligations on this matter.