Goldsmith Paul: General DebateText is incorporated into the Bound VolumeGoldsmith Paul: General Debate[Sitting date: 06 May 2015. Volume:705;Page:3253. Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume.]Hon PAUL GOLDSMITH (Minister of Commerce and Consumer Affairs):Thank you for the opportunity to speak. Well we have had more shock horror overreach and outrage from Opposition members who are always jumping up and down and confecting outrage. That is why I believe that Mr Little is in danger of being overtaken by Len Brown to be the most successful Labour leader in Auckland at the moment. That is why that party is struggling to engage with New Zealanders and the concerns that New Zealanders have. That is why this Government is focused on New Zealand families and what New Zealanders are looking for in terms of jobs growth and access to good education and health care. They have seen that this Government has been very focused on their needs and their concerns. That is why we continue to have that high level of support. So if you think that having 74000 new jobs in this economy that we did not have this time last year is not important then I think you are out of touch with what Aucklanders and New Zealanders really want. That is why we are working hard to improve our public services in welfare health and education.I want to touch on a couple of the areas in my ministerial responsibility that relate to how we as a Government can help Kiwi families get ahead. There are a couple of areas. One is the cost of living. There are two ways that you can improve living standards in this country. One is economic growth which is what this Government has a fantastic track record in—3 percent this year. We are one of the leading growth countries and economies in the developed world and we have got projections for further growth over the next little while. The other way is to make each dollar go further. That is why a strong competitive domestic economy is so important. The competition laws which I have some responsibility for are fundamental to maintaining that disciplined and competitive domestic economy.We have got the cartels legislation which is halfway through the House and which we will be progressing very quickly. It is all about sending a clear message that we do not tolerate any of that behaviour. We have also got a review coming up of section 36 of the competition law which relates to the misuse of market power. We do not want to put any barriers in the way of new entrants coming into any industries in this country shaking things up and making it more competitive so that New Zealanders have more money in their pockets when they go out and buy their shorts their shoes and their food in every industry that they deal with. A strong competitive economy and industry in New Zealand is a fundamental and important thing.We keep on hearing about house prices. Well one of the reasons why New Zealanders have invested in residential housing for so long is that it is very hard for somebody to steal your house. The contrary idea over the last 30 or 40 years of putting your savings into financial markets has been a difficult one. So many New Zealanders have lost their savings over the years so the most important thing we can do in financial markets is build confidence in the system. That is why this Government put through a huge change in the Financial Markets Conduct Act last year. My focus very much as Minister of Commerce and Consumer Affairs is to make sure that we implement that well over the next couple of years. This is so that New Zealanders when they are looking at where they are going to put their money do not have residential real estate as just one option but are more likely to invest in financial markets and build on their KiwiSaver funds which have been so important in building an understanding of those financial markets.Also we are working on a review of the Financial Advisers Act which is about giving advice to Kiwis. On the whole our financial literacy could be improved. We have put in there a regime for financial advisers for the last 3 years and we want to make sure that we have got that right that any conflicts of interest are dealt with properly and that the costs and the regulatory burden of giving advice are not so high that fewer people get advice. We are focused on that as we are also focused on the broader idea of financial literacy.There is no more important thing you can do for New Zealand families than help them understand how money works how interest works and how to improve financial literacy within families in their homes in New Zealand. That is why this Government has more than trebled the amount of money that has been put into budgeting services through the Ministry of Social Development and I think that is a very important step. We have also been working hard on our consumer laws around the responsible lending code. Again we are trying to make sure that people who are offering or lending money ask basic questions about the ability of the person to pay back loans so that they fully understand the full extent of those loans.