Faafoi Kris; Dyson RuthHon KRIS FAAFOI (Minister of Commerce and Consumer Affairs): I'll try and go systematically through some of the questions that were raised by members of the Opposition. I think the first point that was raised by Mr Hudson was the allegation from some submitters that the Commerce Commission essentially wasn't doing their job in policing any of the bad behaviour that was occurring in the higher-cost lending space and therefore the lack of enforcement didn't necessarily mean that the beefing-up of legislation which is happening here was required. There is some fairness to some of that criticism. We certainly want the Commerce Commission to do much more in terms of front-line grassroots interaction with the likes of the people who came to the Finance and Expenditure Committee with serious concerns.I do note that Mr Young also noted that we went through some changes to this legislation in 2014. Our concern back then was that the legislation (a) didn't go far enough; and (b) really did need to be backed up with resources at the front line in order for it to—the previous Government's legislation—have any effect. The combination of what we think was legislation that didn't go far enough necessitating the changes in this bill and a lack of resources for the Commerce Commission meant that some of the behaviours that the 2014 changes set out to stop didn't in fact happen. That is why this Government after reviewing the changes that were made in 2014 is doing two things: the first thing is that obviously we are here debating the legislation and changing it and making the ability for the Commerce Commission to enforce some of these changes—again at a very basic level—much stronger. I think that that legislation will in essence give the Commerce Commission more ability to do the policing so that I think some of the allegations that Mr Hudson may have heard at the select committee will now be followed up on. The second thing is that we're actually going to give the Commerce Commission the funding to resource that properly—Brett Hudson: We already did that.Hon KRIS FAAFOI: Well I would disagree with that because the level of resourcing that the Commerce Commission currently has the current Government believes is woefully inadequate to enforce and to patrol the predatory lending that is going on.I want to acknowledge the people at the Commerce Commission that are doing the hard grind with community budgeting organisations right now but that really do struggle because the Commerce Commission is resource-constrained. I want to thank the finance Minister for backing these changes and budgeting $4 million extra per annum in order to make sure that the Commerce Commission does have the resources to effect a change that is necessary which I think a lot of the submitters—as Mr Hudson said—were concerned wasn't happening both under the legislative settings under the previous Government and also the resource settings under the previous Government. So I'm proud to stand here to say that we're going to deal with some of the issues that those submitters raised and the concerns that they raised and that Mr Hudson has I think quite rightly raised that we have got the legislation and the resources in order for some of those community organisations like Vaiola in Māngere like the budgeting services that were visited around the country to make sure that they do have a solid relationship with the Commerce Commission not just at the time when things go wrong but also reforming those budget services of other services that may be available to them.I think Mr Hudson also raised a second point about why the Ministry of Business Innovation and Employment (MBIE) may have been talking to parties about regulations and why they may be doing that ahead of the passage of this piece of legislation. MBIE has released an exposure draft of regulations for public consultation. We think it's important to consult as early as possible to give the industry time to make changes before the bill comes fully into force. I get a funny feeling that this will have been a case of damned if you do damned if you don't if we had consulted—now Mr Hudson's saying Why are you doing this before the legislation is passed?" and if we hadn't he'd say "Well why aren't you talking to industry stakeholders to make sure that they are fully informed of what's going on?" So I think we'll take that as a bit of politics to fill out time in the committee stage but we do believe it's important to make sure that we are fully consulting with industry to give as much time as possible to work with officials so we can understand the implication that those regulations may have for them.Mr Hudson also made a political point around—Brett Hudson: It was a fair question.Hon KRIS FAAFOI: Well yeah I'm moving on to another issue now.CHAIRPERSON (Hon Ruth Dyson): I'm sorry to interrupt the member but the time has come for me to report progress.House resumed.The Chairperson reported progress on the Credit Contracts Legislation Amendment Bill.Report adopted.The House adjourned at 9.56 p.m."