Patterson MarkMARK PATTERSON (NZ First): Thank you Madam Speaker. New Zealand First too rises to support this Infrastructure Funding and Financing Bill which is a bill that seeks to do exactly what it says on the tin. It's pretty clear. Sometimes some of these names are a bit obtuse but this is exactly what this looks to do. It looks to set up a flexible legislative framework and essentially allow some private sector funding to come in to address our infrastructure shortages and for local councils to have access to some private sector funding through these special purpose vehicles or SPVs.Of course our councils many of them are getting very close to their debt limits as they are under all sorts of pressure. I might say it's not only—I heard the Minister in his address talking about those well-known fast-growing areas like Auckland and Hamilton but actually there's a huge housing shortage at the moment down South in places like Invercargill where there's a housing forum that's been formed—and I know local MP Liz Craig here is on that forum—because all of a sudden we've got these growing populations after decades of stagnation and we just haven't had the housing infrastructure. The local councils and the local communities are scrambling to try to get some houses built. In places like Gore through my office in Gore we have people coming in all the time who can't get places to rent—30 people turning up to rent one place. In Balclutha they've got 300 meatworkers coming in from Dunedin every day to go to the Silver Fern Farms plant at Finegand. That is an incredible lost opportunity for the town of Balclutha in that case. They could be citizens of that town and be contributing to that community but they can't because there are simply no houses.So it gives the councils the opportunity to where they're up against debt limits raise some private sector funding. It is important. Holyoake used to talk about New Zealand being a property-owning democracy. It is one of the great fundamentals of our society that you have a home whether that's one that you can buy or rent on the way to buying. We know our homeownership is falling; so we've got to have other ways. Social housing is becoming more and more important and of course we've got the Three Waters Review coming up for which once again the Gore District Council the other day costed their improvements at around $60 million to reach an estimated threshold. So that's significant. They're going to have to raise a significant amount of capital here and these SPVs may be a tool that they can use or a mechanism that they can use to offset some of that cost in terms of debt on their balance sheet. Of course there will still be a return.The other part of this too is we've got a world awash with cash quantitative easing around the world and there's very low returns in bank accounts. So there's essentially an opportunity here for pension funds for iwi for private citizens and for companies to invest in these developments to get a low-risk return. They're investing in a public-good infrastructure and getting a return that presumably would be above the bond rates or the bank rates that they may be able to access otherwise. So there's potentially a bit of a win-win there as well.I note this goes to the Transport and Infrastructure Committee. All of a sudden—I heard before they were a little underworked—they're getting a deluge of legislation coming forward from Minister Twyford today. I think they got the Racing Industry Bill rather improbably the other day too. So Darroch Ball the chairman is going to have to rouse that committee and get them under way because these are important pieces of work.We note that it's also connected to a lot of the other mechanisms or tranches of work the Government's doing: the RMA reform being led by Minister Parker and Minister Twyford's urban development agency or authority the second coming of Muldoon as he wades through red tape to get infrastructure and housing built. That's welcome because we know that one of the issues has been red tape and we are looking very seriously at addressing those things and giving the Government in its case the mechanisms to ride over the top or alongside councils to get some stuff done just to get some houses built and get some infrastructure into the ground.So New Zealand First are very supportive of all these tranches of legislation that have come forward today but I think this one is a very good one in terms of addressing a very great need in our society: getting more houses built getting our waste-water and sewage treatment plants up and running. Roading is another potential issue—another form of investment for pension funds etc. So there's a lot to like about this bill and New Zealand First will be supporting it through to the select committee. Thank you.