Seymour David: International Finance Agreements Amendment Bill — Second ReadingText is incorporated into the Bound VolumeSeymour David: International Finance Agreements Amendment Bill — Second Reading[Sitting date: 05 November 2015. Volume:709;Page:7763. Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume.]DAVID SEYMOUR (Leader—ACT): I rise on behalf of the ACT Party in support of this bill. I think it is a very positive initiative for New Zealand to be involved in promoting investment in core public good infrastructure within countries that will make up an increasing proportion of our trading partnerships as they have over the last period of time.I might take a moment to reflect on some of the earlier contributions and the inherent contradictions within them. It was enormously surprising to me that the New Zealand First contribution we have had today was in opposition to New Zealanders investing in overseas infrastructure projects. The reason that this surprised me is that every time any foreigner invests within New Zealand that party says that the profits are all going overseas and New Zealand is all the poorer. If one was to follow the logic of that argument one would have to think that we should be promoting as much investment by the New Zealand Government in infrastructure projects overseas as possible in order that New Zealanders might be able to benefit from skimming back so many profits from overseas as we are told happens when one country invests in another. But of course that sort of contradiction is not the kind of contradiction that the New Zealand First Party generally has the intellectual horsepower to address so we will go no further.I certainly hope that when this legislation is enacted and when this bank begins investment it will focus on high-quality investment. I think a number of contributors have raised their concerns about the quality of the investment and what sorts of projects will be funded with the kind of capital that is being provided. I think it is extremely important for the growth of any regional economy that Government funding—and this is Government funding; this is transnational Government funding—is put towards goods and in some cases services that are not readily available on the private market. Much of the frustration that Aucklanders presently have with the Auckland Council for instance relates to the fact that the council has become confused about whether it is providing public goods that are not readily available on private markets or whether it is providing a wider basket of goods that are competing with the private sector.I would certainly hope that through this treaty we will find that New Zealand capital to the extent that it goes overseas to be used for investment overseas is used in order to provide public goods. It is a pity that the economics professor is not here but we should put on record that public goods are those that have the quality that—David Bennett: He’s never here mate.DAVID SEYMOUR: —he is absent in many senses—The ASSISTANT SPEAKER (Lindsay Tisch): No. Order! You cannot mention the absence of a member even by inference.DAVID SEYMOUR: My apologies Mr Assistant Speaker.David Bennett: How about his presence? Mention his presence?DAVID SEYMOUR: His presence I could mention perhaps but not in this instance.Public goods are those that are non-rivalrous and that are non-excludable meaning that everybody benefits from the presence of the good and that nobody can be explicitly excluded from its benefits. That is when we have cause for taxpayers to have their capital taken to provide a good that will benefit all. It is also useful to spend public money on assets that have a network effect—that is that they have constantly increasing returns to scale and that the market place is most efficient with only one provider and therefore it makes sense again for Governments to be involved. But it would be a great shame if we were to see New Zealand capital going offshore to compete with the private sector in those countries. I am assured by the honourable Minister that that is not the case and that this capital will be going to build infrastructure overseas to enhance the economies and the productivity of our trading partners and therefore increase the effective market size faced by New Zealanders. On balance that sounds like a very noble deployment of capital and I wholeheartedly support this bill on behalf of the ACT Party. Thank you.