Bayly AndrewANDREW BAYLY (National—Hunua): Thank you very much Madam Chair. First of all I want to say that I support Supplementary Order Paper 139 in the name of my colleague beside me Brett Hudson. I think it's an excellent Supplementary Order Paper and I spoke about it the other day in fact.First of all I just want to reiterate—as I think is absolutely implied but let's just be clear—that we all support that there should be in New Zealand the promotion of healthy competition so that consumers picking up on the term that the Minister Kris Faafoi used get access to the goods and services they require at the right price. So that's an absolute given because this bill is essentially a National Party bill but the bit that we differ from is this bit about whether you give the Commerce Commission unfettered rights of power to undertake a market study.Of course I was fascinated hearing that the Minister when he rose to his feet just before and I am deeply appreciative that he took the opportunity to do that—the only thing he could talk about was the consumer. Of course we are concerned about the consumer but I am just a little bit concerned that the only issue the Minister of Commerce and Consumer Affairs could raise about this and why it wasn't a good thing that we were opposing this aspect was that we didn't have sufficient regard to the consumer. Now I know he's a former broadcaster and retail politics is an important part of it and the consumer is an important part of it but as I've heard from my colleagues earlier when they were asked this question when they were Ministers they were very careful about this power. So the officials must have just been waiting for a soft touch and I think the soft touch has arrived.Brett Hudson: They found him.ANDREW BAYLY: They found him—they found him. They said Oh here we go. We're going to get it this time."Of course I want to hear the Minister stand up and tell me about the other jurisdictions around the world about why New Zealand should allow this and just talk about some of the other jurisdictions. I understand the officials' document talked about the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission—ACCC as people talk about it. As has been alluded to before they can undertake market studies of course they can but the difference is that where they exercise the power to require information and all that specific stuff that goes on in these inquiries—and I have been involved in them—that's when they need an oversight and in that case they go to the Minister. So they are judicious about those powers—very judicious.Now I would love to hear the Minister talk about the UK situation because I'm sure that in coming to this decision he must have considered that very very carefully. Of course we know about the UK Competition and Markets Authority. They too have a right to go and do market studies but of course they too have an oversight. Very very few jurisdictions allow their Commerce Commission equivalents unfettered rights to undertake these types of powers and in those cases they have boards: the management proposes; the board decides. They are very very protective of that relationship because I know I had this conversation with them about a year ago and when I was meeting with them—the senior officials from that unit—no one was proposing that they should have unfettered rights. So I think that's a crucial part of what we're debating today.I think this view that we should just let the Commerce Commission loose because it's in the best interests of consumers has a place to some extent but you must recognise how invasive these inquiries are. They are absolutely disruptive and in some cases destructive to the businesses concerned and certainly because they get publicity around them there is also this element of being seen to be guilty before proven innocent.I think it's particularly injudicious that the Prime Minister has been talking about undertaking an inquiry into fuel companies and using the term "fleecing the New Zealand consumer". I think those are very injudicious comments and that's why we don't support this. I think it's even worse when she's gone out and talked to Ministers and asked Ministers what other inquiries we should be doing because that is simply irresponsible in these situations. So I do not agree with these."