SpeechJONATHAN YOUNG (National—New Plymouth): Thank you Madam Speaker. You know we've gone through probably three years of studies from the Ministry of Business Innovation and Employment the Commerce Commission officials—and thank you for your work—to come to a piece of legislation that we think our No. 1 job as parliamentarians was to try and stop it making the cost of fuel more expensive. And all we really needed to do was probably buy every motorist in New Zealand a smartphone and get them to download Gaspy. If I look at my hometown New Plymouth there's a range of prices that are being displayed in all the different petrol stations for 95 from $1.98.9 up to $2.13.9 and I can then go and choose to buy my fuel at the cheapest place. And all it takes is seconds. I mean we're living in a time where technology is enabling people to be very selective in where they purchase their products.But anyway we've gone through a very convoluted process that took a long time at the beginning but was very rushed at the end. And I'd have to say at the very end when we came to the select committee process I was quite alarmed at the concern that people who were fuel suppliers were expressing to the committee. And it's easy to say Well of course they're vested interests. Of course they would be saying that it's all wrong." No I don't think so.You go back to what the officials said in terms of their comments to the Government in terms of the advising agency Ministry of Business Innovation and Employment to the Minister of Energy and Resources the Minister of Commerce and Consumer Affairs and they said this—and this is going back months and months: "The terminal gate price regime may impose additional costs for stockholding investment increased shipping frequency or shortages for own supply which could lead to higher retail prices if wholesale competition does not increase." We've already heard the comparison between New Zealand and Australia in terms of scale for that spot market and that New Zealand is very small and you've got cities that have terminals that are small provincial cities. And here we are. Here we are hearing from submitters a very high degree of alarm that actually this bill will actually do the very opposite to its intention. And it's because I think in the end we went too fast.OK so everybody agrees that we want to have competitively priced liquid fuels. Nobody disagrees with that. That's one of the reasons why we do support this. We do support the terminal gate price regime. But as we've heard there are concerns that it needs to operate in a very efficient way and if it doesn't actually promote increased wholesale competition actually it's going to be quite counterproductive.Of course some of the fuel companies were saying "Sure we can put a terminal gate price on the gate of our terminal—that's what it is—to say you can buy a tanker load of petrol at this price." But if they keep rolling up week after week after week they're probably going to form a commercial relationship and have a contracted price which will most likely be cheaper than what the terminal gate price is. So the terminal gate price exists for a new entrant for somebody to come in who doesn't have to form that commercial relationship who just says "By right I can buy a tanker full of fuel off you at a certain price and set up my petrol station down the road." or whatever they are. That is a very kind of temporary mechanism because if they are serious participants in a market they've got to want a better price on that. They're going to want to form a commercial relationship that would enable them to compete against those other participants in the market who have commercial relationships. And if the Government get upset about that they're going to make everybody disclose what price they're paying in those commercial relationships and that is not how business works.One submitter Mobil said "This bill should not proceed in its current form. At the very least there should be a full six-month select committee process so the bill can be well scrutinised by Parliament and stakeholders be given an appropriate amount of time to make considered submissions. Stakeholders had less than one week from the time the bill was introduced to Parliament to prepare their submissions. Mobil remains very concerned that some of the proposed changes will bring to fruition the unintended consequences to which Mobil has previously given warning."So it's not as if the Government weren't told time and time again. But you know Governments know better—"These companies have vested interests"—but maybe not. Maybe they just understand how the market works. And as the Minister was saying you know making the comments about New Zealanders paying far too much—the Prime Minister said that a number of times. The editorial of the New Zealand Herald said a month after the Prime Minister inferred that people were being fleeced—the opinion piece was "Maybe you're not being fleeced" because they had time to look at it.But Z said across the 2016 and 2018 period—we've heard it. Michael Woodhouse said it. I said it in the second reading speech. Included in the draft report the Commerce Commission: "Z returns as calculated by Z went from 12 to 10 percent. Last year they declined to 8.5 percent. This year we forecast them to be about 7 percent." And guess where the wealth transfer is going? It's going to the motorist. They are getting less of a margin because the motorist is getting a sharper price because of competition.So look we say that this competitive market does exist. We've seen a proliferation of independents. We've seen huge number of new outlets around the country. I know Mr Gareth Hughes probably doesn't like that but anyway. And just can I say all the very best for your next step in life. I've really enjoyed being here in Parliament with you over these last 12 years.We will support the terminal gate price but we're going to keep an eye on this to make sure it works. The Government are absolutely convinced that it will; we are not so convinced. The Government say that competition is not as good as it can be. We say that it is a competitive market and we can see that by the margins that are reducing and have been reducing over these last five years in particular. We acknowledge the Commerce Commission. They ran a good process. I was surprised at the outcome of their report but it was a very short process and a very complex area of commerce so no discredit to them. They did their very very best. I think you know time will tell. And let's hope in the next year or two three or four years we can look back and see whether these provisions actually work or just make it more expensive more regulation more complexity that in the end could reflect in a higher price for motorists. So as I just conclude we reluctantly will support this bill because we do support any attempt to bring the price of fuel down for motorists. We know that we're in very difficult challenging economic times. We want New Zealanders—and I believe so do the fuel companies—to be able to get through it and to be able to afford things. We're just not sure whether this bill will actually do it. Thank you."