Carter DavidRt Hon DAVID CARTER (National): National will continue to support the Venture Capital Fund Bill as we proceed through the second reading with a couple of concerns that I wish to address during my contribution.First of all the good news and the reason we should support it is it will be a boost to the economy. In the so-called year of delivery we know this economy needs a boost. The Prime Minister I recall at the beginning of the year promised it to be a year of delivery. I see the Hon Phil Twyford sitting there holding his head in shame. He hasn't been part of delivery at all. In fact I think he lost his portfolio because he failed to deliver KiwiBuild and that's only one of the examples of the promises made by Labour as they went into an election campaign in 2017 which they have failed to deliver on. The people—the voters of New Zealand—will not forget the extravagant promises made by the likes of the Hon Phil Twyford as we proceed to election 2020.But in saying the economy needs a boost I do want to comment on the fact that the terms of trade are the best we've seen for decades. The economy should be doing substantially better than it is. Business confidence should be substantially better than it is. Therefore when we look through Budget 2019 it is a surprise to find some initiative in amongst that Budget of misery and non-delivery that actually does give the Venture Capital Fund the chance of being successfully formed.So two or three points I do want to address: first of all in the Budget it's announced as new money: $300 million. But in actual fact—and the Hon David Parker who's just introduced the bill for its second reading doesn't mention this in his comments—there is no new money. Of the $300 million $240 million had already been signalled and appropriated to the New Zealand Superannuation Fund. So what this Government is doing is actually telling the super fund how to invest its money and that is one of the concerns I wish to raise very very shortly.The second contribution to make from $240 million to $300 million is a call an instruction to the New Zealand Venture Investment Fund to direct $60 million of its money already available for venture capital to this newly created Venture Capital Fund. So let's dispel any notion that this Government has found $300 million more that it wants to give to business. It is simply smoke and mirrors: reclassification re-appropriation and the direction of money that has previously been committed elsewhere.Can I then move to the particular concern that worries me the most and it is connected to the $240 million that is now going to be invested by the New Zealand Superannuation Fund. The New Zealand Superannuation Fund has been highly successful and it is worth noting that the current Governor of the Reserve Bank of course is part of the reason for that success—Hon Phil Twyford: Why did he stop contributing to the fund if it was so successful?Rt Hon DAVID CARTER: Why did we stop contributing? Because we dealt with the global financial crisis and we dealt with the Christchurch earthquake. If the Minister wants to actually come occasionally to Christchurch and if the Minister wants to actually bring the Prime Minister occasionally to Christchurch Christchurch would be grateful to see you both in Christchurch to have a look at what that contribution has done.But returning to the New Zealand Superannuation Fund and the way it has performed why then does this bill give the ability for a Minister to start to direct the Guardians of New Zealand Superannuation to where those investments must be placed?Hon Phil Twyford: It doesn't.Rt Hon DAVID CARTER: And Mr Twyford says it doesn't. There is another case where this Minister sits around blindly around the Cabinet table and discusses legislation that he either hasn't read or doesn't understand. No wonder Jacinda Ardern sacked him from KiwiBuild.Hon Phil Twyford: Read the bill.Rt Hon DAVID CARTER: Well Mr Twyford interjects that I should read the bill. I spent time on the Finance and Expenditure Committee studying the bill Mr Twyford—Hon Phil Twyford: Obviously didn't read the bill. Rt Hon DAVID CARTER: And I have read the bill. But the Minister himself clearly doesn't understand how it works and that is why he's no longer looking after the KiwiBuild programme. He mucked up that one completely—mucked up that one completely. And if he'd had any involvement in this I suspect that'd be the very reason why National wouldn't want to support it.Hon Phil Twyford: David you're hurting my feelings!Rt Hon DAVID CARTER: I'm not here to hurt the poor Minister's feelings. I would have thought that he was hurt enough when Jacinda Ardern had to fire him because of his incapability. How he still manages to sit on the front bench God only knows. But I know one thing: he was the tactician at the last election for Labour and Jacinda Ardern doesn't trust him with that position this time. That says it all.Now if I can return to the legislation. The second concern that I have is of course that there is already an institution—an organisation—that provides this service to the New Zealand economy it is called the New Zealand Venture Investment Fund. It's been operating now for in excess of 10 years.Hon Chris Hipkins: Yeah who set that up?Rt Hon DAVID CARTER: It has a good track record. It was I think set up in the dying days of the Helen Clark Government so back prior to 2008. So it was probably established around 2007 for the Hon Chris Hipkins who should have actually known that and interjected to ask me.Hon Chris Hipkins: I did know that.Rt Hon DAVID CARTER: Now he says he knew it! But he still had to ask me! But anyway my point is that it has operated successfully. Its funding was boosted by the National Government. It has the expertise. It has the expertise in this area and therefore the question that I did ask at the select committee which was not answered satisfactorily by the officials appearing before the select committee was: why didn't they just expand the New Zealand Venture Investment Fund instead of creating a new fund altogether?I suspect the reason we're debating this legislation and the reason the announcement is in the Budget is of course that investors don't favour New Zealand and its economy at the moment and that's not surprising when you see a Government who moved immediately to do all it could to banish foreign direct investment from this economy.Hon Phil Twyford: Rubbish.Rt Hon DAVID CARTER: Well Mr Twyford is part of the rubbish; that's the problem. He moved straight away to reduce the opportunity for foreign investors into the apartment market in Auckland particularly and then he argued that that would bring the price of housing down. So let anybody who wants to measure the success of the Hon Phil Twyford have a look at what's happened to the price of housing since that legislation came into vogue in—what?—2018. It's had absolutely zero effect on reducing the price of housing.He moved also to remove foreign investment from agricultural sales—unless it was forestry. Now Mr Twyford has suddenly gone very quiet. He can't explain that. Well I can. It's because the Hon Shane Jones had a programme of planting a billion trees and they suddenly realised they'd never achieve it if they banned foreign direct investment from New Zealand. So we then passed—or this House passed; not supported by me I hasten to add—special legislation to make it easier for overseas forestry interests to buy land in New Zealand. In fact we had a case recently of the Hawke's Bay - based company Pan Pac Forest Products which has given early approval to land that it hasn't even bothered to visit yet to make sure it can go through the Overseas Investment Office process to make it easier for that company with its foreign investors to buy land in New Zealand.So schizophrenic-type Government policy exists all over the show. We will support and continue to support the establishment of the New Zealand Venture Investment Fund but I do hope we do not see this being used by the Government by a future Labour-led Government if there is one—and there may not be one but there could be one. So accepting there could be one I do hope we don't see a Minister of the calibre of the Hon Phil Twyford getting a portfolio role when he can then start to interfere with the investments by the New Zealand Superannuation Fund where he as a Minister thinks Government money should be going to assist in venture capital establishment. If that's where this ends up it will be a sad day for the venture capital industry of New Zealand and a very sad day for the economy of New Zealand.