Wedd CatherineCATHERINE WEDD (National—Tukituki): Look I rise in support of the Fair Trading (Gift Card Expiry) Amendment Bill and I'd just like to congratulate members of the Economic Development Science and Innovation Committee for navigating this bill through and for Dan Bidois whose name in which the bill is in following on from Minister Melissa Lee.Because this is a fantastic bill. And I must say I do personally relate to this issue of gift cards because when you have four children that are often going to birthdays—all the time kind of gets more and more as they get a little bit older—it's a very easy solution to race in and grab a gift card; but also in return you often get a lot of gift cards. And so anyway we've ended up with this drawer full of gift cards which are literally expired. And my husband actually he was wanting to prevent these gift cards from expiring so he decided to kind of stick them all to the wardrobe so that when you open the wardrobe you'd see all the gift cards so you would remind yourself that you actually have to go and use the gift card. So you'd think that that would have worked but it didn't and we still have a lot of expired gift cards.So I can certainly relate to this issue and I'm sure most New Zealanders can. As we've already heard tonight one in four gift cards are expired and 54 percent of people have used gift cards in the past two years so we would definitely see a lot of expired gift cards. And so hundreds of families around the country you know they run busy lives as we all do and so I suppose they do reach out for the gift card option when they're often giving a gift. And I'm surprised actually Dan that you perhaps didn't get a gift card for Courtney today given it's her birthday.But consumers need to have time. They need to have time to be able to spend the gift card. I think that's fair. This bill is all about the consumer and being pro the consumer which is good for business and good for the economy because we want to support consumers. And I think to children and families—because I must say if you think about kids and they've got this gift card and they think they're going to go and spend it only to discover that they arrive at the shop and it's expired. Just the look on the children's faces they're just absolutely devastated that their gift card is expired. So anyway this bill is about stopping that and giving more time—giving three years in fact which is a reasonable period I think to enable a gift card to be used. I mean it allows more flexibility and more protection to the consumer.Research has actually found—I've read in some of these documents here that we could be losing $10 million a year on cards before they are redeemed. I mean that is a lot—that's a lot. And a Consumer New Zealand study found that one in four gift card holders end up stuck in the top drawer as I've already said. Actually you know I also got a lot of gift cards and vouchers when I used to do a lot of running events because I did a lot of running events in a previous career. Actually a few of them: the Hawke's Bay half marathon the Hawke's Bay triathlons—actually we've got the triathlon about to start at the Olympics it might have already started so big shout out to Hayden Wilde; hopefully another medal—and the Hastings harriers events where you quite often get vouchers and the Hawke's Bay Hundy and the Mount Maunganui half marathon the Taupo half marathon—that was a good one that's next weekend actually; there'll be a few gift cards I'm sure that will be handed out at that event. And the Spirited Women Adventure Race and the Auckland marathon—now that was a good one that was a really good one. Running across the Harbour Bridge I mean I'll never ever forget the Auckland marathon.These events draw a lot of people into the regions and across the country and often there are a lot of gift cards that potentially are sometimes given out in these events because it can be easier to give a gift card for a pair of shoes or give a gift card for a singlet or a running top or to that effect. So you know we're all very very familiar with the gift card issue. And the fact that we do have a lot that expire I mean a lot of those ones that I did win in some of those events have expired.So you put the power back to the consumer. I mean if we take a little bit of information from internationally some of the other countries around the world in Canada expiry dates are banned and in the USA a five-year expiry date is required—five years. Obviously we haven't quite gone that far we've kept it around the three years which was obviously seen to be quite reasonable. But here in New Zealand we've been around the six months or 12 months—I mean you barely get time to look at the gift card before it's expired. Well unless it's hanging on the wardrobe you know for you to kind of look at quite regularly. But I think that many of us would agree that three years is very fair and reasonable and it is the right thing to do to stand up for consumers.We need to foster consumer confidence in our economy which is what we're all about on this side of the House—you know strengthening our economy and making sure that we are supporting our hard-working consumers out there. Actually I mean I would say it is a great day for consumers here in New Zealand an amazing day today because historically in the past 14 years New Zealanders have not had tax relief. But today after 14 years hard-working New Zealanders are getting tax relief. So that is amazing for our New Zealand consumers. And perhaps some of them may go out and they may purchase a gift card you just don't know.But it's all about strengthening our economy and I suppose creating more competition as well because we want to drive more competition. I sit on the Finance and Expenditure Committee—as well as the Primary Production Committee actually—and we are having a banking inquiry at the moment which is also going to be you know very valuable for our consumers out there because we have one of the most uncompetitive banking sectors in the world. So this will certainly give us an opportunity to inquire further into this sector and hopefully create a more competitive sector in New Zealand so that we can strengthen our economy.But look just coming back to the bill because I think that it is interesting to look at some of the areas which it doesn't cover so that is: loyalty programs—so it does actually stipulate here that a New World card that was purchased potentially with Fly Buys points which the member over here has already alluded to that wouldn't be included. And I think another area which I think is very very sensible in relation to this bill is not including time unlimited events. So you know obviously if you get a gift voucher to say Mission Concert in Hawke's Bay—the wonderful wonderful Hawke's Bay—where we see a lot of events and often people are given gift vouchers to these events but of course they are time limited. So you know it's only unfair that you would get a redemption or a further length of time if the event has already passed. So I mean that makes absolute sense which you know this bill is all about practical sense.And of course as my colleague has already said the card cannot be the ones that are used for public transport and utilities and those types of cards and vouchers are not able to be included in this Act and have the three-year limit; which again seems quite fair. And of course second-hand consumer sales of gift cards—I think obviously if a gift card's been given you can't then flog it off and then the three years starts; I mean that's obviously unfair.So I mean a lot of thought has gone into ensuring that we have a very fair and reasonable bill and they've thought a lot about the gift cards and of course the display of the cards' expiry date—very very important because consumers need to know the expiry date so they know the exact time frame that they have to be able to go out and use that card. So of course if we were purchasing it that expiry date should be very very obvious. And as we've already talked about the transition period will be over an 18-month period of time which I think is very very fair and reasonable.But look we think this bill is an absolutely fantastic bill for the consumers of New Zealand. It's great to see this one navigated through because it's a very very important issue that we can all relate to—54 percent of New Zealanders have purchased a gift card in the past two years but one in four expire. That really is unfair to the consumers; it's unreasonable and we certainly need to make sure that we get the gift card industry back on track. So I commend this bill to the House.