Williams Andrew: Consumer Law Reform Bill — Second Reading 
Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume 
Williams Andrew: Consumer Law Reform Bill — Second Reading 
[Sitting date: 11 December 2012. Volume:686;Page:7420. Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume.] 
ANDREW WILLIAMS (NZ First) 
: 
 I take a call on behalf of New Zealand First on the Consumer Law Reform Bill. 
Hon Simon Bridges 
: I thought Brendan was the spokesman in this area. 
ANDREW WILLIAMS 
: No I am the spokesman on consumer affairs Mr Bridges. As the spokesman for consumer affairs I can advise the Hon Simon Bridges that we will be supporting this bill because after 25 years it is overdue that there is a review of consumer legislation. This is long overdue and we feel that it is good legislation to be bringing to this House. 
It was very interesting hearing the dissertation from Tau Henare all about his antics with TradeMe and the selling from vehicles outside his house and all that sort of thing. It certainly would have qualified him greatly to become the next Speaker of this House with such significant consumer knowledge of TradeMe and all the wins that he has made on TradeMe. What a shame he did not continue through with his position as Speaker because I am sure that with that sort of background and that sort of ability he would have won support hands down from everybody in this House. But as he did not we will have to look forward to another day when Tau Henare will put his name forward as Speaker and we all look forward to that occurring. 
But in terms of the Consumer Law Reform Bill and the purpose of this bill certainly it covers all transactions between traders and consumers. That is a very important part of this bill. It will tidy up this whole business of the grey areas—what happens between traders and consumers particularly online particularly on the internet and all that sort of thing where there is a certain element of risk and where people are a little bit dubious about how to conduct business online. This does tidy a lot of that up in terms of competitive tenders in terms of ensuring that the goods are received properly and in good order and that the person sending the goods is responsible for those goods until they are signed for and received by the recipient. Again that is a good thing because there have been a lot of areas of doubt particularly with retailers sending things out these days more and more by courier and by various means and we need to ensure that the goods are received by the person in proper order as they expect them to be. 
Also in terms of the Fair Trading Act part of this bill is reviewing the Act to prevent unfair contract terms in standard form contracts. It is tidying up a lot of those standard form contracts—and again that is a good thing—and modelling a lot of that on the basis of Australian consumer law. Likewise it is good that we are bringing our standards into line with many Australian consumer law standards. Again that is very useful because so much does move trans-Tasman between Australia and New Zealand—so much so these days in fact that often the goods are not housed in New Zealand; they are often housed in Sydney or Melbourne or somewhere else and they come directly from other places. So it is good that we are lining up with Australian consumer law so that again we are better protected. 
In terms of breaches of the Fair Trading Act the penalties are also increased which is a good thing going from $60000 for breaches of the Fair Trading Act to $200000 for individuals who breach the Fair Trading Act—that is a maximum; to a maximum of $200000—and for bodies corporate penalties are going from $200000 to $600000. An amount of $600000 is starting to get into some serious serious money in terms of possible breaches of the Fair Trading Act so again that is a good thing. 
New Zealand First has said in this House that we will support good policy and we will oppose bad policy. In this case we believe that this is good policy. This is a good move. This does greatly improve the rights of consumers in this country but it also probably sets a better standard for providers for suppliers for merchants and for all those sorts of people so that they very much will know where they stand and what their requirements are in terms of service. Also the consumer will have a far safer position in terms of doing business particularly on the internet. Nowadays with so much being sold via the internet or via email or via texts and Twitter and all sorts of things it is vitally important if you cannot physically touch the product but you see it online or whatever that you have more guarantees and more safeguards to protect you. So we support this and New Zealand First will be voting for the bill.