Coates BarryBARRY COATES (Green): I rise with regard to this member's bill the Arbitration Amendment Bill. This bill seeks changes to New Zealand's arbitration procedures. Arbitration is an alternative form of dispute settlement and the Green Party supports it on a number of grounds. It can reduce legal caseloads and reduce costs for participants and it is often faster. It has its place in a number of areas apart from just commercial law such as in family disputes and disputes between neighbours maritime disputes sports employment environment domain names and it is good to see the Arbitrators and Mediators Institute of New Zealand discussing arbitration to support climate action for example and even international conflict resolution. So we are in support of arbitration. It is an important tool.We have some should I say concerns about issues of transparency. We understand that participants may want to avoid the glare of publicity for reasons that are often peculiar to a case—for example for commercial reasons or for commercial confidentiality in trademarking. It could be for the reasons of family privacy—I think that is an important one for many families—and for emotionally sensitive issues. So there are some strong grounds for confidentiality. Like the previous Labour speaker David Parker we have some questions around confidentiality that we will look to address during the select committee process.We think that the arbitration system in New Zealand has gained credibility through the appointment of experts including former judges through having a code of ethics and a right of appeal on legal grounds and through having a complaints procedure. These are important safeguards to ensure that the arbitration system is working well.So we regard this bill as being useful. It enables trusts to agree on arbitration in trust deeds it sets a presumption of confidentiality and clarifies jurisdictional grounds and it makes arbitrations more enforceable. We agree with those aims. Therefore we support this bill in accordance with the constructive approach that the Green Party always brings to members' bills and we commend Paul Foster-Bell for bringing in this bill.I cannot help but conclude this speech in this debate without making one other comment on arbitration. Not all arbitration is supported by the Green Party. In particular there is a form of investor-State dispute settlement as a form of arbitration which is not directly the subject of this bill but—The ASSISTANT SPEAKER (Hon Trevor Mallard): No.BARRY COATES: —I feel that I cannot help but mention it. So we do not like investor-State dispute settlement as a form of arbitration applied to Government laws and regulations—The ASSISTANT SPEAKER (Hon Trevor Mallard): Order! I think the member even before he started his comments pled guilty—one of us stands up at a time all right?BARRY COATES: Oh yes. Sorry.The ASSISTANT SPEAKER (Hon Trevor Mallard): The member pled guilty to going into irrelevancies and unless he can absolutely relate his comments to the bill while talking about a system that he says is no part of this I cannot quite see how he can do it. I will give him another chance but it will be a brief one.BARRY COATES: Thank you Mr Assistant Speaker. I definitely would not want to talk about issues that are not in the scope of the bill and I am very pleased that the bill does not address issues like investor-State dispute settlement. So—The ASSISTANT SPEAKER (Hon Trevor Mallard): Order! The member will resume his seat.