Goldsmith Paul: Annual Review Debate — In CommitteeText is incorporated into the Bound VolumeGoldsmith Paul: Annual Review Debate — In Committee[Sitting date: 13 April 2016. Volume:713;Page:10498. Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume.]Hon PAUL GOLDSMITH (Minister of Commerce and Consumer Affairs): I was running my eye through the list of sectors that we are dealing with here and there are three of them that I am responsible for that I wanted to comment on today around the Commerce Commission the Commission for Financial Capability formerly the Retirement Commission and the Financial Markets Authority. All three of those areas are integral to a broader discussion that we are having around expanding the financial capability of New Zealanders protecting those New Zealanders who struggle—or who have an absence of basic money skills and get themselves into terrible situations with very expensive debt—and what the Government is trying to do to improve the lot of those New Zealanders.There are three elements to it. First legislation itself can take you so far and we have done very significant reforms in the consumer credit space in the last couple of years. We have introduced the Responsible Lending Code in which we have introduced rules around responsible lending in the pay-day lending space and in the truck-shop space trying to get much better clarity around what particularly vulnerable consumers are signing themselves up to. That legislation has been passed and we are confident that it is going to make quite a big difference particularly to people at that end of the spending spectrum who have got themselves in trouble over the years. But it is only so good if it is properly enforced. That is why the Commerce Commission needs to be actively engaged in the enforcement of that new legislation and it has been. It has been very interesting and reassuring to see over the past few months the Commerce Commission being very active in this consumer space policing the Fair Trading Act as well as the Consumer Credit Act. It has been out there dealing with some of the truck shops and sending clear notices to them to change their behaviours and the way that they operate.Changing that legislation and enforcing that legislation only takes you so far. The much broader multigenerational task that we have got is to improve the financial capability of New Zealanders as a whole. That is why the Government last year put out a Government statement on financial capability. One of the things that struck me when I first became a Minister responsible in this area was that just about every Government department had some form of financial capability programme under way whether it was through the Ministry of Social Development and the massive investment that it makes in budgeting through to the Ministry of Youth Development to the Ministry of Pacific Island Affairs to the Commerce Commission to Treasury to schools to all sorts of areas. It is such an important thing and many private sector players and banks have also engaged in this discussion. There was a danger that we had not really got a coordinated effort and so there is a national strategy that is being developed by the Commission for Financial Capability.We have said as a Government that this is actually important to us this is the strategy and we are expecting all the Government agencies at least to work together very collaboratively on trying to improve the outcome of this area and also to work collaboratively with the private sector. I am looking forward to a 1-year update in a couple of months on the progress that has been made in that area. Overall if we can do everything we can to equip New Zealanders once they come out of school and into the community with a better understanding of how debt operates how interest operates and how when you buy something for $15 a week for 20 weeks that is going to be a lot more expensive than potentially buying something directly. All those basic things that we are going about in a systematic way—Hon Member: Yawn!Denis O’Rourke: This is waffle.Hon PAUL GOLDSMITH: —so dealing with the legislation dealing with the enforcement followed by dealing with a wider effort of financial capability. And I am conscious of the fact that one or two members at the back end of the House may find this a little dry but it is these kinds of systematic thorough and ongoing efforts that need to be made across every aspect of Government that lead to the outcome for New Zealanders that we are trying to attain and that is an ability to raise living standards in this country and to give every New Zealander the opportunity to thrive and succeed.