Harawira Hone: Securities Legislation Bill — Second Reading 
Harawira Hone: Securities Legislation Bill — Second Reading 
[Volume:629;Page:1343] 
HONE HARAWIRA (Maori Party—Te Tai Tokerau) 
: 
 Mr Deputy Speaker would you mind if I used my laptop? My notes are on my laptop. 
Mr DEPUTY SPEAKER 
: Not at all. 
HONE HARAWIRA 
: Thank you. I read an article the other day entitled “Dishonest Nation”. Very interesting reading it was too. It was all about Bob Clarkson’s run in Tauranga. In that article renowned criminologist Dr Greg Newbold said the incidence of white-collar crime was about 40 times greater than that of benefit fraud. So why does benefit fraud make all the headlines while white-collar crime hardly rates a mention? Why are all fraudsters not treated the same? 
Lindsay Tisch 
: I raise a point of order Mr Speaker. At the beginning of the member’s comments he referred to my colleague Bob Clarkson and then further on he talked about dishonest behaviour. In the same paragraph he conveyed the view that my colleague was dishonest. I ask Mr Deputy Speaker that you ask the member to withdraw that comment. 
Mr DEPUTY SPEAKER 
: Well— 
HONE HARAWIRA 
: I raise a point of order Mr Speaker. I made no comment about Mr Tisch. 
Mr DEPUTY SPEAKER 
: You did not make a comment? 
HONE HARAWIRA 
: I made no comment about Mr Tisch and Mr Clarkson has not objected. 
Mr DEPUTY SPEAKER 
: No no. We understand that. Thank you for raising the point Mr Tisch. I did not take it that way but others may not see it the way I see it. There was a distinct break between when the member was talking about Mr Clarkson and what he subsequently said. I do not think the House would be offended; Mr Clarkson certainly is not. I would leave it at that. 
HONE HARAWIRA 
: When I look at my cousins in Kaitaia being prosecuted by Work and Income and being made liable for their debts I have to ask: “What is so different about white-collar crime that lets certain people off the hook?”. I guess that one of the reasons is that white-collar crime is carried out by the so-called more respectable members of our society. Members know the ones—the really big fraudsters. White-collar crime is also described as being victimless because there are no gang patches black eyes tattoos or foul language. But believe me the victims may be a little less obvious but they are there all right in their thousands. Falsifying insurance claims for example means that everyone’s premiums go up. It is just that the faces of victims are not staring out at us from newspaper pages. 
It seems that the Government has no problem running big-budget media campaigns to dob in the neighbour who commits benefit fraud so why does it not run similar campaigns to dob in white-collar fraudsters? The Maori Party supports any move to enhance New Zealand’s securities and takeover laws because at the moment we are seen as being a bit of a cowboy in those areas and even the cowboys are complaining about our behaviour. Being clean and green is just not enough. In this field integrity is what counts. This House talks a lot about integrity—most of it tongue-in-cheek of course—but that is indeed the issue we put to our business colleagues: integrity and full disclosure by investment traders and advice as to their crimes. 
As a matter of principle the Maori Party supports any move that acts to ensure responsibility towards clients and that protects the interests of clients in the event of wrongdoing. The Maori Party supports transparency accountability and the quality of being up front. The Maori Party is driven by the call of our people for justice for knowing and respecting the rules and for not trying to find ways to bypass them. The Maori Party urges this House to recognise that the best way to get business people to respect the concept of integrity is to put the concept of integrity into practice ourselves and to honour the Treaty of Waitangi. 
It is also interesting that this bill increases the penalties and remedies in order to deter breaches and encourage compliance. A breach of the Securities Act has a maximum penalty of up to $500000 for individuals and $5 million for a body corporate. For insider trading the penalty is 5 years in jail with a $300000 fine for an individual and a $1 million fine for a body corporate. Yet I am told there have been no prosecutions in this country to date for insider trading. We are told that existing laws are complicated difficult to enforce and easy to avoid. The changes are therefore necessary to ensure market integrity and confidence. Hopefully the changes will give confidence to people who may be considering investing but who have not done so because they know that the sharks are still swimming freely having escaped the net of the law until now. 
A lot of white-collar criminals have the luxury of being able to afford a heap of expert legal hot-shots and accounting wizards and it is little wonder that the Inland Revenue Department has a hard time catching up with the big boys. But that department does not seem to have the same difficulty with the little business people and it sure has no problem beating up on the poor little beneficiaries. Just now in my korero I want to share a true-life story that came into our office. A 73-year-old grandmother rang us up in a state of major distress. She had been reported for benefit fraud because Work and Income New Zealand reckoned that her male friend was staying over for a couple of nights a week—73-years-old for goodness’ sake. Are we serious? 
Shane Jones 
: Viagra. Viagra. 
HONE HARAWIRA 
: That kuia was in despair. She was seriously upset that she and her male friend were being treated like criminals by the “Winz police”. She is 73-years-old—just about as old as Shane Jones. We managed to get the case withdrawn of course because the allegations were baseless innuendo. But the traumatic effect of that experience has taken its toll on our kuia—an auntie of Shane’s actually. It made me wonder why we dedicate so much money to hassling the poor and the elderly when multimillion-dollar corporate thieves simply skip the country hire a flash lawyer declare bankruptcy and do not give a toss about poor little investor. 
During our time in this House we will look to see how effective this law is. If it turns out to be as toothless as the current law the Maori Party will promote legislation to genuinely plug up the holes and to nail those white-collar criminals. 
Bill read a second time.