Carter DavidRt Hon DAVID CARTER (National): Thank you Mr Chairman. I have quite a number of questions for the Minister but first I want to say how saddened I am that we've even got this legislation before the House. The Reserve Bank of New Zealand Act is 29 years of age. It is well regarded all around the world and I think the aspect of it that is most well regarded is its true independence. It is independent of politicians and it's independent of the Government of the day.My first question to the Hon Grant Robertson is: why change? What's the problem that we're trying to fix? Now I know that every election campaign New Zealand First has always argued on changes to the Reserve Bank of New Zealand Act and they've always argued for a dual mandate—one that focuses on inflation and the other one that focuses on the exchange rate. So my second question is: why hasn't the Rt Hon Winston Peters got his wish—or has he now realised there's a nonsense in trying to have a dual mandate of exchange rate and inflation?Then my third question to the Minister is: what is meant by maximum sustainable employment? During the select committee process I asked the now Governor of the Reserve Bank Adrian Orr what is meant by maximum sustainable employment. He honestly answered and said that he didn't know what was meant by maximum sustainable employment. So it's a worry when we're giving a new law to the Reserve Bank when it's almost impossible to define what maximum sustainable employment is.The fourth question I think is around the politics or the politicisation of the Reserve Bank of New Zealand Act. The dual mandate will mean that at some stage there will be potential conflict between focusing on inflation and focusing at the same time on maximum sustainable employment. So in that situation Mr Minister what's going to win? Are we going to then focus more on maximum sustainable employment rather than focusing on inflation because if they are in conflict in that situation Minister you can't ask the Reserve Bank or the monetary policy committee to try and grapple with two targets. One will have to win. So I'd like the Minister to rise to his feet.The final point—and I think there's about six questions so this is the last one but I'll look forward to them—is that the Minister of Finance under this legislation will have the power to appoint the board of the Reserve Bank and the power to appoint members of the monetary policy committee. I want an absolute assurance from the Minister in the committee tonight that as he goes through his process of selecting suitable people with expertise we're not going to end up with political appointments in those positions because—Hon Damien O'Connor: Oh ha ha! Ha ha!Rt Hon DAVID CARTER: Well the Hon Damien O'Connor laughs and he probably has already lined up three or four dairy properties for Westland who are enjoying huge largesse from the Government already—we've bailed all the Westland dairy farmers out. But he's probably got a few mates who will be put on the monetary policy committee and I just want to know whether they've got the expertise to do the job because it's not a job for lackeys Hon Damien O'Connor.So those questions are important. I look forward to the Minister being involved in this discussion tonight. Rather than us on the National side raising genuine concerns and genuine questions we will have a far better debate if the Minister's prepared to get to his feet and answer legitimate questions that I didn't feel were satisfactorily answered by officials as we went through the select committee process. At the end of the day Treasury has been trying to take over and dominate the role of the Reserve Bank from the time the Act was passed in 1989. I think this is an occasion when they're finally going to get their wishes and that is a shame.