Curran Clare: Commerce (Cartels and Other Matters) Amendment Bill — Second ReadingText is incorporated into the Bound VolumeCurran Clare: Commerce (Cartels and Other Matters) Amendment Bill — Second Reading[Sitting date: 26 November 2014. Volume:702;Page:888. Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume.]CLARE CURRAN (Labour—Dunedin South):Given that I spoke in I think it was June on this bill it was a bit hard to—[Interruption]—so I am now picking up where I left off.Carmel Sepuloni: 5 months to finish off.CLARE CURRAN: Five months to finish this speech.The first thing I would like to say is that—and I have to admit a slight personal note here—I am feeling very excited tonight having been part of the announcement around Welcome to Gigatown to hear that Dunedin has won the Welcome to Gigatown competition now. First of all I would just like to say a huge thank you to all of the team in Dunedin for the enormous work that they put into that and a big thank you also to the four other contestants in that competition: Gisborne Timaru Wānaka and Nelson. It was a huge effort—huge effort. I have to admit that I was sceptical about this particular competition and I was sceptical about the ability to deliver what the objectives were.In relation to this particular bill the Commerce (Cartels and Other Matters) Amendment Bill there is a relationship that I am going to draw but I would like to say that first of all this is a huge kick-start to Dunedin which has suffered a number of blows which is not to say that other parts of regional New Zealand many of the other contestants in this competition are not suffering from regional decline and could have done with the $700000 innovation fund and the ability to kick-start new businesses. But the point is that—and this is where it becomes relevant—what Chorus has done through this competition is actually create competition in our community. Some members might be surprised to hear me say this but I really do applaud Chorus for its initiative around this and I want to have that on the record. I actually said tonight that I would eat my hat if Dunedin won and so now I guess I have got to. I am glad I did not say I would run naked through the Octagon. But I guess I will now have to make good on that promise.The other area where the competition has fallen down in the telecommunications environment is in the handling of the copper-pricing issue. We are waiting to hear the outcome from the Commerce Commission on this just next week around what that wholesale pricing will be. What this bill is attempting to address is the cartel and monopoly behaviour that can exist in a small country such as New Zealand where market capture can become a very serious issue. The effect of that is the stifling of innovation and an impact on small companies getting scale getting the ability to build and to export business and being able to develop. I think that what this bill—which the Labour Party is supporting—attempts to do is to take and address some of these issues. We have been through a pretty comprehensive select committee process. I acknowledge the role that the select committee has played and that the officials have played.However the point—going back to the issue around the copper network which is dominated by a very big player that has had quite a lot of support from the current Government to maintain its market stranglehold in that area and impacting in the new emerging fibre environment—is that we have not gone the whole way that we should have. My colleague Clayton Cosgrove put up an amendment in Supplementary Order Paper 408 which has been tabled in the House and is available to anybody who wants to go and have a look at it tonight during this part of the debate because we will have the Committee stage as well which is when that will get voted on. I do want to draw this very serious and important amendment to the attention of the House tonight. For those who have forgotten about this issue—and I do not know whether there are any existing members of the Commerce Committee present with us tonight—this issue was around addressing the effect of cartel behaviour not just the intent but the effect the actual impact of what actually happens in a market environment when there is monopoly behaviour or cartel-like behaviour and what that can actually mean.I think this is a really important issue. Essentially it was described by my colleague Clayton Cosgrove in his second reading speech back in June—and we are now in November. As the legislation currently stands the Commerce Commission has to prove the intent of monopolies abusing market power rather than the effect of their behaviour. The big gap in our law that has not been addressed in this bill is the effect. It is difficult to prove intent and that is where the gaps are: you can say that we cannot prove intent so therefore we cannot measure it and therefore we cannot do anything about it. So there is a cop-out that happens. But if we actually were able to it is much easier to measure the detrimental effects of monopolistic competition through their effect and that is what this amendment on Supplementary Order Paper 408 put up by Clayton Cosgrove actually does. It measures the effect. He used the example of applying the current law to the real world. He said that if he drove in a car that caused an accident that broke somebody’s legs then that would be OK—well it would not be OK—unless he was breaking the law in the way he drove if it was not his intent to do that. But the effect is that the victim is considerably worse off. I think that if you have the ability to measure effect then you are in a fairer environment and that is where we should be moving the law.In closing this speech I guess there is a big message that I have for the incoming Minister of Commerce and Consumer Affairs on this issue. The previous Minister of Commerce Craig Foss would not go near it. Essentially he kept saying: “Oh yes yes yes. We’ll have officials look at that.” The incoming Minister has been given advice. He has been given some advice around this issue saying: “Your pre-election policy plan proposed a review of the misuse of market power prohibition in the Commerce Act. Commentators have questioned whether this provision is working as intended. In addition Australia is undertaking a broad ranging review of its competition policy which raises issues of relevance to New Zealand.” Officials said: “We will brief you on the potential scope and plan for this review including the recent draft recommendations from the Australian competition review.”Well I hope that the new Minister of Commerce and Consumer Affairs is listening tonight because he is on notice. He is on notice around section 36 of the Commerce Act. The chair of the Commerce Commission the Productivity Commission and the telecommunications industry have all expressed the absolute need to reform section 36 of the Commerce Act. This Government needs to go into that space and look at how competition is working or is not working in this country. This party on this side of the House is watching and will not only be watching but be speaking out very loudly around the abuse if it is happening in competition in this country where monopolies and duopolies have got too much of a stranglehold. So I leave you with that thought and look forward to the Committee stage of the debate.