O'Connor DamienHon DAMIEN O'CONNOR (Labour): Thank you Madam Chair. I appreciate I was unable to be in the House last night but I do have an amendment which I would like to speak to so I appreciate the opportunity.The amendment goes to the heart of what we object to in this bill. If I was to be really cynical I'd say that the Government doesn't care about people who don't work but they say they care about people who do work. The amendment restores the purpose of this monetary policy and it would be to take out remove in clause 7 the word objective" and replace it with "welfare of working people". It goes to the heart of what we are here for in Parliament. There might be some on that side of the House who say "We're just here for the economy because the economy will deliver to all of the people of New Zealand." Well I'd like to think we could go a bit further and say "We're here for all the people of New Zealand." A well-run economy an efficient economy indeed enables us to deliver benefits. But the purpose is for people not for the economy. And if you get that back to front you end up with monetary policy that is pure but not delivering for the purposes for which this Parliament is in existence. We're here for the people of New Zealand—we would say for all New Zealanders.Now if we were to move in the direction of the current coalition Government who say that we want everyone working and those who don't work we'd like to encourage them through incentives to get into work—well if indeed that is the true objective of the coalition Government then I would suggest that they vote for the amendment that we have tabled in clause 7 and reinsert the purpose of the monetary policy yes—CHAIRPERSON (Maureen Pugh): Excuse me I'll just interrupt the member. We are still focused on Part 1 of the bill.Hon DAMIEN O'CONNOR: My apologies Madam Chair—Madam Speaker—CHAIRPERSON (Maureen Pugh): Chair.Hon DAMIEN O'CONNOR: Madam Chair—sorry I've elevated you already such is the honour of being the West Coast - Tasman MP. A very important honour indeed; that's right.I go back to the point that I made first and it relates to Part 1 and Part 2 the purpose of this piece of legislation—monetary policy in this country is actually for the people of the country. If we are to indeed have a dual purpose which we should then it must incorporate some reference to the people of New Zealand not just to price stability. If we are to indeed look at price stability and ask the question as to why inflation has been so high the reality is that we've had a Ukraine war; we've had closed COVID environments. Why have some prices gone up? Well it has been import costs in some ways but also the reason some have put up their prices is because they can. So I suggest that if the Government is as determined to bring down inflation then it provides as much focus on commerce law and ensuring that there's indeed true competition across all parts of our economy. I'm sure that this side of the House will support any attempt to expose opportunism because I know opportunism—maybe people on that side do know of businesses that have put up their prices because they can which actually from a business perspective is not a bad strategy. But what we try to have in this economy is a competitive environment that keeps the lid on inflation that doesn't allow people to exploit opportunities unfairly and indeed I welcome that Minister's input to ensure that those areas of the economy where profits have been very very healthy where some might say that there have been drivers upward of prices and inflation that maybe an attempt to focus on those areas might help keep the lid on inflation.But in terms of this piece of legislation removing the dual purpose that we inserted into it is a backward step for a country that has prided itself on social justice prided itself on ensuring that benefits flow to all New Zealanders prided itself on being a leader in the world and at a time when other reserve banks have more than one purpose with monetary policy we're taking a backward step which seems to be part and parcel of the direction of this Government."