Lee MelissaMELISSA LEE (Chairperson of the Commerce Committee): Thank you for the opportunity to take a call on the excellent work that the Rt Hon Bill English and the National-led Government have undertaken over the past year to support more jobs and growth in the economy. We work hard for our Kiwi families. I chair the Commerce Committee and we have had our members actually question the Ministers in the appropriations of commerce and consumer affairs as well as in the communications sector. We have always enjoyed the meetings that we have including on the economic development appropriation. One of the things that really interested me in the sector was when the consumer affairs Minister appeared before the committee and the consumers affairs appropriation—a total of $186.590 million in the 2017-18 year. It is a 6.2 percent increase from the 2016-17 Budget.One of the things that the Minister had to answer in relation to the portfolio was about the work of the Commerce Commission which does tremendous work in this area. The commission regulates the competition and all that sort of stuff. One of the things that was really worrying was the workload. Members were quite concerned about the workload that the Commerce Commission was doing and whether it was in fact adequately resourced—in terms of personnel and the competency—in an ever-changing environment.We asked this following a very particularly busy time for it. The Minister's answer was that she had great confidence and that the commission was appropriately funded. I think that is the kind of work that this Government is delivering. We are actually making a difference. We fund the commission. It does a great job.New Zealand has undertaken amazing growth through the last 8 excellent years of National leading the way for New Zealand families. Under our Government we have worked hard despite natural disasters the global economic crisis and all manner of world political interests to get our people into jobs into the economy and working as part of a team effort for a world-class New Zealand as an international trading nation.Often in this House I have talked about the achievements of this Government in terms of the free-trade agreement that we have secured for New Zealand with our trading nations—recently I had an opportunity to visit Korea where I was involved in a political conference where there were Korean heritage members who turned up from all over the world—and how New Zealand stands in the view of the world when it comes to our economic development and our coping mechanism when it comes to things like the competitive nature and the work that the Commerce Commission does.The other aspect that I would like to talk about is the Financial Markets Authority (FMA). There is a proposal of an increase of $9.8 million per annum. We asked the Minister whether the FMA was sufficiently resourced as well. The FMA has expanded as a result of the Financial Markets Conduct Act of 2013 which increases the responsibility and the functions of the FMA. This is the reason why it has received an increase in funding. The implementation of the Act has involved the licensing and authorisation of a significant population of previously unregulated financial service providers.In terms of the appropriation within Vote Business Science and Innovation this includes the communication appropriation which is an increased fund for ultra-fast broadband the Rural Broadband Initiative and the Mobile Black Spot Fund. We have as a committee made changes that this Government is putting in place in terms of better communication. We have to be very proud of the work that the National Government has delivered for New Zealand.Votes agreed to.