Beaumont Carol: Motor Vehicle Sales Amendment Bill — In Committee Third Reading 
Beaumont Carol: Motor Vehicle Sales Amendment Bill — In Committee Third Reading 
[Volume:666;Page:13630] 
CAROL BEAUMONT (Labour) 
: 
 It is my pleasure as Labour’s consumer affairs spokesperson to speak on the third reading of the Motor Vehicle Sales Amendment Bill. As Labour members have noted previously we support this bill. It has a number of very sensible amendments. It is not a bill that will set the world on fire or indeed a bill that it is necessary to deal with under urgency but it is a good solid piece of work. 
I want to talk first about why legislation in the consumer affairs area is important. This bill is part of our consumer legislation. Motor vehicles are significant items for many New Zealanders. For the many New Zealanders who can no longer afford to buy houses—and that is an increasing number of New Zealanders—a motor vehicle may well be the biggest single purchase they make. Consumer legislation on motor vehicle sales is important. The motor vehicle industry employs a number of people. We have seen many people in that industry lose their jobs as a result of the recession. In tough economic times New Zealanders are reliant on cars. In most places in New Zealand people are reliant on cars because they do not have an alternative; public transport is not the way in which people get to work. They require a car to get around to get to work to take the kids to school or whatever so a car is often not an optional purchase for New Zealanders. I think we would all accept that. Although some of us are probably more committed to changing that situation and having alternatives the reality is that buying a car is very significant. I just want to put this in context. 
The Motor Vehicle Sales Amendment Bill deals with an issue that is important to us—that is the sale of motor vehicles. As has been outlined this legislation was brought in by the previous Labour Government. The Motor Vehicle Sales Act which was significant legislation came into effect in December 2003 and provided for some very important things. It provided for the registration of motor vehicle traders. Used-car salesmen are not seen as the most honest and reliable people in the world; I cannot remember whether politicians are ranked above or below them at the moment. There was a need to tighten up that industry and so another part of the legislation set up the disputes tribunal so that people had somewhere to go to deal with any disputes they might have. I have previously noted that the disputes tribunal seems to be working very effectively. It also legislated around the issue of consumer information—the sorts of things one might expect to know when one is purchasing a vehicle. 
That legislation was set up in December 2003 with a requirement that the Act be reviewed after 2 years in operation. I think that is important especially in an area like consumer law where things change. Even in 2003 who would have thought that the amount of buying and selling that takes place in the online trading area would be the case? The fact is that consumer law is an area that we need to review fairly regularly. That process led to a review and 12 areas in the Motor Vehicle Sales Act were identified as possibly needing amendment. A discussion document went out a number of people commented on it and that fed into a process whereby a bill was put before the House. That bill was introduced in May 2009—so it has not had a speedy track through the House since that time. The bill was referred to the Commerce Committee and I am pleased to note that my colleague the Hon Lianne Dalziel is the chair of that committee and provides very good leadership in it. It was important that this bill went to that committee. It has had good thorough scrutiny and by all accounts it has had good assistance from officials. The bill was reported back in December 2009. The second reading occurred in June 2010. So after a slow start we are dealing with the Committee stage and the third reading under urgency. It is a little unclear to me what is so urgent about the Motor Vehicle Sales Amendment Bill that warrants us being here in urgency to deal with it. That is not to say that the amendments are not useful and helpful amendments but it does seem a little strange given the pressing issues facing New Zealand at the moment—such as high unemployment lack of an economic plan and New Zealanders struggling to make ends meet—that we are dealing under urgency with what are effectively fairly minor changes to the Motor Vehicle Sales Act. 
Just what are those amendments? As has been outlined the amendments include changes to the process whereby motor vehicle traders renew their annual registration. This change was partly driven by a desire to reduce compliance costs on traders. One change that is really important and which should be valued by all of us is the closing of a loophole that prevents the automatic banning of traders whose registration has lapsed following conviction under this Act. That is important. It is what should happen and it has been fixed up by this bill. The bill also deals with a set of changes around consumer information notices primarily around the use of those notices in car markets. It essentially recognises the fact that people operating a car market are not by definition motor vehicle traders themselves. They provide a space where people buy and sell cars. It also removes the requirement for transactions between traders or traders and wreckers to display a consumer information notice. That is probably OK. We would expect that those people would be aware of their rights and aware of the information they need to decide on whether to purchase a motor vehicle. 
The third area is around the Motor Vehicle Disputes Tribunal and the bill increases the financial limit for claims it hears from $50000 to $100000. I have already said that we think the disputes tribunal appears to work well that it is effective in its decision making that it is dealing with an increasing number of cases and that it draws to our attention matters that are of interest or indeed matters for further law change. So that is all positive. We have no issue with extending the financial limit for claims from $50000 to $100000 but it would be fair to say that this change will not affect most New Zealanders. Most New Zealanders are not in the market for a vehicle that is worth more than $50000; we have to accept that. In tough economic times people are holding on to their old vehicles and they are looking at downsizing often especially with fuel prices being what they are and little or no wage increases. That provision is not exactly something that will affect the majority of struggling New Zealanders but certainly Labour does not have a problem with it being in the bill. Again I say that it is not the key issue facing this Parliament at the moment. 
I want to put this bill into the context of consumer affairs generally. We could judge this bill in light of a framework. I mentioned previously to the new Minister of Consumer Affairs that we are looking at a framework around consumer affairs and I seek to meet him to discuss this. Firstly it would look at things like improving consumer knowledge and protection so we could say that to a degree this bill is part of that. Secondly it needs to take account of the needs of vulnerable consumers. I am not sure that this bill touches particularly on that area although the Motor Vehicle Sales Act is important because as I said cars are one of the biggest single items that consumers may purchase. The Government has failed to show much leadership in the area of vulnerable consumers. The fact that National and ACT MPs voted against the loan shark legislation not long ago shows a lack of interest in the interests of vulnerable consumers. I know that the Hon John Boscawen has a concern about vulnerable consumers and I will be seeing whether he wants to change tack on that issue. As for targeting exploitation I think we need to look at what we are doing in the area of the motor vehicle market at the bottom end if you like. I identified one part of Auckland where it is particularly an issue and that is Otahuhu. Again this bill in itself is not in that space but there is enforcement work particularly that could help. Updating consumer law is clearly part of our framework and we see this sits within the bill. It takes account of changed circumstances and that is important. Greater regulation is something we will probably debate as is increasing consumer awareness. I will end there. Thank you.