Menéndez March RicardoRICARDO MENÉNDEZ MARCH (Green): Kia ora Madam Speaker. I rise to make a brief and succinct call on the Fair Trading Amendment Bill. Look I support the intent of the bill and the direction it's taking to clamp down on unfair practices and protect consumers and I think this bill makes a commendable move towards ensuring that our consumers are better protected from unfair practices.I wanted to touch on one of the submissions that was co-written by Beryl Anderson and Sue Kedgley one of our former Green members of Parliament from the National Council of Women of New Zealand. They felt really strongly about clause 9 which is around the directions to leave premises or not enter premises. I acknowledge that as Naisi Chen mentioned there are communities that are actually far more vulnerable and feel much more targeted by door-to-door salespeople and this includes women people who do not speak English people who are disabled and so I do think that the intent of this bill to safeguard and protect consumers is really important. I think back to a time where I—in between being a student and finding a more permanent job—took a very very brief stint as a door-to-door salesperson for an electricity retailer. I have to say that the experience was so uncomfortable because you were encouraged to actively try and get into someone's home and to be as coercive as you could to get that commission. And I think about the fact that we've created a culture where companies are incentivised to push workers towards unsafe situations that ultimately put our households into unsafe situations. So I think the intent of this bill in terms of protecting consumers and actually making sure that our companies are not also putting workers in a situation that is not safe is really important and a really key move to ensure that the way that we conduct commerce does not put people in danger.Sue Kedgley also noted some of the imbalances between big businesses and smaller retailers that clause 6—inserting new section 8—aims to address in terms of ensuring that there's some safeguards to ensure that small businesses that feel like they're targeted have avenues to deal with that. One of the examples they made was around supermarkets penalising suppliers because they promote or sell products to other retailers. I think the example in the supermarket industry and in the food industry is a key one where this bill will hopefully ensure that smaller retailers who work around food are not at the mercy of big supermarkets in terms of unconscionable practices. And that's something that has been raised for many many years. So while we can litigate time and time again what unconscionable conduct is and we can work hopefully productively across the House to put really strict definitions around it ultimately I think the key call from the communities has been that big retailers and companies that engage in door-to-door sales have had far too many powers and that consumers have not been well served by our legislation.So while I hear comments from members from the other side of the House around the process and I hear some qualifications around perhaps where some of the gaps may have occurred I think there is an opportunity none the less to work towards progressive legislation that helps protect our consumers. So we commend this bill at its second reading. Thank you.