Russell DeborahDr DEBORAH RUSSELL (Labour—New Lynn): This is an excellent bill and it's an excellent bill because it deals with one of the long-term problems that is facing New Zealand. That problem is the problem with productivity. It's been talked about and talked about and talked about. And we do have a problem with productivity in this country. It hasn't been solved by the private sector and with respect it hasn't been solved I guess by many of the Governments preceding us. But we are at least trying to look ahead—to look ahead not just for the next three years on the electoral cycle but to look ahead for 30 years and try to get something right in respect of the New Zealand economy. That's what this bill is about. It's about trying to deal with our productivity issues.We've got some structural problems with investment in New Zealand. We are a small economy. We are not just a small economy; we are a small economy that is a long way distant from other economies that we might team up with. So it's not for us to operate say like Ireland which is right on the doorstep of Europe. We actually operate across the stretches of the Pacific. It limits investment in this country it limits the investment that we can raise here and it means that it limits what we can do with our companies to help them to grow.This particular bill is about trying to find a way to help our successful companies to grow. It's addressing a very particular gap in the market. We know that people with bright ideas operating out of their garage can actually get seed funding to go a bit further. We know that large companies can attract investment but there is that gap in the middle of investment of around about between $2 million and $20 million that smaller start-up companies need in order to take the next step. And that is what this bill is about.We've made as a Government a number of moves in this space. We've introduced an R & D tax credit. We've removed some of the tax incentives with respect to residential properties which force investment in a particular direction. This is yet another one of these moves—setting up this venture capital fund to try to address those problems—because the reality is that in this space the private sector has failed. The private sector has failed in this space. Now it might not have failed in market terms but it has failed in terms of developing the sort of economy that we want and the sort of productivity that we want in New Zealand. The market is the answer to many things but not to everything. In this case it has failed.So what this fund does—and I think it's a pretty important thing it does. We'll be setting up this fund and then using the New Zealand Venture Investment Fund—the existing entity—to match funding from the Government via the New Zealand super scheme with private sector investors. So in terms of looking at assessing risks and the like of course the Government is not going it alone. It is going it with those private sector investments—the people who already run venture investment funds—to try to get the best of the private sector knowledge and the heft that Government can bring to ensure that we develop some real investment in this space.I do want to just address one concern that was raised by some of the members of the Opposition worrying about the New Zealand Superannuation Fund having to divert $240 million from the funds that go into it. I have to say that's a bit rich coming from the Opposition who during their time in Government didn't put any money into the New Zealand Superannuation Fund at all. There are a few crocodile tears over on that side of the House I think.However I welcome the fact that the Opposition wants to work on this in the select committee. I am looking forward to working on it with members from across the House to make sure that this legislation is right. We'll be working hard on it and I'm sure that we can get it right. I commend this bill to the House.