Lotu-Iiga Peseta Sam: Securities Disclosure and Financial Advisers  Amendment Bill — First Reading 
Lotu-Iiga Peseta Sam: Securities Disclosure and Financial Advisers  Amendment Bill — First Reading 
[Volume:652;Page:1549] 
PESETA SAM LOTU-IIGA (National—Maungakiekie) 
: 
 I rise to support the Securities Disclosure and Financial Advisers Amendment Bill as well. I am glad that I follow the previous Minister of Commerce and I acknowledge the role she has played in this process. 
I will give a bit of background. We have heard that this bill addresses some of the issues around the global downturn. In my experience in my electorate I know from talking to a number of both large and small businesses—corporates—that one of the big issues facing our business community and workers in our country is the global credit crisis and the problem of gaining access to funds. This bill addresses that by providing for the removal of some of the impediments to capital-raising while acknowledging that the timely disclosure of relevant information to potential and actual investors is still critical to the process of investing in companies. 
Part 1 talks about how we can simplify the prospectuses that are sent out to investors in the form of an investment statement. Having worked on prospectuses myself—from the legal perspective of compiling prospectuses and offer documents for the raising of capital both debt and equity—I do understand how this bill will streamline some of the duplication of the information that is disclosed by companies. One thing that we should be careful to ensure is that investors still get the right type of information on which to make informed and sensible decisions. This bill does not lighten the load on the disclosure of that information but it does try to eliminate some of the duplication that comes out of some of the disclosure documents. 
I am glad that the—she has gone now—previous Minister of Commerce Lianne Dalziel referred to the regulatory impact statement in the explanatory note of the bill. That states quite clearly that the preferred option for some of the amendments relating to listed issuers is to streamline the disclosure requirements and to amend the existing definitions for exemptions from standard disclosure requirements. One of the examples that has been put forward is in terms of the persons who are subject to such requirements. One of them concerns those persons who have made investments in the last 12 months. I think that is a positive and I think the Minister has done very well. 
The issue really is about building up the confidence and trust of our investors. We have seen both here and across the world that the equity markets are really suffering. Last night the Dow Jones plummeted to an all-time low since the US presidential election. I think what we need from our legislators are a sense of purpose and an understanding that a lot of our corporates are suffering because credit is not readily available. I think the Government has done a great job in its first 100 days. Some people would disagree with that but we have tried in a number of different ways and in a number of different areas to make business easier to transact. That has been done through the Resource Management Act reforms through the recently enacted legislation that has put in place a 90-day probationary period of employment and through passing bills like this one which is business-friendly while still acknowledging the roles that workers and businesses play in our communities. 
I support this bill. It recognises that we are in a predicament that we have not been in for a number of years. It is about helping our businesses to raise the requisite capital—not only the working capital that is needed for the day-to-day operations of our corporates but also the type of capital that businesses raise to build plants and machinery and to hire workers. The issue is about growth it is about productivity and it is about jobs. The recent Job Summit which was a success last Friday— 
Nathan Guy 
: Hugely successful. 
PESETA SAM LOTU-IIGA 
: Hugely successful as the chief Government whip would say. It was hugely successful because we brought together a number of different parties from across the political spectrum a number of different parties from across the community the unions business leaders and various other community leaders. It was not dominated by politicians. We need to understand that the job will not be easy. If we are to get out of this recession the right people need to be in place the right Government has to be in place and the right type of legislation has to be in place. That is what this bill is about. It is about protecting investors who need to be protected from corporates—and there are some out there—that are shall we say unsavoury and not very trustworthy. 
But this bill is also about allowing our businesses to grow and develop. Many of the changes we see in the bill are about avoiding double-ups and reducing compliance costs. Businesses are totally run down by compliance costs in terms of overburdening taxes and also the reporting requirements that have been put in place by Governments. We need to free businesses up a little and allow them to do what they do best which is to deliver products and services to New Zealanders and to deliver products and services to foreign countries so that we can reduce an overburdening balance of payments deficit. 
I speak in favour of this bill not because it will save us from the economic recession—it is a small step. The previous Minister of Commerce mentioned that the Securities Act needs to be looked at reviewed and reformed and we will give careful consideration not just here in the House but also in the select committee to producing the type of legislation that promotes growth and businesses and also promotes the interests of our workers who need their jobs to be protected. 
In summary I speak in favour of this bill. I think it is a good bill and I think it will be passed with the generous support of our friends across the House. The bill does need to go through the select committee process where we will refine certain clauses. But the bill is a good start. We have made a good start to our administration and we will move forward with certain legislation.