Parker DavidHon DAVID PARKER (Minister for the Environment): I move That the COVID19 Recovery (Fast-track Consenting) Bill be reported to the House by 29 June 2020 and that the committee have authority to meet at any time while the House is sitting (except during oral questions) during any evening on a day on which there has been a sitting of the House and on a Friday in a week in which there has been a sitting of the House and outside the Wellington area despite Standing Orders 191 193 and 194(1)(b) and (c).The reasons for this I think—or the need for Parliament to use the powers that Parliament has to shorten the select committee period—have been traversed by others in the debate already. The powers of Parliament to order a shorter select committee period are there because on occasions it is appropriate to have shorter than the normal six-month period and I suggest to the House that this is one of those occasions. Although the Opposition are incorrect or out of date in their assertion that unemployment is going to go up by about 160000 people relying upon estimates that were prepared at a time before we got COVID-19 under control in the relatively short period of time that we did relative to other countries it remains true that unemployment has risen sharply as a consequence of COVID-19. And we've seen major parts of the economy shut down particularly in international tourism which has resulted in a rise in unemployment and the number of people on the jobseeker benefit has so far increased by around 45000 people.It is an imperative in the view of the Government that we bring forward infrastructure projects most of which but not all of which will be funded by central government or central government agencies and if we can bring forward the start date for those projects that money will be spent into the economy and a large part of it is spent on the wages of the people who are employed on those projects.David Seymour: What else?Hon DAVID PARKER: What else?" the member for the ACT Party asks. Well the other things that money is spent on include subcontractors engineering services allied services. The money is also spent into the economy. Of course there's a multiplier effect because—David Seymour: Contractors aren't wages. Keep trying.Hon DAVID PARKER: Actually this shows the ignorance of the ACT Party in basic economics when they deny those basic propositions. And for a party that pretends to be economically literate that somewhat must sadden the predecessors of his who formed the ACT Party.In terms of precedents for a shorter select committee period the Kaikōura earthquakes resulted in a need for a cut through of the Resource Management Act processes in respect of the services that needed to be reconnected namely State Highway 1 and the main trunk railway line plus associated works that were so damaged in the Kaikōura earthquake. The Government of the time did that through cut-through legislation and that legislation was bespoke as this is. It was similar to this legislation and it had a very short select committee period. I recall that because I was on that select committee. I can't recall the exact period but it was a week or so. If we didn't put this to a shortened select committee period this would not come out of the select committee period until Parliament rose for the election. The effect of that would be to cause a delay of some months because of course once Parliament rises we have an election period of some six weeks. Then there's the return of the writ before Parliament can then—Hon Shane Jones: A formality. A formality.DEPUTY SPEAKER: I'm not sure that that is helpful to the speaker.Hon DAVID PARKER: —sit again. As a consequence there would be a delay of some months before this legislation could be reconsidered by Parliament. We think that that would be undesirable in the circumstances because it is important that we employ as many people as we can in alternative employment given that they have lost employment through no fault of their own as a consequence of the COVID-19 virus. For those reasons I support the motion that I've already read out which allows essentially two weeks less one day for the select committee to report back to the House on 29 June."