Faafoi KrisHon KRIS FAAFOI (Minister of Commerce and Consumer Affairs): Thank you very much Madam Deputy Speaker for the opportunity to speak to the Statutes Amendment Bill (No 2). If anyone has tuned in this morning for a fierce debate about this bill they'll be bitterly disappointed obviously because of the technical and non-controversial manner in which these bills implement changes to legislation. In plain English it's a housekeeping exercise for the Parliament to make sure that any errors of a small nature that may have been put in legislation are cleaned up every so often as they are found either by the Government or by officials or by people who are looking at the laws closely. So I would like to take a concise and precise short call looking at two of the Acts which come under my purview as the Minister of Commerce and Consumer Affairs. The first one is extremely technical and that is Part 6 which pertains to the Companies Act where I am looking at sections 303 and 308 which are about creditors' claims over companies that have gone into liquidation. If I go to the correct page here it is in essence inserting a handful of words into section 303(2). After penalties" clause 20 is inserting "sentences of reparation orders" which I believe—having read the section here this morning in the Act as it stands at the moment—will open up a lot more options for people who are looking to get redress from companies that have gone into liquidation and there is a subsequent amendment to section 308 of the Companies Act as a result of the change to section 303. The substantive change I wanted to speak to is in Part 8 of the statutes amendment bill before us today and that is a very small amendment to the Credit Contracts and Consumer Finance Act (CCCFA) of 2003. That amends the cross-heading above section 9J and is simply deleting the words "disclosure of" which might sound mundane but I'd quite like to talk about section 9J because I was a member of the Commerce Committee when the previous Government amended the CCCFA. I think the member Mark Mitchell who spoke before me was also a member of the Commerce Committee when we looked to change the CCCFA. Section 9J was one where I think—if I recall correctly—the New Zealand Bankers' Association were quite motivated about making sure that they understood exactly where things were in terms of disclosure of standard loan arrangements which had to be displayed prominently for the benefit of customers. The argument that was being made at the time by those who were concerned about section 9J was they would essentially have to plaster loan agreements on the walls of bank branches to make sure that they could adhere to section 9J. I guess we know in hindsight that that didn't happen but at the time there was a bit of concern about a number of the changes that the previous Government was making to the Credit Contracts and Consumer Finance Act. They certainly didn't make changes of this nature which I think are certainly technical and we're kind of slightly amending that today and I don't think there's anything big in that. But I think certainly at the time they missed some amendments that we are now addressing as a result of the Government's review of the CCCFA—and the harm that is still continuing to be done in our communities by predatory lending by the likes of mobile trucks—and certainly a clean-up of the CCCFA as it stands now to ensure that some of the work that I think certainly some of the members who might have been on that committee were keen to do but the higher-ups were not. I'm talking about the likes of this Government being completely open and transparent about looking at measures to introduce interest rate caps so that those vulnerable consumers who the previous Government failed to protect back in 2014 when it changed the CCCFA and who have continued to be preyed upon by predatory lenders in our communities have increased protection from those predatory lenders. That is something that should have happened five years ago but it was not done by the previous Government and since then New Zealanders and those vulnerable consumers—such as my constituents and spread around the country—have continued to be preyed upon by those predatory lenders. So I make no apologies to those in the industry who have continued to fly in the face of the laws—and the lack of their boldness back in 2014 to protect New Zealanders from predatory lenders—that their days are numbered. As well as measures that we will take as a result of the Credit Contracts and Consumer Finance Act review a lot of the work was done in terms of the forum last week where community organisations the Government and the finance sector are coming together to ensure there are safe places for those vulnerable consumers to lend and to increase the financial capability and the wisdom of financial decisions to be made by New Zealand families. Bringing those three parts of this triangle together will in fact help those people who are being preyed upon and who were left by the previous Government to continue to be preyed upon by their lack of courage to amend the CCCFA in a way that made sure those in the most vulnerable parts of our country were protected. So I'm proud that we are making that action and obviously I acknowledge the very minor change to section 9J in the CCCFA that is here today. But I add just a note of caution to those who are in the community who have taken shelter in the lack of change from the previous Government to the CCCFA to say that change is on the way and the shelter will no longer be there."