Clark David: Commerce (Cartels and Other Matters) Amendment Bill — Second ReadingText is incorporated into the Bound VolumeClark David: Commerce (Cartels and Other Matters) Amendment Bill — Second Reading[Sitting date: 26 November 2014. Volume:702;Page:896. Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume.]Dr DAVID CLARK (Labour—Dunedin North):What a fine point for the member Brett Hudson to make—about the nameless and faceless operators that drive bad behaviour in our markets. The parallels here today are both ironic and striking. The Commerce (Cartels and Other Matters) Amendment Bill is about the properly regulated flow of information in markets. Markets generate efficient outcomes. They make sure that investment behaviour drives the best of possible outcomes for investment and for productivity for the betterment of our society. Well we have a political market place right here in New Zealand that has been subjected to some awful awful awful cartel-like behaviour in recent days. As our leader said today we need to cut that crap. We need to get on with regulating the political market just like this cartel market is being regulated because when cartels are protected they create inefficiencies and information flows that are not transparent that are not clear and that are not in the interests of our country. Today we have had a Prime Minister be dragged back down into this House to admit that he misled the House when it came to whether he had been in touch with Cameron Slater the blogger. He has been practising dirty politics out of his office. He has been dragging in Jason Ede who is two doors down from his office. We see that John Key has been donkey deep in creating a political market that behaves like a cartel that ensures that the public is not seeing good information and that is involved in a publicly funded smear machine that has driven a bad outcome. New Zealanders are now realising just how dirty this machine has become and what a new low has been plumbed by this Government when it comes to transparency and appropriate behaviour.This bill has been around for 4 years and it is no wonder with a Government that does not value transparency with a Government that hates transparency that likes to see monopolies prosper and that likes to see rules in favour of those who have power already rather than an open market that generates efficient outcomes. It is no wonder the bill has languished so long on the Order Paper—it is clearly paralleled in the behaviour we have witnessed in this Parliament. We have a Prime Minister who is prepared to be very very limited in his telling of the truth right here in the Parliament—Mr DEPUTY SPEAKER: Order! The member will resume his seat. This is a fairly narrow debate on the bill that is before the House. Other speakers have managed to stick within those parameters and I remind the member that the duty is on him to do the same.Dr DAVID CLARK: I will come back to the point which is that we need properly regulated markets. We need markets for information be they for political information or for typically commercially driven information like the kind we might find on a stock exchange markets that are clear and transparent and make it clear that the best information is being shared. This is so that people can make wise decisions on the basis of that information. They can form judgments on the basis of information that is shared clearly that is shared honestly and that is shared in the interests of the market it is serving. That is what this bill is about.For those who do not observe the behaviour that is expected by regulators we see some tough penalties in this particular bill. Imagine if those who traded in information incorrectly and misled the markets were facing these penalties—all markets not just the markets we are discussing right now: civil penalties of up to 10 percent of turnover during the period of cartel conduct criminal penalties of up to 7 years’ imprisonment; $10 million three times the commercial gain or 10 percent of turnover. These are strict regulations that the Government has been sitting on for 4 years for those who breach proper process for those who do collude to form cartels and this kind of sharp measure is good to introduce. It is good to ensure we have efficient flows of information and properly regulated markets and that should be true no matter where we look. It should be true whether we look here in the narrow point we are debating or whether we look more broadly in the political environment.Joint ventures are captured by this bill. The Commerce Commission has looked broadly and introduced a bill that we will be supporting. It is a bill that as I said has been dragged through very slowly. It was started many moons ago by Minister Foss I think if memory serves me correctly or it might have even been before his time.Stuart Nash: Simon Power.Dr DAVID CLARK: Right back to Simon Power—so that explains as I heard my colleague say earlier that the intent of the bill is good. A hard-working Minister brought it into the House but this Government has been very slow to move it through because of its distaste it seems for the measures in the bill. Right now Government members are under pressure. They are under a lot of pressure to make it look like they are interested in regulating the market appropriately and so they are putting this bill through this evening. But the public of New Zealand is becoming increasingly suspicious of this Government and its disturbing practices. It says yes when it means no. It says no when it means yes. We are beginning to wonder what on earth it really stands for. The public of New Zealand is no longer clear as to whether this Government can be trusted and that is on the basis of slow slow progress of bills like this and the events that we have observed today which I am not allowed to discuss at length in this speech.I do not have much more to add other than to say that Labour will be supporting this bill. The bill does make some good progress albeit slow. Goodness knows when we will see the next stages of this bill in the House. I wish the Prime Minister would be more upfront with this Parliament. That is all I have to say for this evening. Thank you.