Webb DuncanDr DUNCAN WEBB (Labour—Christchurch Central): Tēnā koe Madam Speaker. A pleasure to rise and stand here and take the call that the Māori Party would take should they choose to but once again they choose not to. I do find it extraordinary that a party that claimed or the leader that claimed in his maiden speech to be speaking on every piece of legislation in this House to scrutinise it from a Māori perspective has once again chosen not do so.But over here we heard from Mr Mooney and the irony of hearing the usual National Party lines around small business and freedom from regulation when this bill—Joseph Mooney: Point of order Madam Speaker. The member used the word lies" and that's not parliamentary language.ASSISTANT SPEAKER (Hon Jacqui Dean): Did the member take offence?Joseph Mooney: The member did take offence Madam Speaker.ASSISTANT SPEAKER (Hon Jacqui Dean): Withdraw and apologise.Dr DUNCAN WEBB: I withdraw and apologise. I look forward to reading Hansard and I hope the member will read Hansard as well. And perhaps if he's—my office is just over the way; he's welcome to drop in with a case of whisky to make amends for that error of his.But the point is this: that this bill has its sights set on protecting small businesses from the predatory practices of large businesses and that member has missed the boat entirely. Here he is talking about this putting more burdens on small businesses when it does the opposite. It arms them with a remedy so that if a large business acts in a way which is oppressive unfair unconscionable if it exerts its powers in a way which is utterly unreasonable—and we know we've seen that this happens. I mean not so long ago we heard about Fonterra unilaterally telling its creditors that it was going to 90-day payments isn't that right Mr Nash? I believe it is. And that was utterly unconscionable but the power lay all on one side and it took intervention from the outside for that outrageous decision to be reversed. Well this will not allow unfair terms like that to be imposed on small businesses. Whether they be dairy farmers or whether they be dairies this is a bill which actually puts the power—and what it does is it redresses the imbalance. We know that unconscionable contracts have always been illegal but the problem is the remedy. What this piece of legislation does is it puts tools in the hands of the Commerce Commission so that litigants don't have to go to the courts at huge expense that the agency that is tasked with making sure that our markets work effectively and efficiently can take the appropriate steps to redress that imbalance. And so for the suggestion by Melissa Lee that "unconscionable" was a vague term it's a term familiar in our law since about 1600. It's got a very clear definition and it's about imbalance of power. In fact in what was the Credit Contracts Act now the Credit Contracts and Consumer Finance Act that term appears there as well. It's well established that unconscionability is about a vulnerability an imbalance of power and an abuse of that relationship and that's what we're looking for. So if—Melissa Lee: If that's the case then find it in the legislation.Dr DUNCAN WEBB: Once again look I would invite you to just do a little bit of reading because the fact of the matter is that this is very clear and the law time and again—and the other point is this: that when you're using terms like "unconscionability" and "unfairness"—ASSISTANT SPEAKER (Hon Jacqui Dean): Order! Order! Order! Not the Speaker.Dr DUNCAN WEBB: Thank you Madam Chair I stand corrected. When one uses terms like "unconscionability" or "unfairness" one needs flexibility flexibility to take into account the multitude of arrangements that may be unfair or unconscionable. So we're not going to constrain the Commerce Commission or our courts we're going to let them—and trust their judgment to address the problems that arise in the market.So this is a bill which is excellent. It's a bill which is going to make our markets work better and we know that a good market is an efficient market and an efficient market is one that has free information and equal bargaining power. That's what this creates. That's what the Economic Development Science and Innovation Committee that considered this that Jonathan Young chaired failed to report back but this Government isn't going to let that stand in the way. It's going to move this legislation along and make New Zealand better for it. Thank you Madam Speaker."