King Colin: Real Estate Agents Bill — Second Reading In Committee Third Reading 
King Colin: Real Estate Agents Bill — Second Reading In Committee Third Reading 
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COLIN KING (National—Kaikoura) 
: 
 I will address Part 5 of the Real Estate Agents Bill. The previous speaker from this side of the Chamber the very learned Eric Roy who is a very capable auctioneer—he is very capable at whatever he does—addressed the piece that I will start on which is the amendment on Supplementary Order Paper 243 in the name of the Hon Clayton Cosgrove that removes the provisions relating to auction requirements from clause 136 through to clause 141 of the bill. But I will approach that amendment from a slightly different angle. It tends to leave behind the footprint culture and attitude in which this bill was drafted. It clearly relitigates the situation when the Minister was very much on the front foot and deliberately attempting to capture a public perception but that effectively faded away very quickly and was not there. 
I will take a moment to move people away from the massive body we hear about: the approximately 20000 real estate agents. In this case we are talking about the auction system. But in a region like Marlborough if a person puts a foot out of place and does not perform with integrity that person is out of that town. That was really brought home to me when this bill was in its early stages of gestation and was being spoken to in its first reading and I was approached by the real estate principals who operate out of Blenheim. When one stops to think about them one realises they are business owners. They were First National Bayleys Harcourts LJ Hooker Ray White PGG Wrightson and CRT Real Estate. Those companies have incredible recognition and a very high profile in Marlborough including in Blenheim and they are actively involved in many many transactions so I find it very very difficult to understand how the Minister could have so simply and effectively alienated the members of those businesses from his line of thinking. 
Hon Clayton Cosgrove 
: Only the bad ones. 
COLIN KING 
: We had no bad ones in Marlborough. Those business people were very very offended. They come across as very genuine people. They were quite concerned that they were being vilified and all of the comments that have come from this side of the Chamber in a way should be seen from the point of view that there was huge angst amongst those people. 
That is referred to here in Part 5 of this bill. There is the mere fact of the need to have so many amendments come forward on the Supplementary Order Paper. A lot of the amendments are common sense but a lot of those provisions should have been there in the bill in the first place. Sure we can go on about the odd person who does get things wrong and who has done things wrongly. We realise that there needs to be a process but as is illustrated by Part 5 the intention to so accurately prescribe the registration of bidders the keeping of records for 3 years and the requirement to give bidders something to wave so they are identifiable is indicative of the whole approach that was taken to this bill. As we go through this Committee stage it has been very clear that the chairperson of the Justice and Electoral Committee Lynne Pillay feels that in this Parliament we legislate and get things incredibly right—that we are the experts. But what we often do not have is the ability to connect with the coalface where these matters are sorted out. What will come out of this legislation will be a bundle of law that when it hits the ground will turn considerably pear-shaped. 
I will talk for a couple of seconds about an incredible competition I saw when I was with the Real Estate Institute of New Zealand. It was the Australasian championship of auctioneering and it was an incredible experience. The competitors were at a really nice hotel in downtown Auckland and they had got themselves into a competition that was very similar to a Golden Shears final. There were six finalists and they had to auction off a property which they did very well. It was incredible to see the detail that those people had to keep in mind and to manage. I take my hat off to those auctioneers who see themselves as professionals and who see themselves as adding an amazing amount of flair and as getting the very best explanation and description of a property. They are able to market a property in a way that draws out the people who are interested in that sort of property and value and then on the day just like a wonderful chef does—a Jamie Oliver deal—they are able to get the very very best outcome. 
All I have to say to the Minister is that the road to hell is paved with good intentions. Sadly the Minister started off by trying to vilify those people and he tried to maximise the political opportunity. Unfortunately the perceived support that he thought would be out in the population for his position evaporated away and I have noticed a considerable back-down from him. Thank you very much.