Jones Shane: New Zealand Superannuation and Retirement Income Amendment Bill — First ReadingText is incorporated into the Bound VolumeJones Shane: New Zealand Superannuation and Retirement Income Amendment Bill — First Reading[Sitting date: 19 March 2014. Volume:697;Page:16811. Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume.]Hon SHANE JONES (Labour):I would first like to say to those New Zealanders who are listening that they should drink to that speech by John Hayes. I am not entirely sure whether it is white red or rosé but whatever it is it has led to flushed cheeks.I want to stand and actually direct our attention to the name of the New Zealand Superannuation and Retirement Income Amendment Bill. The word “superannuation” is actually closely related to the doing word the verb “to superannuate”. To superannuate is to discard something that is obsolete or past its use-by date. Let me first direct my attention to the other side of the House. We were worried that there was not a Minister in the House. We did see someone up in the far corner sort of underneath a rose bush but then we looked across and we saw the Associate Minister of Local Government. Before I complete my story about superannuating make sure Associate Minister of Local Government that you have a good briefing because I am hoping to superannuate some people in the Whangarei District Council for its gross lapse of stewardship over infrastructure and civil works in Ruakākā.I mention Ruakākā because in Māori it means two parrots. I want to direct my attention before I come back to the Te Kōhanga Reo National Trust imbroglio—because there will be much superannuating taking place there. There will be superannuating at the top of the kōhanga reo governance structure and that pains me because a host of those matuas are my relatives. But this is a more serious issue than whakapapa. The Minister of Education has sought unsuccessfully—as she is soon to be superannuated by the boss when he gets home—to defend her relative the matriarch of Ngati Porou Iritana Tāwhiwhirangi who most certainly will be superannuated if not by the Serious Fraud Office then by us in the political system who will not spend another dollar on a governance structure in the kōhanga reo head office enterprise until it is tidied up.Let me come back however to the Minister of Māori Affairs. The Minister of Māori Affairs—if there is anyone who should study this bill with inordinate interest and enjoy a “come to Jesus” moment with the term “retirement” and the verb of the word superannuation “to superannuate” it is him. It is not for me to talk about the mystery surrounding the Malaysian airline in the context of superannuation. Along with my parliamentary colleagues I am quite glued to learning what has happened to this enormously expensive and highly sought after aircraft. I am going to leave that to one side and enjoy watching CNN but I say that the Minister is the political equivalent of a lost aircraft. We do not know his political whereabouts. There are occasional blips when he comes to earn his pay in the Whare Pāremata. The fact that Hone Harawira is now here more often is actually not only a tragedy for the role of the Minister of Māori Affairs but an achievement for democracy because for the last 9 years we have never seen so much of Hone Harawira.I have heard my colleague from the Green Party—parliamentary colleague I should say—refer to the bill. I have heard him talk about this particular bill providing an opportunity for a bunch of subsidiary investments into key areas. Although that is important we should never overlook the fact that as that member said today in the forestry meeting if foreign direct investment continues to flow into key sectors—and indeed it may continue to flow into the dairy sector but it is certainly in the forestry sector—why should it continue if those investors have no commitment to the New Zealand supply chain? I ask why it should continue if those investors have no commitment to enabling the tertiary and secondary industries associated with that commodity business—i.e. the growing of trees and the sale of logs. On that point I must say that the co-leader of the Green Party spoke a great deal of sense today in relation to the bill.Tim Macindoe: Unlike you in the last 5 minutes.Hon SHANE JONES: Well actually now that the member for Waikato has perked up let me say that the Associate Minister for Primary Industries was grossly outwitted today by the representatives of the Contractors Federation. That gives you an indication of how irrelevant her speech was. She made the fatal error of defending the investment into the dairy sector via the irrigation subsidy. I personally have no political difficulty with that being chosen as a way of deepening our superannuation reservoir of investment opportunities but call it what it is. It is the provision of public money to underwrite the cost of irrigation which will create a tremendous opportunity for the expansion of agribusiness.My only problem with that is that no one is offering that to my old industry the fishing industry. No one is offering that to the forestry industry. Indeed the forestry industry has been turned down five times over recent months in making applications under the grant scheme that has been plundered by the dairy industry or a small group of people in control of other rural commodity businesses. Politically I can understand that. That is the name of the game. When you are in power you reward the people who gave you power. That is fine.All I am saying is do not roll out an argument that it is incorrect for our side of the House to want to grow the Māori presence in forestry create jobs train young men and women for that particular business and move it up into a more dynamic state. Do not say that we are picking winners yet it is good enough to write a cheque out for Warner Bros. Why is it good enough to provide superannuation opportunities for Hollywood investors but it is not good enough for the Māoris and the God-fearing Kiwis in Ruatōria Kaikohe Kaitāia and a variety of other places neglected by the current regime? That is why.Now let me come back to the bill. Although this bill provides some structural changes until such time as capital flows into those areas that have become neglected—and I am not talking about dairy farmers. They have got their opportunity to enjoy their chance while the sun shines upon them. It is just that their fortunes are going to change when we govern because we are not going to allow water to be treated as some resource whose greatest contribution to society is its absorptive capacity to deal with waste. We are not going to be allowing it to be a free resource the value of which is then capitalised into land resources that when eventually sold have no capital gains tax. We might be voted out and never voted in for such ideas but there will be no ambiguity about those particular ideas. I say that as someone who grew up on a farm. I say that as someone who is very proud and a great promoter of our rural sector and our agricultural industries. Unfortunately their level of guardianship and their level of leadership in convincing the rest of us Kiwis that they do not deserve to be regulated and that their qualities of stewardship do not deserve any political oversight has come and gone.Now they are safe. They are safe while that side of the House is there. They are safe while the Prime Minister will do their bidding—not the bidding of the meat industry not the bidding of the wool industry but the bidding of the milking industry. If there is any group that has developed a hugely sophisticated way to milk resources out of the public sector it is the $400 million - odd that is delivered by way of grants for research purposes. It is the collapse of the emissions trading scheme where the dairy industry has enjoyed a “get out of jail free” card. It is not the meat industry not the wool industry and not the fishing industry. As of today it is not the forestry industry. But rest assured that help is on its way. There is no help in terms of what the Associate Minister for Primary Industries had to say today.This has been a free-ranging debate. We have invited our colleagues on the other side of the House to contemplate being superannuated. I have guaranteed that the Māori Party will go as a consequence of its shameless behaviour and its undermining of the process of appointing the new chief executive officer of Māori Television designed wholly to stop Māori Television from exposing the failure of the current Government in its Māori affairs policy and wider matters pertaining to Māoridom. When it goes it can take Georgina te Heuheu with it. Kia ora tātou katoa.