Williams Andrew: International Finance Agreements Amendment Bill — Second Reading 
Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume 
Williams Andrew: International Finance Agreements Amendment Bill — Second Reading 
[Sitting date: 25 September 2012. Volume:684;Page:5625. Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume.] 
ANDREW WILLIAMS (NZ First) 
: 
 I rise to take a call on the International Finance Agreements Amendment Bill. I would like to bring it back to what we are here for this evening in the House the subject of the bill rather than the petty politics and slanging that we have heard in the last 5 to 10 minutes. 
This is a bill that basically brings New Zealand into line with other IMF members around the world many of which have already voted in regards to this type of legislation within their own jurisdictions. It says in the bill that “the shareholding (quota share) of many IMF members has not kept pace with the members’ relative positions in the world economy and many fast-growing emerging market countries have become substantially under-represented.” at the IMF. As we heard earlier in the evening there are situations such as those where China has grown substantially and other economies have not performed in the same way and where the IMF has not realigned its various quota shares in line with the size of those different economies. 
In terms of this particular legislation it says that an “Order in Council will be made when three-fifths of the IMF members”—being 85 percent of the members of the IMF—“have accepted the changes” in accordance with this. Therefore once 85 percent of the members of the IMF have accepted this it will be enacted through our legislation. This basically is bringing New Zealand into line with international best practice in terms of the IMF. We are a strong supporter of the IMF and we have been a longstanding member of the IMF. The New Zealand Crown the New Zealand Government and our jurisdiction here are best represented on the IMF by paying our fair share into the IMF fund and being a good partner of the IMF in that respect. 
But it is interesting that although this National Government is very much wanting to see this legislation go through—and New Zealand First supports the legislation—on the other hand the Government likes to be very selective as to what it picks and chooses from the IMF. Where in recent weeks and in recent months the IMF has made comment and is on record as saying that the New Zealand dollar is overvalued and the New Zealand dollar should be at a lower level—and where other eminent financial institutions around the world similarly have made similar comment that the New Zealand dollar is overvalued—it is interesting that the blinkers go up from the National Government and it does not want to hear those sorts of things from the IMF. But that is a fact. The IMF has said that we are something in the order of I think it is 10 percent or 15 percent at least overvalued in terms of our New Zealand dollar. 
In that respect of course New Zealand First is trying to address that situation. Again the National Government does not want to look at it but the Rt Hon Winston Peters does have a member’s bill which is entitled the Reserve Bank of New Zealand (Amending Primary Function of Bank) Amendment Bill which is basically intended to review the Reserve Bank so that its sole purpose— 
Mr DEPUTY SPEAKER 
: Order! The member cannot talk about another bill that is on the Order Paper. You can talk only about the bill that is currently before us. 
ANDREW WILLIAMS 
: Yes I agree but what I am saying is that the IMF has said that the New Zealand dollar is overvalued. I am talking about the New Zealand dollar. One way that the New Zealand dollar could be reduced in terms of meeting what the IMF has recommended as well would be the member’s bill that serves to change the Reserve Bank of New Zealand Act to allow for more than just inflation to be taken into account when the Reserve Bank is setting its parameters. 
So in that respect we do have to be cognisant of the fact that the IMF is a very eminent financial institution around the world. We are about to move this particular Government bill through in support of the IMF but on the other hand we just seem to find within Government circles that it does not want to listen to other very sage and good advice from the IMF that the New Zealand dollar needs addressing. 
This week we are seeing more and more and more people losing their jobs in New Zealand. Today we had the miners coming to Parliament. In Huntly 63 miners are losing their jobs and several hundred down on the West Coast are losing their jobs. This all comes back to New Zealand’s position in the world in terms of our monetary position much of it reflecting back on the high value of the New Zealand dollar and our exporters being able to compete on world markets being able to export their coal and export their products and export all sorts of other goods from New Zealand. Again it is reflective of a situation New Zealand is finding itself in increasingly where we are uncompetitive because we have a very high dollar which is increasing all the time. The way things are going we will be seeing almost parity with the US dollar in the coming year. 
I can recall back in 1979-80 when the New Zealand dollar was worth more than the US dollar. I remember the time when the New Zealand dollar first went under the US dollar and shudders went around and we thought this was terrible that the New Zealand dollar was going to be worth less than the US dollar. However in those days we sold our lamb and butter and primary products basically only to the UK and that was it. We did not have to compete on world markets. Today we have to compete on world markets against very very aggressive competitors and the New Zealand dollar as a result is at a very very high level and making it more and more difficult for our exporters to compete. 
In terms of this the IMF has got a lot of wisdom and a lot of advice. We hope that the New Zealand Government in putting this bill through in the future—when it finally does become law—will take on board that with this legislation goes responsibilities towards the IMF. Perhaps when the representatives of the IMF come to New Zealand and they sit down with the Minister of Finance when they sit down with our Reserve Bank and when they sit down with our Treasury people they will actually listen. Perhaps they will listen to the IMF because we do not sign up to these things just for the sake of signing a bill and signing a piece of paper just to be part of the club. We do actually sign up to these things in order to also get international advice on where we stand in the international financial community. In that respect New Zealand First will support this bill but certainly there is a long way to go for this New Zealand Government to reflect the fact that New Zealand is in dire financial straits and that we have to start listening to some of the people like the IMF on the world stage.