Hughes GarethGARETH HUGHES (Green): Kia ora Mr Assistant Speaker. Ngā mihi nui ki a koutou kia ora. I rise to support this legislation. Following on from that last member Melissa Lee it's incredibly curious that the previous Government supported this—the criminalisation of cartel behaviour—then they changed their mind. The Green Party at that point changed our vote to vote against the previous Government's amended cartel legislation because it wasn't giving the legislation the teeth that it needed to do the job. Now that the new Government—the Labour - New Zealand First - Green Government—has put crimination of cartel behaviour back inside this legislation the Green Party is supporting it. Why? It's because we know that cartels are so damaging for consumers for the economy and for the country.This legislation allows company directors to be criminally liable for knowingly running cartels. It allows a new defence sets the maximum sanction provides matters relating to the proceedings of the court case and provides the two-year transitional period.Cartels reduce competition. They act against the interests of consumers and they keep those prices high. In a small country such as New Zealand with limited players in a market it's critically important that we have the protections to make sure that all businesses can operate in a fair transparent way and on a level playing field.I'd like to thank the submitters. There were 20 of them who provided written submission and 11 who made oral submissions. It was interesting to canvass the debate. Now basically it comes down to the idea that there's a spectrum of I guess you could call it cooperating on one side through to collusion and cartel behaviour on the other side. Now most New Zealanders quite rightfully so would say that cooperative behaviour is morally and in the case of our existing cartel civil legislation legally appropriate but it's that end of the spectrum that cartel behaviour which is so damaging for customers.Now it is a balance and what I would point out for those National members who are opposing it is that it's not a blanket criminalisation of cartel behaviour. There's still that spectrum of options available to the existing civil remedies for those lower-level infringements. The fact is there are exceptions and defences incorporated into this legislation to make sure that we are not being overly onerous or unreasonable but the key point is that we need to have these criminal sanctions available as a remedy.I can't put it any better than Professor Peter Whelan who is an expert on these issues who said that criminal sanctions should be introduced in New Zealand … [they act] to secure deterrence … [they] help bolster the administrative enforcement of cartel law in New Zealand … [and] the operation of the administrative leniency programme". The key thing is if you're going to only have a dollar penalty as the ultimate sanction there is the risk that those who knowingly are operating a cartel will be quite happy to pay the fine. This is why we need to make sure that the legislation has teeth.We are very happy to support this. We were disappointed when the previous Government took the criminalisation of cartels out. We are very glad to see it here today and ultimately it's in the interest of the New Zealand economy and New Zealand consumers."