Mitchell ClaytonCLAYTON MITCHELL (NZ First): Before the break I had the great pleasure of listening to two whole minutes of what I considered to be a ballerina dancing around the head of a pin trying not to give any credit where credit was due on a bill the Commerce Amendment Bill. Because of course giving credit to this Government which is now 12 months in and going so well couldn't possibly be done. So it was quite a nice little wee Twinkletoes around the subject without actually getting into the nuts and bolts of it. I'm going to be taking a relatively short call this evening on this bill but I was in the Chamber yesterday through the committee of the whole House stage when I had the pleasure—or some may say displeasure—of listening to some of the comments that were made from the other side. And anyone listening might have actually thought that these people were going to be opposing this bill tonight but no alas they are in full support of it but they were loving the throwing of the stones and the muck. So we'll just hit it back to you guys. But great stuff—it is fantastic. This bill does do everything it's designed to do. It is great that the Opposition are in support of this bill despite some of the comments that were coming out yesterday. Look you don't have to be a politician or a rocket scientist to work out the many things that have been going wrong in this country and going wrong for a very long time in relation to the cost pressures around the cost of living particularly. In fact it was Judith Collins who spoke quite considerably and specifically on the petrol pricing in this country. In fact—just to segue way for a second—the cheapest petrol price we've got at the moment is in the Waikato in this tiny little town. I think it's Apirinui? Somewhere like that. I'm not sure. Anyway it's like $2.07 a litre and they're the only petrol station in town. They've got no competition—Hon Andrew Little: Ātiamuri.CLAYTON MITCHELL: Ātiamuri? It is Ātiamuri. Thank you Minister. Ātiamuri have the cheapest petrol in the country. Now they've got no pressures of other petrol stations around them to get that but they are delivering the cheapest petrol in the country. And when you compare that to the prices that we are paying now in and around our large centres and cities even in Tauranga—I mean I drive a diesel. It's a very good diesel not one of those dodgy ones. And the price of diesel's doubled. In fact it's not doubled; it's gone up by 50c. This time last year it was $1 a litre. Now it's $1.50 or just under. And petrol has gone up astronomically despite a 3.5c increase with excise which some people are suggesting is the reason for the rapid increase. The cost pressures and the way that some of these fuel companies are behaving is exactly what this bill will go and address. But it's not just the fuel companies. We've had discussions around the issues specifically to do with supermarkets and the costs around the supermarkets—the price of living—and the monopolies and duopolies that are operating in this country and giving the power of the Commerce Commission to go in and have a look at some of those things. I've got a list here. Apart from the supermarkets and the fuel prices we've got energy and gas pricing—we pay over the odds for our gas and our energy in this country—and the building and construction sector. With costs just going up through the roof there's no such thing as an affordable home. I've built recently a very small modest 118 square metre home with my wife and the cost was over $500000 for the build—and we've just got chipboard floors.Jenny Marcroft: Chipboard floors?CLAYTON MITCHELL: Chipboard floors. We don't even have a garage. But the costs going through these building companies are just out of control. And these are the sorts of things that we could get our Commerce Commission to take a serious look at. The scope of work that they've got and the ability to check that out with the airlines the bank charges—when you compare the charges and the credit card charges that we pay in New Zealand versus what they're paying in Australia remembering that most of our banks are owned by those foreign monopolies and duopolies in Australia. So to hold them to account and hold their hands to the fire is exactly what this bill will enable the Commerce Commission to do. Something that's quite dear to my heart and something that we've talked about as a party quite considerably—in fact it came up as a remit at our recent convention in Tauranga—was the costs of retirement villages and the disparities and differences between one retirement village and another. I think those are the sorts of areas that we could be spending some time some effort and some energy making sure that we get those settings right. Enabling the Commerce Commission with the right tools to deal to these sorts of situations I think will go a long way for all New Zealanders. We are a very expensive place to live when you look around the world. In fact I've got family in the UK that pop down and get £20 worth of groceries and they've got four bag-loads of groceries whereas here you go and spend $40 on groceries and you won't even have enough to feed your kids for the night. You'd be better to go down to McDonald's or get some fried rice from your local Chinese takeaways because it's just so expensive to buy groceries in this country. The airport regulations are another great opportunity. There are three main parts to this bill and giving the Commerce Commission the tools enabling them to have reviews and looking at the way the airport regulations and airport services can behave I think is a great thing. And it's very very pleasing to see the House as a whole come together to support this bill as we steward it through the House. And tonight it's the third and final reading so look out New Zealand. We've got some good things on its way—another great thing that this Government has achieved in a very short amount of time. It looks like they're all ready to take a call. So on behalf of New Zealand First we commend the bill to the House and I'll take a seat. Thank you.