Bennett GlenNEW PLYMOUTH DISTRICT COUNCIL (PERPETUAL INVESTMENT FUND) BILLSecond ReadingGLEN BENNETT (Labour—New Plymouth): I move That the New Plymouth District Council (Perpetual Investment Fund) Bill be now read a second time. The New Plymouth District Council (Perpetual Investment Fund) Bill was considered by the Governance and Administration Committee. Their report was unanimous in recommending that the bill be passed and I hope the bill can continue to progress with the support of all parties in this Parliament. I want to thank the members of the Governance and Administration Committee for their work also too the Department of Internal Affairs for their advice. And also I want to say a special thankyou to the four submitters who submitted on this bill. I'd also want to acknowledge the New Plymouth District Council for their work for their process in this particularly Neil Holdom the Mayor of New Plymouth for his leadership and councillors and I also want to make special mention of Greg Stephens who is an adviser at the council who has worked hard on this piece of legislation. I also want to say to the ratepayers and to the residents of the New Plymouth District: thank you for your engagement in recent years around getting this piece of legislation to where it is today. The council has clearly placed a lot of work into this bill such that the committee did not need to make any changes or redraft any of its provisions. I know the council is very proactive in the Perpetual Investment Fund and is also in its financial assets to help to promote the wellbeing of the New Plymouth District community without having to rely too strongly on our ratepayers. So it is great to see the mahi given the tick of approval here by the committee and the bill being back in the House for second reading. Now I really want to go back and just recap on what this bill is about and what it does. It's here to protect the—it's such a tough one to say—Perpetual Investment Fund or let's just call it the PIF; it would make it a whole lot easier for me right now. The bill limits the area it can be used for within the New Plymouth District and also puts in place statutory controls to make sure that the PIF continues to be used in a perpetual manner and is not spent today at the cost of our future communities. I particularly want to note the committee's support of the council's request for a small exemption from one of the provisions of the Local Government Act 2002 for the PIF. Usually councils buying or selling shares in ports or airports of New Zealand have to undertake rigorous community consultation through their long-term plans. However it is pleasing to see that the committee agreed to support a small exemption for this investment fund because clearly those types of investments are not community assets like the local airport or port. The four submitters all raised interesting views that the committee considered. The committee's report canvasses these issues well. I want to speak to one aspect that I'm going to pick up on around the select committee's report. It's in relation to the governance deed. Now the governance deed provides the current structure for the management of the PIF and is an agreement between the council and the PIF guardians—the council-controlled organisation charged with the management of the PIF. Council has advised me that the bill is not intended to replace the governance deed. Instead it provides a separate set of requirements that exist and operate alongside the terms of the governance deed. In particular the bill will provide a higher level of legal framework with additional requirements that will need to be alongside the governance deed requirements. For example clause 7(1)(b) of the bill provides the council with the authority to take a larger than normal amount of funding from the PIF where this can be justified on the basis of current and future community wellbeing. The council will still then need to undertake its internal processes through the governance deed which will require a 75 percent supermajority vote of the councillors. The council may choose to amend the governance deed to ensure it comprehensively reflects the requirements of the bill in due course. I hope that the record is therefore clarified that this bill does not include any provisions to remove the governance deed and it would remain in force if this bill passes. This PIF is significant and I'd like to update the House on that this afternoon. As of the end of April it was worth $349.7 million. I also want to congratulate the council on recently retaining its AA+ credit rating with Standard & Poor's (S&P) global rating. S&P's report makes very clear how important the PIF is to the New Plymouth District Council's financial performance on behalf of its community and that reiterates to me how important it is for Parliament to help the council to protect the PIF for the future and for future generations. Now why is this fund so important? Well New Plymouth District has a population of more than 84000 people. I would like to mention and just notice that Rachel Boyack has sat down next to me in the House and it is the sunniest place in the country—Angie Warren-Clark: Oh controversial.GLEN BENNETT: The second year running thank you Angie Warren-Clark from the Bay of Plenty. This comes up many many times and I can just factually talk about National Institute of Water and Atmospheric Research Ltd who of course does the research and the science. Back last year there was a total of 358.6 hours of sunshine in New Plymouth during the month of January in 2022 which was an all-time sunniest record for New Zealand!Teanau Tuiono: Wow.GLEN BENNETT: Yeah OK. It was pretty interesting—vaguely. I also want to acknowledge current MPs from the Labour Party who were brought up in New Plymouth. I want to acknowledge the Deputy Prime Minister the Hon Carmel Sepuloni who came back to New Plymouth Girls' High School recently with the Mayor of Wellington Tory Whanau and from the press gallery we also had Jo Moir—all old girls of New Plymouth Girls' High School. It was wonderful to have them there. Also the Hon Andrew Little grew up there along with Liz Craig. I know she's in Invercargill—a long way from home but I know she is looking at property to move back there shortly maybe. And of course Angela Roberts another wonderful fine—DEPUTY SPEAKER: Mr Bennett I've just looked at the bill and the genealogy of the party does not really appear in here. So in the 2½ minutes left to you I wonder if we could just devote a little bit of time to the bill please.GLEN BENNETT: Mr Speaker I appreciate your guidance. I get very excited about the New Plymouth District and the electorate of New Plymouth; I can't help myself sometimes.With the PIF in terms of investment to ensure this is a mighty fine city and region we have our award-winning coastal walkway. We have Puke Ariki. We have the Len Lye Centre - Govette Brewster Art Gallery. We have our Te Rewa Rewa Bridge. We have our magnificent airport and gateway into our region.Angie Warren-Clark: Juno Gin!GLEN BENNETT: We have Juno Gin thank you very much Angie Warren-Clark who has been there. We have Pukeiti. We have Pukekura Park which again investment from the New Plymouth District Council ensures award-winning festivals such as the Festival of Lights that runs every single summer. We also have the WOMAD festival an international festival along with our wonderful surf beaches—Surf Highway 45—our Waitara River our wonderful sites of significance like Te Kohia Pā and of course our Taranaki Maunga. And the reason I mention all these places and all these spaces is because they take investment. They take money to ensure that they are kept up to a standard that we are constantly moving with the times ensuring that New Plymouth is the most livable city in New Zealand; not only the sunniest but a place for all people to enjoy. So this legislation is around looking to the future. It's ensuring as I said earlier that it's not just for this generation to use now and to spend at will but it is to ensure that it is secured for generations to come so that we can continue to develop our parks continue to develop our cultural heritage continue to develop our swimming pools our roads and our infrastructure to make sure that New Plymouth continues to be the most wonderful city to live in. I'm grateful to be able to shepherd this bill through the House and I want to thank the committee again for their hard work to consider the PIF bill. And for those who took their time submitting on this bill it is a real privilege and a pleasure—and tonight I don't know if the champagne bottles will open because I know we've got a few more stages to go through but I know that people in the New Plymouth District are grateful that we can protect this fund. I gladly commend this bill to the House.DEPUTY SPEAKER: The question is that the motion be agreed to.