Strange JamieJAMIE STRANGE (Labour—Hamilton East): Thank you for the opportunity to take a call on this excellent piece of legislation brought to the House by Duncan Webb who has had a lot of experience in this area both as an MP and as a lawyer before becoming a member of Parliament. First of all I'd like to thank all of those businesses that operate in New Zealand and all of those directors who direct companies; it takes a lot of courage to set up a business and I admire and take my hat off to people who take that step that leap of faith. Often they're in a position where they've been working for someone for quite a while and they want to go out on their own but it always takes quite a step of courage quite a leap of faith—often taking out a mortgage on their house to actually get started. We've seen a number of very successful businesses here in New Zealand.I believe at the heart of this bill—and the member might share his views on it when he does the right of reply at the end—is the reason why business exists in an economy like ours. We have an open economy we have a free-market economy based primarily on a capitalist regime—to a point—but why does business exist? I remember standing in a lounge up in Hamilton a few months ago; there were a couple of fairly well-known businesses represented there and a couple of CEOs were just having a conversation and I was just sort of standing there listening in. They were talking about a contract that was available—I think it was in the civil space—to be bid for and they were talking about who's going to be successful with the bid and it really stuck with me because one of the CEOs said to the other CEO: Well look mate at the end of the day it doesn't really matter who gets the contract because all of the money we earn goes back to the community anyway." He was alluding to the work that they do in schools supporting gymnasiums and other sponsorship programmes; the work they do in terms of employing people in terms of supporting subcontractors and all of that. The other CEO agreed because you know their philosophy was that business exists for the community. I believe that that's at the heart of this bill; that connectedness between business and community. You know business exists for community. Business needs community to exist. Some of you may have heard about the stakeholder theory. Stakeholder theory is a view of capitalism that stresses the interconnected relationships between business and its customers suppliers employees investors communities and others who have a stake in the organisation. The theory argues that a firm should create value for all stakeholders not just for their shareholders and that if a business only focuses on the shareholders then it could quite quickly potentially become a sunset business because it loses that connection with the community. First of all it loses that purpose the fundamental purpose of serving the community; secondly it loses that connection. And often it may even lose that access to labour or other resources that it needs. So the Companies (Directors Duties) Amendment Bill—we've heard that it amends the Companies Act and that there are five key areas. First one is recognising the principles of the Treaty of Waitangi. The second one in terms of the principles that the directors must take into account is reducing adverse environmental impacts. Now the reality is we've been dealing with COVID over the past few years. It's been a huge challenge for the planet. Fortunately we're coming out the other side but the number one issue remains: climate change. I'm pleased that as a Parliament we have accepted that right across—well broadly across the House—Simon Court: Nah we voted against your climate emergency.JAMIE STRANGE: Broadly across the House—broadly. The aspect about climate change is absolutely important. Basically we're seeing a number of businesses really lean into this and seeing what their responsibility is for climate change and seeing what they can do. And look it's encouraging to see that. This bill will be another step on the way in terms of putting climate change in the minds of directors. The reality is businesses need a social licence to operate. That's the society that we have here in New Zealand and it's the way it should be; that businesses work hard for their communities but at the same time like I said they're very much connected to their communities and there's an aspect around social licence that's important. This area of climate change is one of the key areas. I know there's another three but I'll leave it at that one there that particular aspect around climate change. I guess just to summarise businesses are not a silo they don't operate in a silo they're connected to the community and we're all connected to each other. Thank you."