Nash StuartHon STUART NASH (Labour—Napier): Thank you very much Madam Speaker. I rise to support this bill. It's a fantastic bill and well done for bringing it to the House. Now I have heard that men actually are a lot worse at redeeming their gift cards than women are—astounding eh? Well I will admit that I am one of those guys. I hope my wife isn't watching this because I was cleaning out my office recently and amongst a whole lot of stuff was a gift card.Erica Stanford: For a facial?Hon STUART NASH: R.M. Williams actually; quite a lot of money—quite a lot of money. I looked at this and went Shivers this is expired." I thought "What do I do?" Do I tell her when she asks "What did you spend that amazing amount of money on that I gave you for your birthday?" You know that's the thing right? There's a little white lie.But what I thought I would do is give R.M. Williams a call and go "You know what? It was the middle of COVID. I couldn't get to you. Things were really busy. Is there any way that you can allow me to spend the money when the contract between R.M. Williams and the person who bought the gift card has expired? Come on; do the right thing." Now I actually didn't end up calling them. The gift card is still sitting on my desk at home. I might even do this especially now that I've read this and realise that we leave over $200 million on the table.Now this is a contract right? This isn't as if you get the card and then you spend the money; the money has already transacted. The money is already in the bank account of the retailer who has issued that card. I will also say that I found a book card from my in-laws and I also found a garden card that was given to me by someone—I don't know who that was from—and a Mitre 10 card. I don't know how much was on that but it's still there. So I am that guy. The reason why is that I am really difficult to buy for so to everyone who buys for me give me cash. It's easier than giving me a card. It means the same thing. But it is—they're easy right? And they are very convenient. It is why we have these gift cards because for some people they are really really difficult to buy for. So what you do is you go "I know this guy loves books. I know he loves the garden."—well we haven't got that; got it a little bit wrong—"He wears RM Williams but I don't know what sort of book to buy him. Do I buy him the latest biography written by Paul Goldsmith?"—no; that will be a waste of money because it will never get read—"Do I buy him a history book? Do I buy him a book on history? Do I buy him a book on politics?" What do you get him?In fact it is recognition that they've thought about the gift but they don't quite know you well enough to go that next step and buy the book even though you can stick an exchange card in the middle so you buy a gift card. It is the perfect gift right? It's easy. It fits in an envelope. Yeah sure they know how much you spent on them but when it's family or good friends that's OK—that's OK.In fact my 11-year-old son went to a birthday party over the weekend—two birthday parties actually—and the vast majority of things that these kids got were gift cards. Now they're normally spent within about 24 hours—I'll be honest with you—but it is easy. Melissa the thing about this is: for guys like me we don't go out there and buy things because we sit on things right? We don't procrastinate; we mull over what is the best thing to do. It sits on the table there. It sits on the table there and it's constantly front of mind. Then when we're going down to the bookstore we go "I'm going to take that card." When you're going to the movies and you're a little bit short of cash: "I'll take that movie card." Then you turn it over and go "I've been procrastinating about this for a little bit too long." Three years however; I would still have this. I think it's only fair because there is an implied contract between the retailer or whoever issues the card and the purchaser. I think with any implied contract there should be a definitive period of time—I buy into that—whether it's three years whether it's five years or whatever; it doesn't really matter but the money has already exchanged hands. As a consequence of that I think three years is enough time for this to go into the wallet or go into the console in the middle and then to be discovered again and then to be redeemed. Anything longer than three years I get it; maybe you have lost it. I get that. I get it. Five years is perhaps a little bit too long; one year is not long enough. You've picked the perfect sweet point.The fact that Consumer New Zealand calls for this the fact that Kiwis are leaving—what is it?—$250 million - plus on the table means that there are a whole lot of people like me who find these gift cards and go "Oh yeah that's right." then turn it over and go "What do you mean I only had a year to spend this?" It doesn't work. So Melissa I support this 100 percent. If you can make it retrospective that would be really helpful.Melissa Lee: You can make a submission.Hon STUART NASH: Well I might as a member of the public if it goes to select committee. But I am a big fan of this because as a number of Labour people have talked about it's just about fairness and the Labour party is the party of fairness. It's why we support this 100 percent. Thank you."