Power Simon: Financial Service Providers (Registration and  Dispute Resolution) Bill — Second Reading In Committee 
Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume 
Power Simon: Financial Service Providers (Registration and  Dispute Resolution) Bill — Second Reading In Committee 
[Sitting date: 23 September 2008. Volume:650;Page:19027. Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume.] 
SIMON POWER (National—Rangitikei) 
: 
 I find myself taking an urgent interest in the Financial Service Providers (Registration and Dispute Resolution) Bill. I will make a couple of more general comments to the Committee stage this afternoon and leave my colleagues Gerry Brownlee and the Hon Murray McCully to make the more detailed contributions in respect of this legislation which no doubt they will make with their usual high regard for detail on commercial legislation. I see that Mr McCully has come to the Chamber specifically for that purpose and we welcome him back.  
Could I start by saying that this bill is one of a suite of measures that implement the Review of Financial Products and Providers which yielded nine discussion documents in that area about 12 to 15 months ago. What became clear at that point was that the legislation relating to the Reserve Bank of New Zealand Amendment Bill (No 3) which imposed a regulatory framework on non-bank deposit takers was swiftly dispatched to the Finance and Expenditure Committee and has been dealt with by the committee and by the House in fact in a unanimous way as a regulatory framework is sought to be put in place for those particular institutions. Earlier today we also considered the Financial Advisers Bill which passed through all remaining stages—the second reading the Committee stage and the third reading—today.  
One of the more technical bills to form part of that suite of legislation is the bill currently before the Committee of the whole House called the Financial Service Providers (Registration and Dispute Resolution) Bill. The name could be misleading but it is not. This bill is decidedly useful in creating an approved industry-led dispute resolution system and in establishing a registration scheme and system for financial advisers. What we know about this particular area of course is that billions of dollars literally up to $5 billion have been put at serious risk with the collapse of finance companies in this country over recent months and years. Tens of thousands of New Zealanders have had their savings and investments put at risk. This legislation along with the other legislation I have described is not designed to take risk away from investment. What it is designed to do is provide a regulatory registration framework for financial advisers to ensure that when individuals are contemplating such an investment they know the quality of the advice and the competency of the people who are giving that advice that they are having disclosed to them the necessary fees commissions and royalties that are being paid by the various bodies concerned and that they are able to make an informed decision. Legislation alone of course will not necessarily make those decisions more informed. What is required is continuing education financial literacy and financial awareness of some of the more complex documentation that often comes alongside these sorts of investment opportunities.  
This particular bill as I have said adds to the suite of legislation in the financial advisers’ scheme that we have already seen today. I am reluctant to talk about any of the specific detail of this legislation with Lindsay Tisch in the Chamber. He of course has far more knowledge of these more technical aspects than I do and on that basis I look forward to his contribution on new clause 61A because it is one of those clauses that often strays under the radar in this House and it needs a bit more of an explanation to this Committee. We are very keen on this side of the House to see this matter progressed so keen in fact that at the commencement of what was a disastrous time for lower tier finance companies and their collapse the Leader of the Opposition John Key wrote to the Prime Minister to offer to assist in a bipartisan way in negotiations and discussions surrounding the suite of legislation.