Young Jonathan: Financial Service Providers (Pre-Implementation Adjustments) Bill — Second Reading In Committee 
Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume 
Young Jonathan: Financial Service Providers (Pre-Implementation Adjustments) Bill — Second Reading In Committee 
[Sitting date: 22 June 2010. Volume:664;Page:11955. Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume.] 
JONATHAN YOUNG (National—New Plymouth) 
: 
 I am very pleased to be able to stand and support the Financial Service Providers (Pre-Implementation Adjustments) Bill. I congratulate the Minister of Commerce on the hard work that he and his office have put in and as well I acknowledge the tremendous work that the Commerce Committee has put in. The bill is very complex and the Commerce Committee does handle a lot of complexity. I think back to the Patents Bill and all of the discussions that we went through—and are still going through—regarding that bill. It is important that we collaborate and work together to find solutions that will work particularly in this case for the investment sector of our society. 
Professor David Mayes the new chair of finance at the Auckland University business school has said that New Zealanders are average when it comes to financial literacy. We know that we are above average in many many areas but this is one particular area in which it has been noted we are lacking. But he went on to say this problem is not unique to this country. A lot of finance company collapses occurred before the effects of the global financial crisis were felt here in New Zealand which puts us ahead of the curve on this one. We discovered that people need to have financial literacy and that education in our society in particular has come up as an obvious area where improvement is needed after the series of finance company collapses which has seen as the previous speaker said 200000 people lose money. I heard one report that said that $6 billion of those people’s savings have been lost. The tragedy is that many of the people who lost their funds are in their retirement so they do not have the opportunity to recover. They have no opportunity to go out and work and to find other alternatives or options to raise an income for their retirement. 
This bill seeks to amend the Financial Advisers Act 2008 and the Financial Service Providers (Registration and Dispute Resolution) Act 2008. The intent is to ensure that these Acts provide for the responsible regulation of the financial services sector and bring robust consumer protection in order to restore confidence and trust in the financial services sector. Many of the people who lost their savings in investments did not appreciate the risks that they were taking and would have benefited from receiving knowledgable robust and independent financial advice. Throughout the process of preparing this legislation we continually were aware that there are different types of investors but I will speak on that point later. 
This legislation has been well looked forward to. I think it will bring robustness to the industry and to the sector. It will be good for investors and savers and it will also be very good for the industry. It will bring confidence gradually back—it may not rush in—to this area. That will in turn release capital for businesses including small to medium sized enterprises and bring opportunities for businesses in this country to get ahead. Thank you. 
Bill read a second time.