Bayly AndrewANDREW BAYLY (National—Port Waikato): Thank you Madam Chair. A changing world isn't it? It's a fast-moving world. Hey I think we just heard it from the Minister that we're going to have a clause put up by the Green Party that there will be no privatisation—I think we're going to find out what in another couple of hours? I don't know—when we get through this next part. But if you're listening in you've just heard it; you heard that there will be a clause.Hey look it is absolutely unnecessary. The chances of privatisation as laid out in this bill are virtually nil because it's got to go through the board it's got to go through the regional representation group—75 percent—and then it's going to go back to the council they've got to sign off and then you're going to go through the public and they've got to sign off—a super majority all the time. There's not a hope in dickens that that's going to take place. And so you don't need the clause Minister; it is a waste of time because it never going to be able to be privatised under the current arrangements.Anyway I want to turn to this issue about contracting because aw—that's another form of privatisation isn't it? And I'm referring to clause 117 if you're just looking at the bill. Gee it's horrible having those foreigners those experts from overseas! You know Nice that you come here for a bit of tourism but don't ever have anything to do with managing us or telling us what to do in New Zealand because we don't like you! We only like to suck your money out of you if you happen to come to New Zealand as a tourist from overseas!" That's the view—that's the weird view—that you get from the other side: "Don't tell us what to do with our water assets." So I look at this clause—117(2). It reads: "If a water services entity enters into a contract … it must—(a)"—and this is for Mr Shanan Halbert from the North Shore because he's had a bit of difficulty listening to this—Hon Member: Northcote.ANDREW BAYLY: —Northcote—"continue to be legally responsible for providing the water services;". So even if you contract out the water services entity is still legally responsible. The second thing: "(b) maintain ownership of the infrastructure and assets relating to the water services;". Well that means you can't sell it. So that's the second requirement if you're contracting out. The third one: "(c) retain control over"—guess it—"(i) the pricing of water services; and (ii) developing policy related to the delivery of water services."Well hey don't you think that's a pretty comprehensive sort of restriction on what you can do under the contracting model? And yet—yet—the Government is so fixated on this issue about contracting out because we don't like these people from overseas; they're bad people! They've now reduced the contracting period from 35 to 15 years. So the first question is: if we were to get some expertise in—and gee don't we need it in New Zealand particularly with the way that these guys do infrastructure projects or the lack of them? Maybe they should get some people in to help—I'm talking about the Labour Government—and get some experts in from overseas to help them actually do some infrastructure projects like a road let alone doing any water projects.Has anyone actually asked what is the optimum if you did want to get some expertise? We've got experts in doing the tunnelling in two projects in Auckland right now but we could not contract them for more than 15 years. Has anyone actually asked what are the standard terms for people to take on contracting periods and particularly if you want to bring in someone with expertise? These are the types of contracts that they will need scale to actually be able to do. And yet for some reason and I'd love the Minister to explain why we've got 15 years. Where has that evidence come from that 15 is the optimum? And in fact if you wanted to go down that route of trying to get some experts in and 15 years is the maximum period that you can get away with I would suggest there are many examples of people wanting to do it for longer."