Court SimonSIMON COURT (ACT): Look it gives me great pleasure to let the House know to let the people of New Plymouth know and the New Plymouth District Council know that the ACT Party will support this bill because the ACT Party believes that local government councils like the New Plymouth District Council should be able to say what happens to their assets they should be able to control them they should be able to decide whether they sell them how they use them what dividends they seek to recover and so on. Imagine that: local government gets to decide whether they sell their assets and put the money into an investment fund—that's what New Plymouth District Council did with Powerco all those years ago. They sold their electricity infrastructure assets—the local lines company—because they thought they'd be able to do something better with the money. And what they did was they invested in this capitalist concept called equities and stocks which the fund trades on stock markets long-term institutional investments. That's a concept which might be alien to our comrades in the Labour Party that if you invest money wisely in things that produce a profit then that profit can be used to do other things with—that's right.So the ACT Party supports the concept behind this bill that councils should be able to use their assets or dispose of them as long as they have a democratic mandate to do so—that's right. They don't want their assets flogged by central government like the three waters assets will be flogged—those billions and billions of dollars' worth of assets that we've heard that Minister Nanaia Mahuta believes should actually sit with a State corporation rather than local government. They don't want Governments to tell them what they should and shouldn't be allowed to sell.So the ACT Party will support this bill. We think that the New Plymouth District Council through its proposed amendment to the deed to the guardianship of these assets in the fund actually is setting itself up for a successful future because there was a problem when successive councils decided to draw down heavily on the fund's capital rather than rely solely on the profits of the fund to fund the things that council wanted to do. And that shows you actually some of the problems that Governments that spend beyond their means can get into like this current lot—this current Labour Government: spending spending spending beyond their means; borrowing borrowing borrowing to hand out cash like a drunken—ASSISTANT SPEAKER (Hon Jenny Salesa): Order! Order! The member will come back to this bill.SIMON COURT: Thank you Madam Speaker for your direction. So it shows you that if you spend unwisely if you draw down the capital of your fund faster than it can be replenished then in the end you'll have less money at the end to make a profit from. So what New Plymouth District Council have worked out is that if they maintain the fund if they keep money in it it keeps generating profits; if they keep investing in things that make a profit then they will have more money to allocate back to the people of New Plymouth. So the ACT Party thinks that's a great idea but there are certainly lessons to be learnt. I hope that the member sponsoring this bill Glen Bennett from New Plymouth advocates strongly for the position that the New Plymouth District Council has taken with respect to their assets—capitalism investing in things that make a profit—with his caucus and with the Ministers who are responsible: say the Minister of Finance who's responsible for working out how much Government should spend; or the Minister of Revenue David Parker how much the Government needs to take in tax—I'll say the Minister of Transport Michael Wood who's responsible for working out how much needs to be spent on the roads in New Zealand including in New Plymouth and Taranaki which are full of potholes versus how much revenue is collected from different revenue streams like fuel excise duty and road-user charges.So lots of valuable lessons in this bill for this Labour Government and particularly for the Labour caucus when they go back into caucus to work out how they're going to come up with the money for all of next year's election promises. The New Plymouth District Council doesn't have that problem because they're taking a responsible attitude to managing their assets for the greater good of their people. Thank you Madam Speaker.