Utikere TangiTANGI UTIKERE (Labour—Palmerston North): Tēnā koe Mr Speaker. It's my pleasure to take a split call on the Commerce Amendment Bill and to follow the member Nicola Willis who has just resumed her seat. It was great to hear that the start of her contribution was very positive but then of course we get the however" or if it's not the "however" it's the "but". But I hope that that perhaps won't be the case moving forward. Colleagues before me have already spoken as to why the Government believes that this is a good piece of legislation and they said that it is timely perhaps setting aside the length of time that it's taken since the first enactment of this piece of parent legislation. But I would like to acknowledge the Hon Kris Faafoi the former Minister who did a lot of work in this space and obviously the Minister of Commerce and Consumer Affairs currently the Hon David Clark who is shepherding this amendment bill through the House in its current form. I agree with the Minister's initial comment in that this is about the responsibility for setting the groundwork setting the parameters setting the boundaries by which businesses in our country are able to compete. We all know that commerce is a really important part of the way in which our society and our community is able to function on a day-to-day basis. So it's really important then—actually it's very important that there is the element of fairness when it comes to setting those boundaries the groundwork and the parameters as well and the Commerce Commission have a key role in undertaking this work. Just on the Commerce Commission when I look at the elements of the bill in front of us often perhaps there is a tendency to dismiss just technical changes to legislation but they are really important and one in particular is around aligning the maximum pecuniary penalties that could be imposed for anti-competitive behaviour. That word "pecuniary" sort of tweaks my mind because in the ballot I have a member's bill that I have taken over from my colleague the Hon Priyanca Radhakrishnan around the Local Government (Pecuniary Interests Register) Amendment Bill. So the alignment there is really important that we have an open and transparent opportunity whether it's in the local government sector—and in this sense the way in which those penalties might be set. It's good and pleasing to see that that is a technical component to this proposed legislation but it is an important one none the less. The other technical change is around the flexibility for the commission and its full suite of commissioners. My own background prior to entry to Parliament was as a Criminal Cases Review Commissioner. Commissioners up and down the country undertake really important work and in this commerce sense what I like about this bill is that it provides the flexibility for the Commerce Commission to actually look at its workload and to modify its appointment process to accommodate that so that's really important. We've heard in terms of what's opposite as well that there is a need to support consumers and absolutely there is a need to support consumers. This piece of legislation fundamentally is good for consumers because it is the very people for whom this legislation will actually protect and the mechanisms that will allow that protection to flow through. So I hope that as part of the select committee process the select committee does actually hear from consumers and that it hears from other key players—but in particular consumers I would like to think.Just upon my entry to the House earlier this afternoon I heard members of the Opposition indicate about "Well where are the real examples of failure?" I think perhaps that line of argument is missing the point. This piece of legislation is looking to prevent failure. The very protection that this legislation provides will actually mean that we don't have to cite real examples because the bill will be doing its job; it will be doing justice in that sense. So while the bill is fairly limited and narrow in scope in that most of it focuses on realigning the section 36 components along with those technical changes I think that this piece of legislation is on a good path through to select committee and when the select committee hears from those that wish to submit on it then I'm hopeful that that will come back to the House and we can move things to the next step. But for the time being I am very happy to commend this proposed bill to the House."