Bridges SimonHon SIMON BRIDGES (National—Tauranga): Thank you. National supports this bill as members know.I reflected on what the member opposite has just said; it is amazing how far we've come. I remember in the late 1990s being very chuffed to have a Bosch—[Interruption]—it was a wee while ago—flip-top phone and I lost it actually after a big night at the Loaded Hog but that's another story. Today of course we're worlds away from that. I grew up—and I'm not that old turned 45 a week or two ago—in an age where emails were a new thing text messages were exciting and now of course with virtual reality alternative realities artificial intelligence the internet of things it is a brave new world as they say.I think this bill is good. It establishes a framework as I understand it. There's detail in the bill about that—obviously it will need to be worked through at select committee—but it establishes a framework over digital personal and organisational information and how it's shared it's stored and it's used. In the end that can only be a good thing if it's done well. So the intention I'm suggesting is very good because it'll provide certainty efficiency and a sense of trust and even more than that probably most importantly a confidence if this bill hits the mark in its intent of creating that framework for digital personal information. So the intent's good. We support that and that's why we support it at this stage. The how and the details will be worked through; that's critically important.What I think's worth just noting though is that that confidence and so on that comes from doing this well and providing that framework around digital personal information is hugely important because if it's got right—and I'll come to that actually. But if it's got wrong if we do that wrong if New Zealanders whether as individuals doing their personal banking their tax buying books or shoes or make up online—all of those things and multiple other uses that New Zealanders will know about—don't have trust and confidence in that well we've got a problem and that is a really big deal. The undermining of the privacy and security of people's settings would create a situation where we wouldn't get the innovation the creativity from the digital world and the digital economy that we want. I suppose at an extreme if we don't have confidence in those things in New Zealand well people will keep money under the bed. If people don't have confidence they won't do their transactions and their interactions online as I say in terms of tax purchases trusts and services—those sorts of things are simply not going to happen. New Zealand at that level wouldn't be a part of it and I know this is not where we're at in New Zealand but we wouldn't be part of that modern global digital economy that is borderless or should be which is where we want to be.So that's in a sense the negative; the worry here if it's not done well. But there is a positive. The positive the potential the opportunities for New Zealand if there is a great online world that New Zealanders both individually and as organisations and businesses have a trust and confidence in is limitless; it's boundless. I'm really proud that National laid the groundwork for this in I think one of the most significant projects New Zealand's had in decades and that's in the ultra-fast broadband (UFB) roll-out. All of this would be theoretical talking about a framework for trust and confidence in digital settings if we didn't have that UFB. Of course success has many parents—John Key Steven Joyce and Amy Adams and I was the last communications Minister in that Government and played a role in it as well in its roll-out. It's been revolutionary.The future is digital—I think of New Zealand's economy and the as I say boundless opportunities we have there if we have the platforms and the trust and confidence to get on and innovate and be creative. When I think of the primary sector we obviously I think increasingly as a country understand the importance to New Zealand of our farmers our foresters people in viticulture and horticulture and many other areas. I think it's a great irony actually of COVID that the Government has come around to farming at some level. I appreciate my colleagues laugh but at a level we are actually more dependent on farming as a part of our economy than we've been for some time. Because on the other side of it we've got tourism another prong a huge vital exciting sector but fundamentally in the doldrums at the moment for reasons that aren't any Government's fault at a level although they could be doing much much more to support it. Then there's the digital or what I would sometimes call the creative economy and that's where this bill comes in to play. I for one and I know my colleagues on this side of the House—and everyone in this House actually—are aspirational although the issue is how and why and getting on to it; we believe it is a hugely exciting area for New Zealand. When I was economic development Minister it was amazing to see just the growth in—I was going to say little sectors. They're not that little like gaming. From $50 million $60 million $70 million $80 million—and now look I don't know—but by the end of the National-led Government it was a quarter-of-a-billion $300 million sector mainly not entirely but mainly here in Wellington. That is just one area where actually having trust and confidence in the platforms in the frameworks and personal privacy settings really matters. That's but one example. Of course there's the movie sector there's multiple other areas where New Zealand has so much potential if we do the right things.Of course we've got to get some parts of it right and I'd argue this Government isn't in terms of encouraging and sometimes importing the required skilled workers that we need in that area the capital the tax the regulatory settings. I was very disappointed to see under this Government Amazon's The Lord of the Rings move off shore. I think we should've personally moved heaven and Earth to try and keep it because it's a multi-billion dollar deal it has huge reputational advantages for the entire creative sector not to mention the tourism sector in New Zealand. Set in the UK by the way—they're scoffing. It's a crying shame.My simple point of all that is this. In the end this bill isn't the solve-all for all of that but it's a well-intentioned good component of that massive digital creative sector and part of New Zealand's way of life fundamentally If the framework is done well it will enhance the trust and confidence New Zealanders have in that sector and the ability to keep on doing and in fact grow our creativity and innovation. If it's not there well as I say at one extreme people will keep their money under the bed.We support the intent. There's detail in this bill to be worked through but I'm sure it will be and it will help albeit there are many other things like I say like skilled workers tax settings and the like to ensure that the third prong in my view of New Zealand's economy the digital and creative sector goes from strength to strength to strength and helps pay for our hospitals our education systems and so on to make this one of the greatest little countries in the world to live in.