Woods MeganHon Dr MEGAN WOODS (Labour—Wigram): There has been a lot of talk about this bill over the hours that this bill has been rushed through and there have been a number of questions that have been put up. But I return to some comments I made in I think it was the first reading of this bill last night which was that this is the first piece of legislation that this Government has brought to this House as part of a package of three bills that the Government is bringing to pass under urgency which in many ways is symbolic and defines the kinds of priorities that this Government is putting forward.In this bill we see a Government that is removing the focus on jobs. The second piece of legislation we're about to move on will see a Government that is removing the focus on the wages of ordinary New Zealanders and to complete their trifecta of things they are undoing after that we'll see a Government that is removing the focus on real action on climate. So what we're seeing is that we have a Government that does not want to focus on people their wages their job security and making sure we are securing our future through real climate action.I compare that to what our Government did in our 100-day plan the first package of legislation that we brought to this House. We brought in a healthy homes guarantee we brought in a winter energy payment we brought in a Best Start payment and we extended paid parental leave. In this package of repeals that we are seeing from the current Government what we are seeing is a Government that only wants to take New Zealand backwards a Government that has no vision and a Government that certainly does not have a focus on jobs or wages or climate action. That is writ large for the New Zealand public to see.Now one of the things with this bill that we've seen is that the Minister of Finance knows that this is not actually going to achieve that much. So when I hear some of those new members of Parliament saying that this is how they're going to crack down on inflation they're going to be sorely let down. Although I think there have been a lot of promises made—and during the course of this debate the Minister of Finance at one point did say that she was going to eliminate inflation and we might set that as a KPI for the success of this Government since it's been claimed in the House—the reality is and all the experts agree that this amendment bill will do nothing to help with the cost of living.In the latest forecasts the Reserve Bank expects inflation to fall within the target range of 1 to 3 percent within the third quarter of 2024. What we are doing here—the legislation we are passing—is not going to materially change that. It will not make a difference as inflation is falling anyway. But what we have seen the Minister of Finance do in this House during question time is say it's going to fall faster. So we will be tracking that and we will be holding the Minister of Finance to those promises she has made in this House because there is not a single piece of evidence that supports that that is the case.The Minister of Finance was given three options by her officials for how she could reduce the mandate. We don't agree with what they wanted to do but to go back to that single mandate they could introduce this legislation—the route they've chosen to go down—they could have issued a monetary policy remit only and Treasury gave the advice that this would be the most expedient way to do it; or she could have temporarily suspended the objective and she could have achieved it through an Order in Council. The Minister and the Government chose to do it by virtue-signalling legislation that is not going to achieve a thing. The only thing it is achieving is showing New Zealanders where its priorities are and where they aren't and they are certainly not with job creation. They are certainly not with creating higher wages for workers in New Zealand. What we are seeing is a Government that is turning its back on those things as a focus on something that it sees as a responsible Government should put in place. When the bill was introduced by the Hon Grant Robertson to give the Reserve Bank a dual mandate it was seen as a modernisation of our monetary policy. What we have here before us is a Government that is celebrating the great step backwards and that wants to go back before the 1990s to take New Zealand backwards and certainly to remove any kind of focus on jobs and wages.