Reserve Bank of New Zealand (Economic Objective) Amendment Bill

I speak in support of the Reserve Bank of New Zealand (Economic Objective) Amendment Bill.

While the members opposite might be out of touch with what people around New Zealand are dealing with, this Government will be laser-focused on getting the cost of living under control and inflation under control, and we cannot do that by having a dual mandate. We cannot let another day go by where we do not focus everything we’ve got on getting inflation under control.

I met a family months ago that said that despite everything they are doing—working harder than they’ve ever worked—despite the odd wage increase, they are going backwards. That is because inflation is out of control. No matter what we do to focus on jobs, if people earn more but inflation is getting higher, that wage increase means nothing. We need to help these people, and we cannot keep going like we are, where people cannot afford to meet their mortgage payments. We have to do this first because Christmas is coming and people cannot afford to pay their bills. We need to do whatever we can, and if the members opposite think that this is a waste of time, what is a bigger waste of time is the fact that we have to change this back to a single mandate when, according to members opposite, a dual mandate didn’t make a difference. The thing that I will say in finishing is that I commend this to the House.

The bill is set down for second reading immediately.

Second Reading