Dean Jacqui; Williams PotoHon JACQUI DEAN (National—Waitaki): Thank you Madam Assistant Speaker. Speaking to the Commerce Amendment Bill and the last speech that has just been given has illustrated very neatly and very clearly why business confidence is tanking in New Zealand. Absolutely undeniably when you have a Minister inside of Cabinet who says that the purpose of the market studies power is not to increase competition it's not to be to the benefit of consumers with prices and services—that Minister said the Commerce Commission's market studies power will be a tool so that Government can intervene with more regulation. You just heard that from the Minister's mouth herself: so that the Government can intervene with more regulation. So that is why this Government—this Labour-led coalition Government—has removed ministerial controls over the initiation of a market or competition study.That might be fair enough—and National acknowledges that yes this was our bill and absolutely we support the market studies ability for the Commerce Commission but there must be a control on that because of the impact on business in New Zealand. So I go back to my first point: no wonder business confidence is daily weekly monthly taking a hit under the uncertainty provided by this Government over a whole range of signals that it is sending the New Zealand business community least of which is that a market study by the Commerce Commission may be initiated by the commission itself but under the direction of this Government. And the previous two speakers—a New Zealand First member and a Green Minister—spent quite a bit of their time in this debate this evening telling us just what parts of the economy are going to be subject to a market study. Isn't that extraordinary given that we are now legislating a provision where the Commerce Commission itself initiates a study—no no it will be under the direction of an anti-business interventionist Government. You heard it. You heard it from their mouths. They don't like it but the House heard it from the mouths of the New Zealand First member and the Greens Minister.So I just want to go through in the under 25 minutes since the House has resumed since the dinner break the strong suggestions that have come from the coalition partners around what will be a market study in the future. And if you think about the fact that a market study will take up to a year—in fact you'd really want to have a look at a time frame of 18 months because you've got to initiate the study and then the Commerce Commission has to get out and do it—Hon Nathan Guy: Consult.Hon JACQUI DEAN: —consult and talk; to require information—Hon Nathan Guy: Then put out a draft.Hon JACQUI DEAN: —and then go through the whole draft—quite right—go through the whole stage and then present the market study. It seems like there's a decade of market studies; so I do hope the Commerce Commission are girding their loins because they've got an awful lot of work to do. And one wonders under this pressure what other activities are going to have to be forgone because they're going to be totally in my view and I want to tell you why in a minute taken up by conducting market studies which on the one hand this Government says they will initiate because they need to be independent but on the other hand they are only too happy to give direction in this House and in the media about just which market studies should take place.I'm going to run through some of them. Twice tonight we've heard about market studies into the duopolies of New Zealand supermarkets. We've even had the unedifying view of shopping bags full of groceries which are so much cheaper in the UK than they are in New Zealand. That member clearly doesn't understand that Great Britain or the United Kingdom is almost completely surrounded by the European Union and is not an island floating at the bottom of the Pacific. That little piece of policy mistake aside the supermarkets beware. Beware supermarkets the Government is coming for you. Beware Commerce Commission because the Government is going to give you subtle and unsubtle messages about what kinds of market studies it just wants to be initiated so that it can subsequent to that market study—and I quote the Minister Eugenie Sage—interfere with more regulation. Well that's marvellous. That's just what New Zealand business does not need—Hon Nathan Guy: What did she say? Say that again.Hon JACQUI DEAN: Intervene with more regulation. I have it here and exactly what New Zealand business does not need is more regulation. Well I can tell you something: over this side of the House we are firmly committed to less regulation less intervention so that New Zealand business can get on with doing what it does best and that is providing goods and services for the New Zealand public.But wait there's more—there's more. There is quite a bit more. So we've ticked off supermarkets. There is a fuel study. Now the Prime Minister herself several weeks ago contended that New Zealanders are being fleeced at the pumps. Well they're being fleeced all right. They're being fleeced by the Government's own taxation regime—the Auckland fuel tax—which I am paying for in the rural South Island as I drive around as that tax gets spread across New Zealand.There's more. Tonight we heard about an energy and gas market study. Well that will be interesting—an energy and gas market study—particularly in the uncertainty that is now pervading the energy and gas sector with the Government's signal to shut down further exploration which is collapsing not only support for Labour in New Plymouth but is actually collapsing New Plymouth. No wonder there is a lack of business confidence with that kind of signal coming from the Labour-led coalition Government enabled of course by the Green Party who have now had a road to Damascus moment and are now supporting market studies whereas in the last Government they were implacably opposed to them. Never mind.We also have tonight on the table a market study of the building sector OK? We also had a member in the House saying housing is unaffordable. They've had a year. They had a previous nine years of talking about housing affordability. What have they done? Not much but what they are doing tonight because they announced it tonight is they will lean on the Commerce Commission to undertake a market study into the building sector. Well that's excellent! I think we're up to about three.Fourth: airlines—airlines. We're going to have a market study on airlines for no better reason—Chris Penk: That's going to take off!Hon JACQUI DEAN: —than in the view of the Minister in the Green Party—my colleague just said a joke and I'm trying hard not to laugh but it really was rather funny. Yes it's going to take off. Sorry about that.Here we go. That's five market studies that have been talked about tonight. What is the Commerce Commission to do with this kind of direction from the Government? It happened in the debating chamber by members of the Government. Well if I were the Commerce Commission I would know what my riding instructions were very clearly: they are to drop everything else. All the work that the Commerce Commission commonly do and are funded for—they would drop all that because they have at least five market studies which have been announced tonight by the Government from the Prime Minister several weeks ago the Hon Shane Jones and now other members across this coalition Government. We're in a bidding war for just how many market studies. What's that going to do for business confidence in New Zealand? It is going to continue to tank and they don't even know why.ASSISTANT SPEAKER (Poto Williams): I understand this is a split call. I call the Hon Meka Whaitiri. You have five minutes.