Bayly Andrew; Faafoi KrisANDREW BAYLY (National—Hunua): Thank you Madam Chair. Continuing that line of questioning from my honourable colleague Brett Hudson the cost that's been incurred in undertaking this one particular study I'd be quite interested to hear from the Minister in the chair the Hon Kris Faafoi (a) what was budgeted for the study and secondly in terms of the breakdown of the sum that was incurred to what extent that relied on internal Commerce Commission resources and to what extent were external contractors involved. Obviously the intent of that question is to understand to what extent the Commerce Commission has the capability to undertake these types of studies. So that's the first question; I'll come back with some more. But I'd just be interested in the Minister's input.Hon KRIS FAAFOI (Minister of Commerce and Consumer Affairs): Thank you Madam Chair. When we came into Government the previous Government had appropriated I believe $1.5 million for the Commerce Commission to undertake a market study. So in broad terms they was the constraints in which the Commerce Commission was asked to undertake a market study.I believe if my memory serves me correctly in the very early stages of Government when we asked a question of OK the appropriation is $1.5 million how many market studies could you potentially do with that?" I think the answer was that you could do one substantial market study or a couple of medium-sized market studies. Again it is an off the top of my head recollection; the Commerce Commission may have expended a little more than $1.5 million that was appropriated for market studies within their budget but I would hasten to remind members that this was the first time that the Commerce Commission undertook this function. It wasn't as if they were starting from a position where they had the resources the experience and the ability to do this off the bat. So there was a fair degree of ramping up the processes ramping up the resources and ramping up the person power within the Commerce Commission to undertake this work. So if—Andrew Bayly: And the extent of external consultants?Hon KRIS FAAFOI: I can get the answer to that but I understand that there was quite a lot of external help in order to be able to do this market study in the time frame which is provided under legislation which is 12 months. If the member gives me a chance then I can get that to him. But as I say the appropriation at the beginning of the term was $1.5 million.ANDREW BAYLY (National—Hunua): So just continuing along that vein—so just to help the Minister I think the Minister probably may have forgotten but he's actually increased the funding for the Commerce Commission but to what extent has the increase in the funding for undertaking these market studies been increased for the forthcoming financial year?Hon KRIS FAAFOI (Minister of Commerce and Consumer Affairs): Thank you. No reminder needed from the member; I was referring to the amount of money that was appropriated initially which was $1.5 million. My understanding is that given the experience of the first market study the increase to the appropriation for further market studies per annum is a little over $2.4 million.ANDREW BAYLY (National—Hunua): OK. So on that basis that would mean that we're going to do one major market study and one medium-sized market study to get to our $2.4 million budget. So under the new rules for the Commerce Commission they have the power to initiate these types of reviews. Clearly they'll have the money million. To what extent are you satisfied that we won't be undertaking unnecessary market studies because they're incredibly disruptive to the businesses that are investigated and how do we not stop the process of the Commerce Commission just deciding to spend the money and just basically working through a low-order priority until they've used up the money in the budget?Hon KRIS FAAFOI (Minister of Commerce and Consumer Affairs): First of all I guess in terms of the member's first question it depends on which markets we potentially undertake a market study in whether it be a relatively simple exercise or something of a size of the retail fuel markets which has already been undertaken.I have every confidence in the leadership of the Commerce Commission that they wouldn't undertake the kind of behaviour that the member is talking about—a very astute organisation they know the constraints of the appropriation put to them and there is a public interest test both within the Government-initiated market study and also the Commerce Commission market study that would have to pass not just the public sniff test but also the political sniff test in terms of the legislation. So again if the member doesn't have confidence in the Commerce Commission in doing that I would like to send a message to him that I do. ANDREW BAYLY (National—Hunua): Does the Minister actually have a hit list of potential targets that he may wish to influence the Commerce Commission to pursue?Hon KRIS FAAFOI (Minister of Commerce and Consumer Affairs): I wouldn't use that language. I think it's a pretty serious and big call to initiate a market study on a sector. It would only be done if we thought that consumers were feeling the sharp effects of a lack of competition. So I wouldn't use the language that the member has used. Of course a number of my colleagues have outlined a number of sectors that they believe that some sunlight might be useful for and to ensure that consumers are benefiting from a competitive market and if and when we're ready to make an announcement we'll let the public know."