Smith DamienDAMIEN SMITH (ACT): The Companies (Directors Duties) Amendment Bill proposes an amendment to section 131 of the Companies Act 1993 for the duty of directors to act in the best interests of the company.This is a bill that potentially is misguided potentially harmful but just not necessary and can open up a Pandora's box of misery. If we remember that three weeks ago when Shakespeare was attempted by this Government to be buried he said Let every man [and woman] be master of his time." Well I say Mr Webb is wasting all of our time with this superfluous bill. If it's Shakespeare that says "Pleasure and action make the hours seem short." then the bill does the opposite. Shakespeare says "Some are born great some achieve greatness and some have greatness thrown upon them." and then some have to write the Companies (Directors Duties) Amendment Bill. Alas Will Shakespeare we remember you well.But if it wasn't for "Lord Grubby Grant" and our own "Lawrence of Arabia" who's heading off to Egypt the numbers for the merry men and women on the other side would ensure that this bill would just wither away and not be seen by the light of day and not take up any more parliamentary time."Lord Webb" and co. have this bill and it's been viewed as misguided and harmful. There does not seem to be a legislative code in the Companies Act to achieve anything related to this. This is just a nudge by doctrine causing conflict in decision makers' processes and totally unproductive. The system is not broken so why would you try to fix it? That's the reverse psychology when it comes to business with the Labour PartyWhen you see what it means it actually reflects the five-year trend of this Government of socialist stakeholder capitalism. Labour actually hates business and it's a war on business enlightenment. Environmental social and corporate governance (ESG) advocates a return of New Zealand society to darkness. Mr Webb is playing empire with this bill. He's overturning the enlightenment to the gall of central planning with his ESG and tokenism of Māori reverence. He is rejecting stakeholder capitalism. Not only does he endanger prosperity; there's not a company director in this country that's ever been prosecuted for not abiding by these rules. Remarkably we have a successful system. The problem with the Labour Party is it just wants to view the world through Karl Marx's eyes. The Government is never able to reflect efficiency and innovation of the private sector entrepreneurs and monitors. It's because of freedom and prosperity that this has been allowed to develop. The reason why it is: it's called a company structure. Company structures were tried by the Pope judges and priests to take away the resources of private individuals.Look at the first line of this bill: "Companies are a useful legal entity for the conduct of many activities." What does that mean? "What does that mean?" I ask myself. So rooted in Marxism is this agenda to set for stakeholders who are not shareholders in a company. If stakeholders want to be involved in companies let them buy a share. That would be a great start to the economy wouldn't it? It would really give it a boost. Over the last five years Labour has killed that dream. We created a class of stakeholders who interfere with companies who are really cultural Marxists like Mr Webb and really they're shaking down shareholders and wanting things to be done. They're just a waste of time and have no accreditation and actually are not in tune with the law of the land.The Companies Act is very specific. Company directors have currency under New Zealand company law; not stakeholder capitalists. That's why this bill should be rejected by the House."