Smith StuartSTUART SMITH (National—Kaikōura): Thank you Madam Speaker. Well my colleague Michael Woodhouse mentioned the process that the committee had gone through to deal with this bill. I think everybody has paid their respects and expressed their gratitude to the officials that worked on the bill and I too would like to do that. I think they did go above and beyond the call of duty to deal with this in a timely manner. I do agree also with my colleague David Seymour in some respects; it's not ideal. I totally get that. We're not in ideal times unfortunately and there are some things that I would be more comfortable with if we'd had more time to go over them but we didn't unfortunately. This bill deals with meetings by audiovisual means and other things in the bill and I'd just like to relay how difficult it was at some point yesterday in the committee meeting. Just before 4 o'clock our digital connections started to waver and several of us restarted our computers in the hope that that would actually help but that wasn't the problem. For some unknown reason there was an issue with the network here in Wellington around 4 o'clock and the most disappointing aspect of that was that I gave what I thought was one of my best contributions in a select committee which was lost to the digital ether. And when I had the opportunity to have another go I just didn't really feel the moment was there so you'll have to take my word for it. But it was a wonderful contribution to the bill and it would have made the bill so much better but however the moment is gone. But it does highlight actually how difficult it is. We think we have got pretty good digital connectivity in New Zealand and we do but at times it lets us down. I think the bill's covered this pretty well but it's not going to be a world where we do everything by Zoom. It just simply doesn't work that well. And I for one am looking forward to when select committees can meet in person because eyeballing the other people in the room and getting their body language actually is a far richer experience and we get a better understanding of what people are thinking and saying. But as has been said this bill amends 45 Acts. It's a significant piece of legislation and to get it through in the time that we did is quite a mammoth task. It deals a lot with companies and several people today have alluded to certainly during question time about the Christchurch and the Kaikōura earthquakes and getting legislation through quickly to deal with situations of natural disasters and so on—and those disasters still go on for some people. But I know from my own experience of dealing with businesses trying to recover or making the decisions particularly around these insolvency and company law provisions in this bill how difficult this is for people. It is a significant issue for a company director or a company owner who's sitting in their business overwhelmed by the situation that's around them trying to assess the economic situation for their business. And then you add into it at this time that we're in such uncharted territory. Who knows—who knows what's going to happen in six months? Who knows what's going to happen in two years? And for a company director who has to make a decision on their company's viability and whether they can meet their creditors and meet their banking covenants it's very difficult. And we see now Air New Zealand is assessing their company will be back to 70 percent of its prior service but in two years' time yet international aviation pundits are all saying it will be five years. Now I don't know what the right answer is and I would suspect none of those people do either because we simply don't know. So when you get into a company sitting around a kitchen table or a boardroom considering whether they are going to go into insolvency or not it's very difficult. These provisions particularly the business debt hibernation provisions and the safe harbour provisions do give them more leeway to make those decisions. But it is a human decision in the end and they're making a decision on something that—I don't think anyone knows what's going to happen in two months' time let alone six months and some of those decisions have to be made on those sorts of time horizons. So these provisions are much needed and I was pleased to support them. I do have some concerns about the safe harbour provisions and I know my colleague Alastair Scott had a very good member's bill in the ballot which covered this very provision and I thought was an excellent bill. It's a shame it wasn't pulled out of the ballot actually but however we've got the one we've got. It does have its shortcomings—I agree with that—and that discussion we had in the end I was confused at the end but David I do have to admit—oh Mr Seymour. David Seymour: It wasn't just you mate.STUART SMITH: Yeah—ha ha! So at the end of it we did what we could and we've got the bill in the shape that we have today. As I said I do have some misgivings on it but in the end I think we have to do what we think is the right thing and that is to pass this legislation through. I think the uncertainty you know as the point was made in the select committee might encourage risk-averse behaviour. We can't really say with any certainty that the bill will do that. I think it is something that will have to be watched for but hopefully that won't be the case. But people are people and they do funny things and particularly when they're under pressure as I've seen through my experience anyway dealing with the earthquake. Company directors and their duties—it is a difficult one and I think the Institute of Directors covered that pretty well. But you know in the end we got to where we did. It is the least worst option in the circumstances perhaps but that's the way it is. Property law and commercial landlords—I think the issue we're seeing at the moment certainly when I talk to businesses in my electorate is you have businesses who are getting into significant issues. They're either trying to come to an arrangement not to pay their rent or to lower their rent; the landlord on the other side of the transaction has significant debts often and they're also struggling. So what we're often having now is just the problem being passed along the line to the next person in the line and unfortunately it is going to be a pretty difficult time in the near future for people in those situations. I'm sure other members who've taken the pulse of their business community will be well aware of what lies ahead. It is going to be pretty tough out there. The paid parental leave provisions—well yes it was absolutely essential that it was dealt with. The Gambling Act changes I do agree also—I'm going to have to stop doing this—with Mr Seymour. But why didn't we do this years ago? Why do we have to do this—why weren't they allowed to carry out their fund-raising activities online? It makes perfect sense. I don't know why we didn't allow that but that's none the less where we got to. But it's here now so that's going to be great.It was raised earlier that companies are often the owners' or the principals' superannuation. Michael Woodhouse made a very good point about keeping a business in operation because often the greatest intellectual property in the company particularly for a small and medium sized enterprise (SME) is actually the principal—the people that own and run the company particularly for smaller companies. So it's not like handing the keys over for a repossessed car to someone else to take over where you just jump in and drive it away. Businesses are all about people and they're all about the processes that go with it—and big corporates they have all of that documented. But often in SMEs they do not and then to simply have the keys handed over you end up with a business not only failing for the principals but going out of existence and that's not a good result for anyone. So if we can keep those businesses going as long as possible then that is the most desirable outcome that we could hope for.So it was with that reluctance which I've outlined that I commend the bill to the House. Thank you.