Yule Lawrence; Williams PotoLAWRENCE YULE (National—Tukituki): It's a pleasure to take a call on the Commerce Amendment Bill.Hon Meka Whaitiri: Are you on the select committee?LAWRENCE YULE: I wasn't on the select committee but I do have some knowledge in this area. For the Hon Meka Whaitiri who spoke before I want to make it very clear from my humble position on the backbenches that the National Party is supporting this bill but is raising some concerns about the oversight that is portrayed in this bill. We do so with sort of an interesting background because today for the second time in this parliamentary term we have seen yet another announcement on the hoof. The first was the announcement by the Prime Minister before she went off to Paris about the oil and gas ban and we now know there was no analysis done no Cabinet paper and the subsequent information that has been provided by the Ministry of Business Innovation and Employment is somewhat damning about that decision.We remember what happened to the Hon Shane Jones that day: the picture of his hand over his face when all of that was decided because he knew very little about it until the night before. But that was actually an advantage compared with what happened today. What happened today was that the Prime Minister in the light of some pretty intense political heat from the Leader of the Opposition unilaterally announced that a new provision under the regional fuel tax legislation won't be used on her watch.Chris Penk: Cabinet of one.LAWRENCE YULE: Cabinet of one—no advice no Cabinet decision announced in this House. We then asked the Minister responding on behalf of the Minister of Transport when he knew. He said When the Prime Minister announced it." To me this is what is damaging business confidence in New Zealand. There is no proper analysis. There are flip-flops U-turns whatever you want to call them being done on pretty much a weekly basis. It's actually because there is pressure to bear and the work hasn't been done.So this side of the House—and I want to congratulate the Hon Jacqui Dean on bringing this material to the House—believes that proper studies should be done and that policy and decisions should be made based on evidence. That's why we support this bill. The Hon Jacqui Dean just spoke previously to me about all the new announcements that have sort of been made by members on the other side—a study on energy and gas. Mr Clayton Mitchell talked about building costs talked about how hard it is to buy a house how hard it is to build a house. If that was such a concern why isn't there a study already enacted on the costs of building materials? We've heard high-profile announcements on supermarkets—the supposed duopoly effect.I want to refer this House and remind this House that there is already a very good model that could be used in a similar way to the Commerce Commission and that's the Productivity Commission. The Productivity Commission assesses on behalf of the people of New Zealand and taxpayers a whole lot of things that go on in the New Zealand economy. They are asked to do that by a Minister usually the Minister of Finance but other Ministers are involved. An independent group of people—it's the same situation in Australia but it's been done in New Zealand in the last three years—assess a whole lot of topics and provide independent advice to the Government. All we're saying on this side of the House is that you've got to be careful who is in charge. In our view Governments should be in charge—Ministers should be in charge—of what the Commerce Commission actually looks at and studies in a market study.The Government is the place this Parliament is the place that resolves issues of the day and it's actually their responsibility to set the terms of reference and the workload of the Commerce Commission. It's glaringly obvious—to me anyway—that one of the most urgent studies will be on looking at the price of petrol and I think every side of the House would agree with that but it's also important if this Government wants to deliver the savings and the number of houses it wants that it undertakes a study on the costs of building materials. If this was such a big issue and we left it to the current model then it may be that the Commerce Commission didn't get to these things in a timely manner. So all we're saying is that we support this legislation but we think this House through its representatives and Ministers should determine what studies.ASSISTANT SPEAKER (Poto Williams): I understand this is a split call. Tamati Coffey you have five minutes."