Edmonds BarbaraHon BARBARA EDMONDS (Labour—Mana): Thank you Madam Chair. I just want first of all to pick up on some of the reflections that the previous speaker Helen White just spoke about. Last night I wasn't able to be in the House for a number of reasons and one of them was because I was attending the graduation of one of my children. As the member of Parliament for Mana I've been to a number of prize-givings over the last few weeks and there've been some very strong messages that are coming out through both families who are attending these prize-givings—in some of the lowest socio-economic areas in this country—and through a number of the principals and the teachers I was speaking to. In one particular message last night the actual principal of that school said Can someone please tell the three Prime Ministers that you know learning through play learning through camp is the equivalent of learning literacy and writing—there are other ways to be able to learn it because they're already teaching the basics of learning and writing." But this links back to why I'm standing in the Chamber and wanting to ask the Minister a question; it's around perceptions. And so there is a perception sometimes—by this Government who has only just started—that there are a couple of failings in the rest of society. And yet when you go out into a community and you talk to these people within this society—both teachers and principals and families and again in some of the lowest socio-economic areas of the country—the perception that they might hold might actually be very different to the truth that is being held by those within that community.And the reason why I focus on the word "perception" is because in the regulatory impact statement that has been put together by—I think it's Treasury—Hon Grant Robertson: Yes.Hon BARBARA EDMONDS: Treasury. And first of all thank you very much for the Treasury officials for putting that together. I know it's going to be a bit of a rarity over the next 100 days but it clearly shows that you can put together a regulatory impact statement very quickly. Why I wanted to be able to focus on the word "perception" is because in paragraph 7 of that regulatory impact statement it says: "Nonetheless the dual mandate affects not only the policy decisions made by the monetary policy committee but also perceptions of the effectiveness of monetary policy." Perceptions. And again I found it quite unusual that quite a subjective type of word was used in a regulatory impact statement and what I wanted to understand was: the perceptions—when do they become evidence-based? And I want to reference the speech by the Minister when she stood up and she had a long speech trying to address the question that the Hon Grant Robertson asked her around "evidence-based" but she didn't actually address the question and so I want to go back to the regulatory impact statement that references perceptions. In relation to that—perceptions—it's actually talking about some of the Reserve Bank reports that have been done. But then if I go back to the evidence base we need to go back to objectivity. So where does the evidence base come into this and what advice has the Minister again received in relation to that evidence base? Because if you look at the relationship between our country's inflation trajectory and our central bank—or Reserve Bank's—mandate over the last two years the evidence clearly shows a couple of things: that there is no such relationship that exists. Because if you look at other Governments which have higher inflation in countries with a dual mandate but inflation is higher in those countries; and lower in countries with a single-mandate central bank. So unfortunately for the new Government the perception that this dual mandate therefore makes it more difficult to focus on inflation seems null and void. Because again in practice—and you've seen it through the Reserve Bank the number of their documents the Monetary Policy Statement. And I want to echo the sentiments of Chlöe Swarbrick the MP for Auckland Central who said "What was that letter that their Minister actually sent the Reserve Bank Governor? I think it's important that that gets tabled because that will be the context in which the response by the Reserve Bank Governor is received." But when you look at New Zealand and Australia—both of which have central banks with dual mandates—inflation peaked at 7.2 percent and 7.8 percent respectively. But in Sweden—which has a central bank with a primary price stability mandate—it peaked at 12.3 percent. One mandate higher inflation. Two countries: New Zealand and Australia side by side in so many ways—and lot of Kiwis who are going overseas who want to chase that Australian dream instead of the New Zealand dream. Basically we have the same settings and I know the Australian federal bank also had its review quite recently actually in the last few weeks.So my question again to the Minister: what advice what evidence-based advice—not around perceptions—as set out in the regulatory impact statement has she received?"