Jones Dail: Lawyers and Conveyancers Amendment Bill (No 2) — Third Reading 
Jones Dail: Lawyers and Conveyancers Amendment Bill (No 2) — Third Reading 
[Volume:648;Page:17636] 
DAIL JONES (NZ First) 
: 
 When I stood up about 10 working nights ago to speak against the Lawyers and Conveyancers Amendment Bill (No 2) at about a quarter to 10 and New Zealand First was the only party speaking against the bill I wondered whether I had misread the legislation in some way or another and had got it wrong. But I am very pleased to say that I did have it right and although every other party in the House voted for the bill New Zealand First alone voted against it because I could see that there was something not quite right about it. The issue has been raised by the Minister who moved the third reading that it was not an unintended consequence of the Lawyers and Conveyancers Amendment Bill (No 2) that various provisions were made; we deliberately did what we did at the time and I was a member of the Justice and Electoral Committee. 
However reason prevails at the end of the day and to be a lawyer is to be ready to compromise to see the other person’s point of view and to reach a good conclusion to a problem. We sat down together and I was pleased with the support from the New Zealand Law Society which was the only submitter that opposed this legislation. With the information supplied by the society we came up with a solution that took the matter to the stage where the things the trade union movement and Business New Zealand wanted to do were covered by this bill rather than by extending it to those various other areas that I had mentioned during my first reading speech 10 working nights ago. That was the situation where a lawyer from a trade union or Business New Zealand might be asked to appear as counsel on a drink-driving matter or to give advice on a matrimonial property agreement a relationship property agreement or a trust and things like that. 
Eventually we worked out what the real problem was and what the real solution was. Putting aside what had happened in the discussions on the Lawyers and Conveyancers Act we came to a reasonable solution to the matter. I am pleased to have taken a part in it and New Zealand First of course will support this amendment. New Zealand First is always willing to work—as are so many of the MMP parties; the smaller parties—to reach a solution to a problem. However in this case we were all out on our own and we were able to work with the Minister. 
I thank the Minister for her cooperation and for getting the law draftsmen to prepare a very good amendment to the legislation rather than the stark one that I had put forward earlier on and the one that Mr Finlayson was so ably working on as well. I also thank the Minister—and the New Zealand Law Society thanks the Minister—and the House for allowing clause 10 to be inserted. It tidies up a minor drafting issue. Being lawyers we like to dot our i’s and cross our t’s and that just seemed to be one that had been missed over the last couple of years. 
New Zealand First supports this bill. The House’s support for the bill will be unanimous I understand. We are only too pleased to have taken part in what I think was an exemplary example of how quickly this Parliament can work in the best interests of the trade union movement Business New Zealand and the country generally.