Leary IngridINGRID LEARY (Labour—Taieri): I'm delighted to support this bill which is really about fairness and the Labour Party is all about fairness. It's logical it's rational because if you look at what is a gift card it's really an elegant way of trying to give somebody some money but acknowledging what their interests are in life showing that one has an understanding that somebody might have an interest in sport or music or something else—or perhaps it's about encouraging a spend in that area. Certainly I can imagine well-meaning grandparents giving gift cards for example for bookstores perhaps trying to get their grandchildren off devices and so on. So it is an elegant way of giving a gift and it seems very Grinchy" and unfair that it's time-bound. So there's no reason really not to pass the law that would allow a reasonable amount of time for the gift card to be spent—three years five years. I agree with the Hon Dr David Clark—we need to look at what that appropriate time frame is.But we do need to take into account the fact that people do lose or misplace gift cards—especially according to the statistics men who have a higher propensity to do so or perhaps that they don't get to the shops as often because they're working and so on.We have seen from the research that 50 percent of people have three main issues with gift cards. One is checking the balance; I think it would be great if there was an easy way to check the balance. The other two I'm not sure that legislation or regulation can resolve which are the limited number of stores—if somebody chooses to direct the gift at a particular store then that's really their prerogative. And the third one if somebody is struggling to find something at that store then I suggest perhaps they trade in their grandparents or the person who has given the gift card because clearly they have no idea what the person is interested in!But a shout-out actually to Bunnings and to Barkers who perhaps have recognised the gender bias that seems to exist in who loses gift cards: they don't have expiry dates on their gift cards.I'd like to shout-out also to Consumer magazine because some of the research—the valuable research—in this area came from Consumer magazine who have shown that one in five people who receive gift cards have found that they've expired before they get to use them through either delay in going shopping or perhaps losing them but also have provided that valuable insight around some gift cards for Australasian stores not being able to be used in New Zealand when in fact they could be used in Australia due to the legal regime there.Andrew Bayly and I and Damien Smith were on a podcast recently called Consume This and gift cards came up. We were asked about it and I must confess I wish I'd known about the member's bill. I did support the idea of looking at regulating gift cards when asked about it. If you do want to hear that podcast gift cards and other things around market interventions to do with things raised by previous speaker Dr David Clark around groceries and so on are also traversed in that podcast on Consume This.Andrew Bayly: Shameless self-promotion.INGRID LEARY: It was not really self-promotion Andrew Bayly because I believe you're on that podcast too. So a little bit of promotion for Consumer who I have to say do a really good job for consumer rights whose research is evidence-based who can then get their research picked up by members of this House who can bring in bills like this really useful bill from Melissa Lee. So good shout-out to them.But as I say when it comes down to it gift cards are simply an elegant way of giving somebody a gift that is similar to money perhaps a little bit more limited in a way that acknowledges that the person who's giving the gift recognises the interest area of the person receiving it and is trying to express that; there's no reason that should be time-bound or -limited. Therefore having a regime that follows international best practice that has a reasonable expiry date that isn't forever—because we know businesses change or that it could be cumbersome for business if a gift card were say to be presented 15 or 20 years later. So a reasonable amount of time in the legislation would be good.There's no reason not to do it. It's about fairness. The Labour Party is all about fairness. I commend this bill to the House."