Nash StuartHon STUART NASH (Minister of Police): I totally totally refute that member's criticism of the Hon Kelvin Davis. I think in Kelvin Davis this country has the most compassionate and the most innovative corrections Minister we have ever seen. This is not a Minister who is about locking people up and throwing away the key; this is a Minister who is addressing the hard issues. This is a Minister who believes that of course prisons must be places of incarceration but they must also be places of rehabilitation. He sees the good in everyone. He is not a Minister who believes we should be locking people up and throwing away the key. He is addressing the hard issues—the really hard issues—for those most disaffected in society. I take my hat off to Kelvin. I have immense respect for the work he is doing. I think he will change our corrections system in a way that we have not seen for decades.This is a Government led by a Prime Minister that is addressing the long-term challenges facing this country and I want to illustrate that by a story. This is a true story. Now I was the Opposition energy spokesperson and I did a lot of work around the wholesale margins as they were outlined on the Ministry of Business Innovation and Employment's website. For about 10 years the importer margins hovered around between 8c and 12c a litre. They hovered. They were sometimes a little bit up sometimes a bit lower but around about 10c to 12c consistently for about 10 years. Then they started creeping up and it got to a point where they were at 40c a litre over Christmas of 2015. We were being ripped off I believe by monopolistic behaviour by big oil companies. So what did I do? I spoke to Grant Robertson who was our lead on the Finance and Expenditure Committee (FEC) and of course it is no surprise that the man who delivered the world's first Wellbeing Budget completely got this. This is a man who is showing leadership right across the financial sector. He knew we had to stand up for good hard-working Kiwis. So what did we do? We went to FEC which that member—David Bennett—was chairing and we said Can we undertake a study into big oil? Can we find out what the hell is going on here?" David Bennett went to his political master who at the time was the Hon Simon Bridges the Minister of energy. He came back—SPEAKER: Order! Order! I want to seek an assurance that Aupito William Sio isn't talking on the phone. Is the member using a phone? Hon Aupito William Sio: Yes I am. SPEAKER: Well the member will cease. Hon STUART NASH: Phew! OK where was I? So that member came back and said "No we're not going to do a study. We don't care about good hard-working Kiwis." because the Minister of energy Simon Bridges—Hon David Bennett: Oh come on—do a study then. Hon STUART NASH: You remember this Mr Bennett—you must remember this. SPEAKER: Order! Hon STUART NASH: Simon Bridges said "I am going to write a stern letter."—"I am going to write a stern letter." Well you could hear big oil quaking in their boots. You could hear them—or was it roaring with laughter—because the Minister of energy had just legitimised price gouging. He had just legitimised price gouging. But then what happened? Simon lost the portfolio and it went to the Hon Judith Collins. I phoned up Judith and said "There's an opportunity here"—SPEAKER: Order! Order! The member should address members appropriately or describe them appropriately—not by their first names. Hon STUART NASH: Sorry Mr Speaker. I phoned up the Hon Judith Collins and she said "I will undertake a market study." and so she did. So the Ministry of Business Innovation and Employment (MBIE) undertook a study and what happened? MBIE came back and said "Well you know we think there's something going on here but the oil companies won't play ball. They won't give us the data so we don't really know." and so nothing happened. Nothing happened. A lack of leadership for a second time. Then what happened? A change of Government—a change of Government. Minister Faafoi stepped up and said "You know we're going to change the law. We're going to allow the Commerce Commission to undertake these sorts of studies." and so they did. What's happened? The Commerce Commission has come back and said what we've all known: "We're getting ripped off. We're paying the highest prices in the OECD." and it is not acceptable. Finally—finally—we are going to do something about this when this could have been done nine years ago when the margins started increasing. There were two opportunities when Ministers of energy in the previous Government could have done something about it. They did nothing. It takes Jacinda Ardern Kris Faafoi and Grant Robertson to actually do something about this. But the thing that really disappoints me is that Simon Bridges could have come on board. He could have said "OK we'll work with you on this." but no. What did he do? He stood up to big oil and started defending big oil. That is unacceptable. We are finally after nine years of neglect—there's a lot to fix. There are big issues and we're not shying away from them. We're not saying it's too hard; in fact quite the opposite. We relish the challenges. We're going really hard. We're standing up for Kiwis on the issues that are important. I'm incredibly proud to be part of a Government that is dealing with the big issues."