Seymour DavidDAVID SEYMOUR (Leader—ACT): Thank you Madam Deputy Speaker. I've been called many things in this House but never the ACT person". It is a new description but I'm glad that I could be here in time to oppose this Reserve Bank Act amendment bill.I'm not sure that the gravity and importance of this bill has received anything like the coverage and the attention that it deserves. I think it would be fair to say that of all the legislation that has gone through this House this year it has been one of the lowest-profile pieces of legislation publicly that we've seen. And yet the importance of it is difficult to overstate.This is a Pacific paradise: a country at the edge of the earth that led the world in making first-class public policy; a country that faced a problem—that whenever an election was coming along Muldoon would come along too and he'd say "Heh heh heh" and he'd pump up the money supply and give everybody the short-term sugar hit of free and cheap money to guarantee his own re-election. That was one of the economic follies that brought this country to its knees and the response to that from ACT's founder Sir Roger Douglas was to lead the world and later be copied by many other countries in creating in this Pacific paradise a truly independent Reserve Bank where it was politically impossible for the Government of the day to intervene for their own narrow political gain in the money supply that every New Zealander depends on.This was a time when New Zealanders around the world could be proud of what our public policy was achieving; when The Economist magazine called the then governor Don Brash the world's best central banker. That is the legacy that is being erased by this bill tonight: the legacy of a Pacific paradise proud and free leading the world in public policy.That's what's at stake tonight. And with what are we replacing that independent Reserve Bank Governor who offered price stability in spite of the wishes of the politicians of the day? Well this bill means that the decision about how fast or slow to print money how fast or slow to run those printing presses by setting the official cash rate will not be set by one individual at arm's length from the Government and accountable on pain of losing his or her job for failing to give New Zealanders stable prices year in year out—no no no. Under this bill a committee of people appointed by the Government of the day—not by the board of the Reserve Bank but directly appointed by the Minister of Finance—are going to make a decision not based on price stability but instead are going to make a decision based on short-term employment and economic activity. Let me wind this up for you with the following question. Let's say you are on this decision-making committee and an appointee of a Labour Party or for that matter a National Party Minister of Finance—DEPUTY SPEAKER: You're not talking about me I hope.DAVID SEYMOUR: No no no. Well you are in this debate too surely. You can think about this. If you found yourself in that position what would a person do if they genuinely believed that the re-election of the current Government was for the best of the country and boosting employment in the short run was going to help secure that election? Would they run the printing presses faster and destroy price stability in this country? I think this is not only a naive bill; it is a truly evil bill. I oppose it strongly. Thank you Madam Deputy Speaker."