Russell DeborahDr DEBORAH RUSSELL (Labour—New Lynn): I wish to take up a few of the points that have been raised by Paul Goldsmith the previous speaker because even though the previous speaker has expressed some reservations about the bill he does zero in on what are the critical issues: how do we ensure that we protect the viable the good the solid businesses in this country and how do we ensure that we continue investment in this country but at the same time how do we make sure that the assets in this country are not sold at fire sale prices? Mr Goldsmith said that we need private sector investment in this country and he is quite right but what we do not want is rapine and pillage. We need to get the balance right and that is what this bill is all about: trying to get the balance right between continuing foreign investment in New Zealand—much-needed and welcome foreign investment—but at the same time not enabling all the assets that we have built up in this country through many years of hard work to be sold at a time of great distress. We do not want sales of distressed assets if they are unnecessary at this time. So that's the balance we are trying to strike with this bill and the balance goes a little bit further than that. It's a balance between welcoming foreign investment and shutting it down and we see this in the bill as drafted that rather than this being the permanent settings that we will have in place for foreign investment in this country the intention is that this bill has a sunset clause and that the powers in it be subject to regular review. It is in many senses an urgent measures bill but it's also a temporary bill. It is temporary because we would not want to have settings that discourage foreign investment in place permanently but we do need them at this time. So we need to examine whether we've got the balance right on the sunset clause on how often it should be reviewed. We need to examine whether we've got the balance right on the threshold. Should it be zero? Perhaps. We need to have a think about whether a process of triage really will work effectively. The triage idea is quite straightforward as well. It turns out that often it is very easy to make a judgment at one end of the scale that something is completely acceptable and it's easy to make a judgment at the other end of a scale that something is completely unacceptable but it's the area in the middle that is difficult. The process of triage that the Minister referred to that the Overseas Investment Office will be required to follow to ensure that there are quick answers takes advantage of the fact that the judgments at either end of the scale are actually quite easy to make. It is those judgments in the middle where we will need to review foreign direct investment in this country and at this time in particular we need to ensure that we are protecting the major assets of the New Zealand economy whether they are held in private hands or public hands. Assets that have been built up by New Zealand businesses are New Zealand assets and we need to ensure that they are protected. So this bill will not stop overseas investment. All it will do at this time is place an extra hurdle—and at this time a much-needed hurdle—in terms of investment. I'm looking forward to the process in the select committee where I'm sure that people will grapple with it. It will be an intense process and a very short one but one that I think will befit this bill. We do need to get something in place quickly so we will move it through the Finance and Expenditure Committee with due consideration and I'm looking forward to engaging with the members of that committee in examining this bill and making sure that we get this balance right as we need to at this time. I commend this bill to the House.