Leary IngridINGRID LEARY (Labour—Taieri): It's a pleasure to rise in support of the Reserve Bank of New Zealand Bill and offer some insights as a member of the Finance and Expenditure Committee and not have to read off prepared notes unlike the previous speaker Simon Watts. For those who don't think that this is an exciting piece of legislation it may not be exciting but it is really important. What it does is overhaul the Reserve Bank of New Zealand Act which is 30 years in the making. The key difference is that it is about collective decision-making rather than individual decision-making. That's a really important principle at a time when financial systems are so complicated and where more minds on financial matters are better than individual ones. There is significant local and international best practice to support this.What the bill does is strengthen the Reserve Bank's institutional arrangements it enhances its role as a prudential regulator and it increases its coordination in the regulation of the financial sector. May I remind all those people those businesses those sole traders who benefited from the quick-out-the-door wage subsidy that occurred during the COVID lockdown that was very much the product of a financially stable system a system that works and a system in which the Reserve Bank has oversight and plays a really critical role. When the finance Minister speaks of a balanced approach to the financial system especially in Budget 2021 he is speaking about that stability of the system as a whole. What this bill does is look specifically at governance and accountability. The other two elements around prudential Acts are going to be subject to other legislation including two Acts one of which is a deposit takers bill.By making the decision-making collective it sets up a board which brings a breadth and depth of skills to the decision making and it will give that board powers very similar to a Crown entity. The accountabilities will also be more aligned to Crown entity boards and it means that whole-of-Government directions to Crown entities will also apply to the Reserve Bank. Yes it does remove the word efficiency". That word sits better with the deposit takers bill and insurance Act.This bill focuses on financial stability. Efficiency in this context—there are a number of different ways of measuring efficiency. It is a technical word. It is a distraction in this bill and sits better in other legislation. The select committee did consider that and we also considered at great length actually the balance of power between the finance Minister and the Reserve Bank—the independence but also the Government's intention through its policy statements. To get down to the granular level we did come up with scenarios and we asked advisers questions about what would occur in particular situations. Interestingly many of those situations were around the accountabilities where the Governor of the Reserve Bank may differ in the opinion of the board or where the Governor of the Reserve Bank would be stood down from one or other of those roles and what compensation he or she would be entitled to.There was quite a lot of discussion about the conflicts of interest. There was discussion about tensions and I will just talk about the process for changing the monetary policy committee remit where it was recommended by the Finance and Expenditure Committee that that should also be changed to remove the requirement that a remit could only be replaced prior to the expiration of the current remit via Order in Council. It's saying that the finance Minister would only be able to act really on the instruction of the Reserve Bank rather than the other way around and that was really to preserve the integrity of the independence of the Reserve Bank.So in summary this bill brings collective decision-making to the fore rather than individual decision-making which allows for greater skills and also transparency. We dealt with conflicts of interest and are satisfied that those have been resolved. The one recommendation that the select committee has really is that going forward we need to really consider the matter of cryptocurrency on the role of the Reserve Bank given that there will be impacts in the financial system. So we're really pleased with this piece of legislation. We're sorry that the other side can't agree with it. I commend this bill to the House."