Power Simon: Commerce Amendment Bill — In Committee Third Reading 
Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume 
Power Simon: Commerce Amendment Bill — In Committee Third Reading 
[Sitting date: 02 September 2008. Volume:649;Page:18550. Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume.] 
SIMON POWER (National—Rangitikei) 
: 
 The Commerce Amendment Bill of course has been before the Committee of the whole House in recent moments and now we find ourselves moving swiftly through the third reading. There is no need to be concerned about that pace in this particular instance. Normally speaking the Opposition is opposed to procedural urgency motions and we remain opposed to this one but this legislation by and large does have the support of the very large majority of members in this Chamber. I thank the Minister for involving the National Party in discussions and briefings about the bill from the start. It certainly made understanding some of the complex issues contained in this legislation easier to deal with and I am grateful for that. 
There is of course a very complex make-up to this bill as we have heard on the second reading report back and in the Committee stage. Many of the matters have been canvassed by the Minister in her speech to this third reading. I do not intend to cover off those matters again because they have been covered off a number of times in the last 24 hours. I will just emphasise though a comment that I made in the Committee of the whole House—that is although legislators are put in a position of having to foresee over a 2 3 or 5-year period how legislation they have passed in this House will impact on industry and consumers we never have a crystal ball. That means that many of the things we pass into law can have an effect we do not anticipate. That is why it is important to keep a close watch on the Commerce Commission’s work in the area of determining these input methodologies. 
The inability for legislators to see the future is also why it is important to keep a close watch on the Rules Committee and the way it will be instructed or checked on by the Minister and that is why it is important to keep a watching brief on consumer-based lines companies to make sure that the regulatory framework surrounding them which is different from the one being proposed in this legislation is effective and that consumers are not disadvantaged and long-term investment is not disadvantaged by that as well. That is why it is important under Part 2 to make sure that the delicate balance that has existed for so long in this portfolio between airlines and airports is also looked at pretty carefully and monitored in terms of information disclosure regimes that are being put in place with this legislation. That is an argument that I have no doubt will continue past the passing of this legislation. 
The inability to see the future is also why it is important to spend some time from time to time making sure that the purpose clause of commerce legislation is updated and reviewed and that we can make sure that all the processes involved in that are clearly monitored. 
I also have one last point in respect of something I raised very early in this process; it relates to the merits review process. The Minister rightly in my view recommended to the Committee that we have a two-stage appeal process—firstly at the point where import methodologies are determined and secondly at the point of final implementation. The fact that initial determinations will stay in place if indeed any appeal rights or merit review rights are exercised provides for a minimisation of any potential for gaming in these areas and that is important. The Minister was right when she said in her opening remarks that legislation in the commerce area is designed to provide certainty. That applies not only to businesses under regulations themselves but to the consumers who are in receipt of the goods and services produced by those businesses. 
The Commerce Amendment Bill enjoys the support of the National Party has done through all stages and will continue to do so through the third reading.