Hernandez FranciscoFRANCISCO HERNANDEZ (Green): Mr Speaker thank you. I am here to speak on the Fair Trading (Gift Card Expiry) Amendment Bill acknowledging this is my first contribution to the House after my maiden speech. Congratulations to Minister Lee on the bill—it's very rare to have your member's bill be drawn let alone make it through the full process of the legislation. I commend Economic Development Science and Innovation that went through this.Scott Willis: What a good select committee!FRANCISCO HERNANDEZ: What a good select committee—that's right absolutely agree. That was actually one of the very first select committees that I was subbed on to and from the high quality of the discussion and the calibre of the members— particularly my fellow Dunedin-based MP Scott Willis—I have full confidence that the select committee did a fantastic job on this.Mr Speaker I support this bill because this bill is very aligned with Green values and my values are Green values. One of the Green values that we talk about is fairness. Consumer protection exists because we know that there's a power differential that different contexts create between different parties. In this case it's between companies and consumers. We've heard the stats from Consumer New Zealand: there's over $250 million floating around of gift cards; $10 million a year of value of gift cards is lost—that's immense; and one in five New Zealanders is stuck with an expired gift card. This is a bill that affects a majority of people—77 percent of New Zealanders regularly receive gift cards. I must confess like the member Vanessa Weenink I'm not a fan of gift cards. I think people should really just give cash or if someone's close enough to get a gift card you just give them an actual present. But that is a personal view—that is not a Green Party view. My personal experience with gift cards is as I said I don't use them.One of the reasons why this bill is so good is that it's an example of people fighting for collective change. I really acknowledge the campaign that Consumer New Zealand led which helped kick this thing off—they launched their gift card campaign in 2016. This is an example of why it's actually important to prioritise collective action over individuals and why sometimes regulation is so important. Because Consumer New Zealand wrote to 14 companies that offered gift cards and guess how many actually changed—only one actually ended up changing their policy from I think; 12 months and then they extended it to two years and then they ended up reverting back anyway. So essentially none actually ended up changing their mind. That shows how important regulation actually is in addressing market failures because essentially when consumers don't end up being able to spend their gift cards that's a massive market failure. And that ends up with surplus being lost from the consumer and with businesses pocketing the difference and that's quite unfair.One of the values that the Green Party abides by is also consensus. Obviously there's parts of the bill where we would have loved the bill to go further. And I echo the concerns raised by Consumer New Zealand when they asked to have more robust consumer protections—I think they wanted five years for example. So let me quote from the submission that they wrote: they said that In Ireland for example traders: cannot insist a gift card or voucher is spent in one transaction; must provide change in the form of cash electronic transfer or another voucher if the entire value isn't spent in one transaction; cannot limit the number of vouchers that a person can redeem in one transaction; cannot prevent a consumer from selling or transferring the voucher to another person; must clearly communicate the expiry date on the voucher itself or another durable medium. We urge the Committee to include similar rules in the Bill". I'm pleased that some of these contributions were picked up in the bill. For example the expiry date was a change that the wise select committee rightfully made.Another thing about consensus is that it's good to get everyone on the same page whenever possible and we heard from other submitters such as Retail New Zealand and the booksellers association that they supported the broad aims of the bill. So in fact when members in ACT are concerned about business not being aligned well when Retail New Zealand and the booksellers association in consultation with their members have said that they would support the aims of the bill then it's something to perhaps think about.Another thing to consider is that no legislation is ever perfect but if bills kind of take us forward sometimes you don't get everything you want. But the bills do have a role in kind of playing as consensus dealmakers in helping constructive legislation like this progress through the House. So with that in mind I want to thank all the submitters who gave their time to the bill. I want to thank the select committee who considered this bill and all members of the House for their contributions. Kia ora."