Smith StuartSTUART SMITH (National—Kaikōura): Thank you very much Madam Speaker. Well it is a pleasure to speak on this bill the Fair Trading Amendment Bill. I actually think it's quite interesting that this bill seeks to level the playing field and there's no doubt that the playing field is not level often in transactions. In fact having had quite some experience in this I'd almost say it's never level. If you're a seller selling into a market which has lots of options for supply then you are definitely on the wrong side of the scale. On the other hand if you're a buyer when there's very few sellers you're also on the other side of the scale and so it can be quite difficult.I'd have to say that BusinessNZ opposed this bill. They said that Despite exhaustive issues and discussion papers over time we still remain perplexed as to why these same issues keep coming up when no legitimate problem has been … identified." I think that is kind of the problem here. We all want to try and level things up and make things fair—whatever that means—but it gets pretty difficult when you try and put this into writing and into a bill.I can give you a bit of an example Madam Speaker because I know you're aware of these things and you're quite interested in them. So I thought I'd like to bring a story from personal experience selling wine into New York. I went to a Harlem wine store which would only be about the size of this Chamber—quite small two floors—and the person that ran that won a Porsche car a brand new car from Johnnie Walker for selling the most Johnnie Walker in New York. From a small store like that you'd wonder how the heck they did this. I was trying to sell wine to this guy. I was successful in the end but boy did he drive a hard bargain.Turns out he sold the most Johnnie Walker in New York because he sold to illegal nightclubs in New York. They had to buy their liquor at retail rather than wholesale because they were illegal. They'd run for a while and then they'd be shut down so he'd just go around selling all this alcohol. This guy knew how to bargain and I can tell you it never really felt to me like there was an even playing field there. I don't think this bill would have made much difference had it been in operation in New York. I know it doesn't go that far but actually that is the world of commerce and until you've actually operated in it you don't actually know—not you Madam Speaker but everyone will not really understand how it works. It is never equal.Also we have to understand that people often suffer from what's known as buyer's remorse and we have to be careful that these sorts of things don't actually try and capture that. I think that with the definition of unconscionable conduct being so unconscionable that no one actually knows what it is—despite Dr Webb giving us a bit of a lecture about it in I think the second reading—it turns out that it is so difficult to define that we can't get it into law. So then we end up with some people making a decision on a very broad definition which will undoubtedly capture people that don't deserve to be captured by this law. It is understandable that people want to go to an extreme of trying to cover everything off. It's actually very akin to hate speech legislation—so broad that nobody really knows what it is and innocent people will be captured.I think the law of unintended consequences with all these good intentions is going to cause more problems than anyone in New Zealand deserves. I think it's really very sad that we are here today in the House dealing with this bit of legislation which is misplaced. It might be well intentioned but unfortunately takes me back to my time in Harlem and brings back some fond memories. I have to say I had a—Matt Doocey: Tell us another story about Harlem.STUART SMITH: Well I could. I could tell a story to you Madam Speaker but the whip warned me before not to incriminate myself and taking his wise counsel I will leave it there. But I'm having a very qualified "not supporting this bill" opinion and so therefore I do not commend this bill to the House. Thank you."