Curran Clare: Companies and Limited Partnerships Amendment Bill — In CommitteeText is incorporated into the Bound VolumeCurran Clare: Companies and Limited Partnerships Amendment Bill — In Committee[Sitting date: 18 June 2014. Volume:699;Page:18675. Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume.]CLARE CURRAN (Labour—Dunedin South):I do want to go back to the issue of New Zealand being removed from the white list just in this final stage of the Committee stage on the Companies and Limited Partnerships Amendment Bill around the title and the commencement. It is important to point out that that white list includes countries such as Australia Brazil Canada Hong Kong India Japan South Korea Mexico Singapore Switzerland South Africa and the United States. Not everybody in New Zealand would know what that white list was but being removed from it actually means that banks and other financial institutions in the European Union for instance can no longer accept and acknowledge the “know your customer” identification and analysis performed in New Zealand. It would seem to me that that is actually something that we should be a bit worried about and a bit ashamed of.I understand that back in 2012 when we got removed from that white list there was a flurry of activity by various Ministers including the Minister of Justice over there and the Minister of Foreign Affairs about trying to get us back on that white list. It would be quite interesting to know because I just did a wee Google search on it as to whether we are back on that white list. Can anybody confirm whether we are or not? No everybody has got their heads down so I am presuming that we are not.Hon Todd McClay: Oh don’t presume.CLARE CURRAN: Actually that is quite significant—Hon Judith Collins: Why don’t you just make it up?CLARE CURRAN: So are we or are we not? Are we back on the white list? Are we back on the white list Minister? Are we? If we are that is a good thing but let us actually hear from you as to whether we are or not. No answer? No. Clearly we are not.So it is 2 years—2 years—since we got removed from that white list. We got removed from that white list because we needed to change our laws. We needed to change our laws and put in place more restrictions on the way that businesses were operating in this country and white-collar crime was actually being conducted. Well we have dragged our feet. The Government has dragged its feet. It has not actually done the best it could for New Zealand businesses and as a result we have a black mark against us in the international environment around the way that New Zealand does its business. I think that that should be reinforced because this Government pretends it is there for businesses and for good business practice. In reality—Dr Paul Hutchison: Oh there’s no pretence about it.CLARE CURRAN: Well can you over there on the other side of the Chamber dispute the facts? We did get removed from that list. Have we actually got back on it? If we have then that is good but clearly we have not.This bill has taken far too long to get through the House. It is really important to have robust debates. We need the time in Parliament to have those robust debates but there has been too much time in between those robust debates so we are not seeing the legislation actually make it through the House in the way it should where it actually impacts on the white-collar criminals the behaviours that lie behind them and the behaviours that are condoned in a system that should be being fixed. The issues were identified at least 3 or 4 years ago. They have not been acted on fast enough. It is an indictment on this Government that it has not done that. It has not done it because it has been pushing through legislation that is impacting on other aspects of its agenda—which is a political agenda and an agenda about making the vulnerable more vulnerable and working people’s lives harder—and not holding to account the behaviours in business that are behaviours that we as a country should not be condoning.We support this legislation because it is important. We did a lot of work in the Commerce Committee to improve the legislation to make it more effective. Unfortunately it has taken far too long for it to get back before this House and it is going to take even longer for it to get passed and then for it to be commenced and actually put into law. I think that that is an indictment on this Government and the way that it has conducted itself over the last 6 years. This Government is actually not about holding to account the white-collar criminals in our country.