Bayly AndrewANDREW BAYLY (National—Hunua): Thank you Mr Assistant Speaker. It is an absolute pleasure to be talking on this second reading of the Friendly Societies and Credit Unions (Regulatory Improvements) Amendment Bill. Before I start up like all the previous speakers I just want to acknowledge the fabulous job that the good member from Kaikōura who has promoted this bill—this is an excellent member's bill and as the Rt Hon David Carter said he's also a great electorate MP and I can attest to that as well. I know he's fully supported by a wonderful family.But just turning back to the bill this is one of those occasions when a member has come to the House fought hard for the right thing and seen success in the result of us moving our way and progressing this bill through to fruition. Many members' bills I must say I think all add to the sum total of improving the lot for New Zealand but sometimes you have quantum leaps. I would suggest this is a quantum leap for the 190000 New Zealanders who belong to the credit unions around the country—190000 as we've heard before. What this bill does is it makes the industry much more progressive. It makes them able to compete on an even playing field against of course trading banks and a number of other financial institutions operating in New Zealand. I think that is incredibly important. We all talk about promoting competition making sure things are effective and making sure that people have a choice. This bill of course helps to achieve that objective. So one of the things I want to highlight about these credit unions and friendly societies is that they have a very special place in our financial institutions. That is they operate on many occasions in areas where traditional trading banks don't want to operate. We heard that in the submissions that came to the select committee: they provide a very valuable service in smaller communities that require it but often are not able to seek their banking services and other such related services.So what does this bill do? Well first of all it makes some changes around allowing friendly societies to offer securities to make sure that they meet their prudential requirements. As you will know those prudential requirements are set out by the Reserve Bank and all banks and all financial institutions have to meet them which is a way of making sure that they have the required capital to meet demands should the depositors in their various institutions require the money. And of course they're heavily monitored by the Reserve Bank.The second thing is it allows the co-ops to lend directly to their members. We've had a bit of discussion around this. We know what's been going on: effectively credit unions have been lending to their members which is what they were permitted to do but what this bill has done is extended it to make sure that it provides the opportunity for loans to be provided to a member's partnership if they're involved in it or a company provided there's greater than a 25 percent share or equity or beneficial interest there. Of course that is fundamental in terms of making these activities more accessible and useful and as the proposal of the bill said it stops many members from actually parking up their money in credit unions and going off to the trading bank.The final thing is it's dealing with the issues around mutuality. We've heard the definition around that—about acting in the best interests—but we put in place a back-up check where the High Court can make a restraining order on credit unions if they are seen to be acting outside their remit or ultra vires if we use the Latin term.So I've got to say I think this is a great bill. I'm glad to have been part of the Finance and Expenditure Committee when we worked on this bill. There were a number of submitters and I'm glad to see it working its way through the House.