Carter DavidRt Hon DAVID CARTER (National): Can I first of all take the opportunity of congratulating the new chair of the Finance and Expenditure Committee Dr Deborah Russell and I want to particularly congratulate her for doing a nine minute and 30-second speech on this particular legislation. That's not easy.But I want to start by saying that this particular legislation is unique in the Government's agenda because finally we're seeing some legislation that's about making it easier for business to do business. So I congratulate the Government for doing that. There is just too much red tape and hindrance to business that's occurring under this particular Government. So finally we've got them recognising international requirements that are difficult to comply with under our current old laws and this legislation will certainly make it significantly better for banks and financial services to cooperate.It's about globalisation. This legislation actually recognises that we're completely interconnected around the world. Whilst we currently have a batch of leaders around the world like Mr Trump and Mr Putin and the UK with their ridiculous Brexit situation trying to become more isolationist and more protectionist the world is interconnected and we cannot undo globalisation in my opinion. Nowhere is that more important than in the financial sector. Within this legislation New Zealand is but a small player. So what you've seen over the last few years is that led by the G20 and ably supported by the European Parliament there have been discussions about making the financial sector more interconnected. That has led to a raft of legislation in the larger economies of the world and quite simply as the legislation came before the select committee we heard from the banks and we heard from the other financial services sector in New Zealand that current legislation in New Zealand does not comply with international legislation.So the bill has two significant parts. The first part Part 1 allows the banks and the big financial institutions of New Zealand—ACC the New Zealand Superannuation Fund—to hedge risk. If you're in that sector and understand that sector it is absolutely critical that you have the opportunity to take a particular position on a risk if you want to. You can then get certainty from taking that position. It does come at a cost but as significant investment managers that may be an important aspect as they identify an investment strategy. That's important to the likes of the super fund and ACC.Then Part 2 is all about the licensing regime. What this does is sets up a licensing regime that will be monitored by the Financial Markets Authority so that they can make sure banks particularly comply and that's been an issue of significant discussion recently particularly around the current—let's say—discussions between the Reserve Bank of New Zealand and the banking sector.Can I say we received some good submissions. They were all on the whole very supportive for this legislation and I just take this opportunity of commending the Financial Markets (Derivatives Margin and Benchmarking) Reform Amendment Bill to the House. I congratulate the select committee and the work it did and the sooner we get it passed the better for the financial sector of New Zealand.