Russell DeborahHon Dr DEBORAH RUSSELL (Labour): Mr Speaker look thank you for the opportunity to speak on this bill. It's a bill on which there's widespread agreement across the House but there are just a few issues I would like to touch on in what will be a brief contribution from me.The first is just to reflect on the nickname that there was for this fund for a long time. It was for quite a long time known as the Cullen fund because it was set up by Sir Michael Cullen who was a very far-sighted Minister of Finance. He gave us KiwiSaver—which has proven a real boon to New Zealand—and also set up the New Zealand Superannuation Fund. The objective was to assist with the payment of superannuation in the years when the baby boomers are retiring actually and some of us are getting perilously close to that. So it will assist in that payment.It's a sovereign wealth fund and over the years as the fund managers have gotten more and more experience and more capacity to understand investing and have built up experience within New Zealand it has expanded what it can and can't invest in. So this is an appropriate move for the Cullen fund—it's usually known as the New Zealand Superannuation Fund now—to look to take controlling interests in firms. Interestingly as was recounted in the House a couple of weeks ago by I think Barbara Edmonds who was telling a story of how Grant Robertson when he was Minister of Finance put this bill together and initially had checked in with Sir Michael Cullen about it and Sir Michael did feel that it was around about appropriate for the Cullen fund to move into this sort of position now. So the founder of the fund thought that it was the right sort of move and I know that across the House that is supported now because we do want that fund to have some good returns.I just wanted to touch on a couple of points which other speakers have raised. One of the earliest speakers perhaps was suggesting that we should have a think about what sort of infrastructure the Cullen fund might invest in. I think we need to be careful and we need to be careful because we actually don't want politicians interfering too closely in the investment decisions of the Superannuation Fund. We actually need to leave the managers to use their expertise in that area. There would be a problem with inviting that much political interference and I think that as politicians we ought to remain well away from it. It is up to them to work out what are the best uses of the Superannuation Fund money to get the best return.However having said that I do have some views about the ethical investing as well. One of the former speakers was a little unsure that ethical investing was a suitable way to go but actually ethical investing is starting to be well developed now in terms of what funds do and don't invest in. There are some pretty well-established parameters and I'm sure the Guardians of the Superannuation Fund can continue to do well in that regard.So this is a sensible move. It's a move that is endorsed across the House. It's great to see this bill getting through its second reading and I'm sure that it will progress further through the House and end successfully in due course. So I commend this bill to the House.