Lee Melissa; Williams PotoMELISSA LEE (National): Tēnā koutou katoa. Madam Assistant Speaker it's a great opportunity. Thank you for the opportunity to take a call on the Financial Services Legislation Amendment Bill sometimes called F-SLAB and I think sometimes it was actually called FSLAB. In Parliament we often come across some acronyms and I think I was actually picked up by one of the newspapers suggesting that I didn't actually know what the legislation was because I didn't know what FSLAB was versus F-SLAB—and going What was that?". I just want to say I do actually know what the Financial Services Legislation Amendment Bill is all about.As earlier speakers have said there were at least 71 different organisations and individuals who actually submitted to this legislation to this bill through the select committee. We heard from 34 of them and I'd like to take this opportunity to thank the chair and the members. There are some new members to the Economic Development Science and Innovation Committee and I'd like to welcome them.I would also like to acknowledge the Minister the Hon Kris Faafoi. This is the first chance I've actually had in the Chamber to thank him for the support of his officials and commend him on being named as the new Minister of Broadcasting Communications and Digital Media—particularly digital media Minister—in addition to his role as commerce and consumer affairs Minister. I'm sure that he has a lot of work already. He has a big workload and I hope that he is up to the task of the massive issues that the digital sector is actually facing.If I could actually go back to one of the things that Jonathan Young has mentioned in terms of what this bill is actually about this bill actually seeks to establish a new regulatory regime for financial advice and financial advisers in New Zealand and to amend requirements for registration on the Financial Services Providers Register to prevent its misuse. The bill is actually based on a statutory review of the existing regulatory regime which was completed in 2016.Many members have actually mentioned the particular point in terms of removing the requirement that only a natural person—meaning you know human beings—is able to give financial advice; to in fact allow for provisions of online advice called robo-advice and I want to get to that particularly.Some members have talked about the telephone call that people make to let's say a bank and it saying "Press 1 for this thing. Press 2 for this thing." and recently I've had an opportunity to meet with and actually visit some of New Zealand's very innovative companies such as FaceMe and Ambit and to actually be shown what their business is actually capable of and what they're innovating in this space of digital technology.One of the things that I came across was an avatar. This particular company had developed an avatar—it's a face; it's a computerised face—which was a meld of Māori Asian and Pacific faces and actually looked like one of my god-daughters who happens to be Samoan Dutch and Chinese. This avatar was able to provide financial advice. For example I think this particular one was actually developed for the ASB bank. What this avatar and the robo-advice can actually do is that with the access of the person's identification card or the bank card number or a bank customer number they can get advice from this particular computerised robot—to say for example "I want to buy a new car." and the robot can actually say "You are able to borrow"—or have the capability to borrow—"a certain amount of dollars from your past history."This is something that new technology is making happen in New Zealand and some of these New Zealand companies are leading the way in this new digital era. All that artificial intelligence technology that people talk about actually puts us in a space where instead of having real people providing financial advice there are technical things that even robots can actually do and hopefully the regulatory regime that actually removes requiring natural persons to be the only ones who can actually do this will provide the banks to provide sometimes simple advice—and more complex—that robots can actually provide to the customers.I think it is important to note that during the National-led Government we improved a number of existing matters in the financial sector including tightening the market regime for those who provided financial advice and also we strengthened New Zealand holding the reputation as a good place to do business and I think that is really important.We actually talked about—some of the members have sort of talked about—how in the 1980s with the stock market crashes and everything that has actually happened around the world people are very gun-shy in terms of what they will actually invest in. Often we are dealing with you know mums and pas—and people have actually said that—and often they don't actually have the expertise nor do they have the sophistication to think about what they can actually invest in and what kind of benefits they will actually have. It's very important to make sure that we have a trustworthy very good regime that can actually protect the customers and make sure that how little or how big—it doesn't really matter; I think one of the members opposite actually said we need to protect both the people on the high end and the low end of the spectrum when it comes to investment—they get very good advice. And I agree and I'm glad that all of the members here actually agree on that.One of the things that we also heard during the select committee process is because New Zealand has such a good reputation—being transparent and a place to do business and you know it's good for business—we've actually had situations of overseas financial companies that don't actually belong in New Zealand registering their companies here and never actually providing advice. They're taking advantage of the fact that they happen to be registered in New Zealand and this is one of the things that we will actually protect New Zealand people from as well as making sure that those businesses who establish here are in fact New Zealand businesses—that they do actually run a business here and they're not just taking advantage of the good name of New Zealand and not operating some shyster fake business or whatever just to take advantage of New Zealand's good name.The other thing that I wanted to talk about is the confidence that people have. Actually it reminded me of what Mr Gareth Hughes talked about and earlier I think Mr Brett Hudson talked about which is the issue of making sure that unintended advice—for example there are reporters and column writers writing for newspapers or on blogs or whatever. It is not necessarily financial advice that they're giving. They give an opinion and some of them are experts and some of them are not. Lawyers provide—in their everyday transactions where they're dealing with mortgages or discharging mortgages or giving some advice as to what they should do and in terms of accountants when they're dealing with their customers they are not necessarily providing financial advice. If they're going about their everyday kind of work then they should not caught in this regime and also be punished for their everyday work that they do. Like a member of Parliament might say "Maybe you should talk to a financial adviser. Maybe it's a good idea to put some money in a savings account or invest in something."—we're not necessarily providing financial advice or what most people would consider to be financial advice. As a migrant one of the things that I have noticed just talking for myself is that our parents have a different way of thinking about what savings are or what investment is because we come from a different culture. You come to New Zealand and the way that we view investment is actually very different. Often migrants—you know for my parents it was always about things that are tangible and investing in things that were tangible. So they would never invest in stocks but they would always put money into things like plants factories or buildings. As we get more sophisticated we will actually move on to other investment portfolios like stocks for example. Having good robust financial advice is what people need and I think this particular piece of legislation provides that and protects New Zealand customers so as to get the best-possible advice that they could have. The very fact that this bill has come to this House is I think a great thing and I commend the bill to the House. ASSISTANT SPEAKER (Poto Williams): Thank you your time has expired—I'm sorry about that. I understand this is a split call. You have five minutes—Greg O'Connor."