O'Connor Simon: Commerce (Cartels and Other Matters) Amendment Bill — Second ReadingText is incorporated into the Bound VolumeO'Connor Simon: Commerce (Cartels and Other Matters) Amendment Bill — Second Reading[Sitting date: 26 November 2014. Volume:702;Page:889. Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume.]SIMON O’CONNOR (National—Tāmaki):I am actually quite pleased to bring this second reading debate back to the Commerce (Cartels and Other Matters) Amendment Bill. Actually I thought that in the last contribution one of the absolutely key words was “if”. The member was saying “if there are cartel operatives” and so forth. Of course the Labour Party over the last year has tried to make a number of accusations against companies in New Zealand about their behaviours and it has not actually worked out too well. In fact over recent days Labour members have tried to make accusations. That is not working out too well either. [Interruption] One of the great things about the Labour Party you see is that as soon as you say something that hits a nerve Labour members react. It is fantastic.But as I said we come back to the Commerce (Cartels and Other Matters) Amendment Bill. What we are looking at here is an important second reading. I want to acknowledge the new Minister of Commerce and Consumer Affairs the Hon Paul Goldsmith and the work that he has done to bring this through—actually a remarkably hard-working Minister—and I am surrounded here by some of my new colleagues on the Commerce Committee including Melissa Lee who is the chair. I am looking forward to seeing this bill progress through the House.This is ultimately a bill at the heart of what the National Party believes is a way forward for our economy. It is about a strong capital market that vital source for finance to help our businesses grow. Over the last 6 years and now into our third term we are looking at ways we can adapt and change things. I was talking actually over the last 24 hours with some people in this sector and they are very keen to see this bill progress. They are keen to see that that balance occurs here between allowing pro-competitive collaboration but also making sure that we are not going to have those sorts of hard-core cartel operations either. It is a balance and I think what the select committee has done in returning this bill to the House has struck that balance and that is a certain degree of positivity that I am hearing already out there.There are a couple of elements that I just want to draw members’ attention to. The first is what is known as the prohibition. Fortunately people will probably be pleased this is not the American Prohibition. This is ultimately around how we define hard-core cartel conduct. One of the things this bill is doing is providing a much clearer definition around such things as fixing prices restricting output allocating market and things like rigging bids as well. So this bill provides a lot of clarity in this space and ultimately as those who have operated in business or who have run a business will know certainty is absolutely critical.The other element—because I am sure that other colleagues will touch on various other aspects from the exemptions and clearance regimes—is around the notion of penalties. We want to update the penalties here to make it very clear that when there is anti-competitive behaviour particularly around cartels the penalty is appropriate. The bill is introducing criminal sanctions and this is for both individuals and companies but I will not tire the House by going into the particular details. There is though I think a change if I recall correctly that the committee has introduced basically around the tension between the criminal and the civil sides.This is a good bill. I think it is a good indication of a hard-working Minister—Paul Goldsmith—who has grabbed the bull by both horns. It is great that the bill is here before us and I look forward to the furthering of the debate.