Strange Jamie; Salesa JennyJAMIE STRANGE (Labour—Hamilton East): Madam Speaker thank you for the opportunity to take a call on this bill—final call actually—as this bill makes its way through the House. I'd like to begin by acknowledging some of the comments from the previous speaker there David Bennett who is a member of Parliament based in Hamilton like myself. Just to pick up on a little bit there particularly in terms of—the previous speaker mentioned Tainui Group Holdings. They have had tremendous success across the Waikato region and into South Auckland. As the member said they've done that by investing in assets—in fact many times being a landlord for Government agencies like there was a recent opening of the ACC building in town. The Ruakura Superhub is an excellent investment—a $3 billion investment. The Tainui iwi had a settlement of $170 million back in 1995. They have turned that into $1.5 billion worth of assets. That's a significant increase and primarily they have done that like the previous member said by investing in assets making wise choices around that.Now on to this bill the New Plymouth District Council (Perpetual Investment Fund) Bill which is a local bill. Before I get into the bill I'd just like to mention to those who are either listening at home or watching at home the purpose of local bills. A local bill is a bill that a local authority a council can—it's basically an opportunity for a local council to raise an issue that is very much local in nature and they can bring it to Parliament and they can have it put through Parliament through a local member. In this case the local member is Glen Bennett. One of the advantages of local bills is that when we have a members' day like today local bills go to the top of the Order Paper so they are prioritised above members' bills on days like this.We've seen many examples of local authorities putting bills through. I think it's an important part of our democracy that we do have this option because if we didn't have the local bill option what would happen is that councils would have to talk to Ministers in a Government and try and get a Minister to adopt a bill. As we know Governments of all colours always have quite full agendas because when they go to the election they basically make promises to the voters through their manifesto documents and then if they are voted in they've got three years to get that through which is a short time. Personally I think it should be longer but we won't get to that topic right now. So the local bill mechanism is a very important part of our democracy and it's good to see that the New Plymouth District Council have used this mechanism and they've used it well and they've used local supportive MP Glen Bennett someone who's very passionate about the region.I'd like to acknowledge some of the work of some of the local people who have provided leadership in this bill. First of all His Worship Mayor Neil Holdom. I actually met with Neil around three years ago—met in his office—and at that point it was a particularly challenging time because the Government had just passed legislation in terms of no new permits for oil and gas. Neil explained to me at the time that the Taranaki region was very much dependent on that area for their economy. I don't want to quote exactly what he said but he sort of said Look you know we're open-minded and we understand that some sort of transition needs to happen." That transition is now happening and in a moment I'll get on to the New Plymouth area in terms of some of the economic opportunities there and how this fund can support those economic opportunities. So I'd like to acknowledge Neil Holdom's leadership in particular. As I understand it he's primarily been the driving force for this bill so I'd like to acknowledge his leadership. Also Gareth Green Chief Executive; Joy Buckingham Group Manager Corporate Services; Greg Stephens Senior Policy Advisor; Jonathan Salter Special Counsel Simpson Grierson; Mark Butcher Chair New Plymouth PIF Guardians; Sarah Vrede Director New Plymouth PIF Guardians—Hon David Bennett: Who mowed the lawns?JAMIE STRANGE: No no it's important. It's important to mention these people. These are the local people who have brought about this change and that's an example of our democracy working well. Democracy is there for everyone and as a Government we are very much about grassroots. We are very much focused on working with local people and local outcomes.Hon David Bennett: Oh come on Jamie—there's nothing local about the Labour Party; you're taking it away. JAMIE STRANGE: As the member opposite will know we are very much focused on understanding unlike the party opposite who are sitting up in their ivory tower wanting to give tax cuts to the rich while we are down in the trenches.ASSISTANT SPEAKER (Hon Jenny Salesa): Order! Order! The member will bring it back to this particular bill. JAMIE STRANGE: Thank you. I will return to the bill. Right now so just a little bit of history on the bill here—just a little bit of history on the bill here. The bill is basically being put forward to protect New Plymouth's Perpetual Investment Fund (PIF) from future local body amalgamations. It was drawn up in 2021 and as I understand it there was a bit of anxiety from some members of council who were worried about a possible amalgamation and that if that amalgamation happened the residents of New Plymouth may have to share the returns from this bill with others. And so basically it was proposed by the staff: "Hey why don't you look at a local bill?"—which is good advice. The bill—you know we've explained how that works. The councillors voted eight to five to progress the bill which was then introduced to Parliament in 2023.Now it wasn't a unanimous vote but enough of the councillors voted for this to progress. I believe that some councillors felt there was no rush due to amalgamations not being on the horizon and the reality is that amalgamations aren't on the horizon; it's not something we're looking at as a Government.Hon David Bennett: Yes you are.JAMIE STRANGE: It is a topic—well maybe the National Party might be looking at that but we're not. I mean there are always discussions across the country around amalgamations and from time to time it raises its head up and down and that may or may not continue in terms of that. But look I just wanted to get a little bit of the economic development.Now the bill basically protects the PIF for local residents. The PIF focuses on social cultural environmental and economic outcomes. I just want to pick up particularly on the economic aspect. The Taranaki region is a region that's growing quickly—that has good projections in terms of economic development. Many parts of the economy will be well known around agriculture food production tourism—we've visited as a family ourselves and enjoyed many of the tourism aspects—but also manufacturing. Manufacturing is particularly important for a resilient economy. Offshore wind—I recently went to an event which highlighted some of the opportunities there in the offshore wind area. I would like to encourage those who are making the decisions on this fund—the trustees or the fund managers the guardians—as they look at economic outcomes for this fund to continue working as I know they're doing in terms of building partnerships with other regions across New Zealand. I think it would be remiss of me as someone living in Hamilton to not encourage them to look north in terms of the Waikato region. The "golden triangle" as it's often phrased—the Auckland Hamilton Tauranga area—makes up 50 percent of New Zealand's population 52 percent of GDP 57 percent of the value of all building consents and a huge amount of exports. In terms of economic development I think that the Taranaki region would do well to have a look north and see what sort of partnerships could be opened.I acknowledge that we probably would need to do a bit of work in the transport area. The road is certainly challenging at times through there but yeah look I think it's important. A lot of people talk about this "golden triangle"—Auckland Hamilton Tauranga. I've started to coin a phrase: the "golden diamond" extending that "golden triangle" south sharing the love.Hon David Bennett: Point of order. That's actually a council phrase—chamber of commerce—Jamie not yours.ASSISTANT SPEAKER (Hon Jenny Salesa): That's actually not a valid point of order.JAMIE STRANGE: The "golden diamond" is a phrase I'm proud of and that I am progressing. I see my time has come to an end. I very much enjoyed this speech and commend the bill to the House. Thank you.Motion agreed to.Bill read a third time."