Hughes GarethGARETH HUGHES (Green): Kia ora Mr Speaker. Ngā mihi nui ki a koutou. Kia ora. I rise a little bit earlier than I was anticipating to speak on this legislation—Hon Andrew Little: You came well equipped with your devices Gareth. That's a good thing.GARETH HUGHES: Well equipped with my devices the Minister says. Look there are many bills that this House passes in the course of a week or a month or a year. Many of them are technical many of them are fixing regulations some are historic—I'm thinking of things like marriage equality—and some legislation you can make a real difference for real New Zealanders' lives. I think this is in that category.This legislation this great legislation will make a real difference to people. All of us are familiar with the stories of lives and families torn apart by the cost of high-interest borrowing. We've heard of cases of 600 percent annual interest rates. We've heard of cases of 800 percent interest rates. We've heard cases of 2000 percent annualised interest rates that have been ripping apart New Zealand families.Now in the last speech I talked about how this is a relatively modern phenomenon. The Speaker actually sent me a note saying this has always happened in New Zealand and that's true. But the modern form of pay-day lending is a relatively modern thing only this century and it's had a huge impact.Now what this legislation is going to do is cap the total cost of borrowing and cap interest rates for these loans. What we know is there is $120 million being sucked out of some of our poorest and most vulnerable communities by lenders many of which I'd categorise as predatory which are charging such incredibly high interest rates I think taking advantage of information asymmetries where they have more information about it. It's a real cost coming out of New Zealand families. So what this legislation is doing is capping the interest for these high-cost loans at 0.8 percent.It's wonderful that the select committee and the Government have been able to amend this legislation in the committee. The total cost of borrowing was a good first step. However what the expert advice we received—and at this point I'd like to acknowledge the work of the FinCap organisation of financial advisers the Salvation Army the Council of Trade Unions individual experts such as Andrew Shand who's been working on this issue for many years. What they said is that if you only cap the total cost of borrowing what you're going to see is these lenders further taking advantage by rolling over multiple loans essentially seeing an incredibly high interest rate. What this legislation is doing is moving New Zealand into line with literally dozens and dozens of other jurisdictions including the countries that we most identify with—from Australia the United Kingdom Canada the United States—where they've capped interest rates. So I think it's incredibly great that the Government has taken this step. It's something the Green Party was insisting on right from the get-go. From the earliest days of this legislation we thought that interest rates had to be capped. Obviously this was something we'd voted for previously when Carol Beaumont a former member who's departed this House introduced legislation to enact many years before. It's something where we've drafted a Supplementary Order Paper (SOP). It's wonderful that we weren't needing an SOP because the committee has taken this strong step to include interest rate caps. Now we still wonder if the interest rate cap set upon is too high. This will be reviewed. We do note there will be a review in the future. We also think the next step once we pass this historic legislation where New Zealand's joining a host of other countries by capping the total cost and interest rates is actually more practical steps that this Government or future Governments can take to support New Zealand families facing high-cost borrowing. Why do people have to go out to the market with such high interest rates for such short-term borrowing costs? Is there a role that the Government could take to support those families? Obviously supporting through financial literacy packages support for financial planning advice but is there another step the Government could take in the future to support these families? I won't take long except to reiterate the Green Party's strong support for this legislation. The fact is that this will make a tangible difference for people who find themselves in many cases through no fault of their own facing I think usurious interest rates that have had such a catastrophic impact. This is positive legislation. Look if this is the legislation we're passing this week it's a wonderful highlight for which to finish this week. I'd like to thank the Minister Kris Faafoi. He's been wonderful to work with. He's had an open door. He's taken a very considered very interested approach to this legislation. I'd like to thank the National Party as well for their support tonight. This is a good example of Parliament at its best and the Green Party wholeheartedly supports it. Kia ora koutou.