Brownlee Gerry: Real Estate Agents Bill — Second Reading In Committee Third Reading 
Brownlee Gerry: Real Estate Agents Bill — Second Reading In Committee Third Reading 
[Volume:649;Page:18396] 
GERRY BROWNLEE (National—Ilam) 
: 
 I wonder whether the Minister in the chair the Hon Clayton Cosgrove might tell us why there is no fidelity fund attached to this authority. Why is he so confident that—[ 
Interruption 
] Well he is the honourable member of Parliament one minute and has a tattered career the next. That is how it happens: an honourable member one minute and a tattered career the next. That is how it goes. 
The CHAIRPERSON (H V Ross Robertson) 
: Get to the bill. 
GERRY BROWNLEE 
: I am not surprised that the Minister of Foreign Affairs is in the Chamber taking a great interest in the real estate bill because after the election he is likely to have to get a job selling real estate. 
Rt Hon Winston Peters 
: I raise a point of order Mr Chairperson. This Parliament has put up for long enough with this member getting up disregarding Standing Orders and Speakers’ Rulings day in day out and acting like a prize buffoon. I only raise this because there are some young people in the gallery today and they should not be subjected to this nonsense. 
The CHAIRPERSON (H V Ross Robertson) 
: Thank you Mr Peters. 
GERRY BROWNLEE 
: Speaking to the point of order I want to apologise to this Chamber and to members like Mr Peters for any concerns they might have. I would note though that today in evidence to the Privileges Committee— 
The CHAIRPERSON (H V Ross Robertson) 
: Both members will be seated. I just remind members that when there is a point of order it is supposed to be heard in silence. In both cases there was chipping by both members. I take it that it is one all at the moment. 
Rt Hon Winston Peters 
: I raise a point of order Mr Chairperson. You just saw what has become the practice by this member. He sits on a very august authority as an arbiter and a neutral judge. He walks into this Chamber on the very day that he is meant to be a jurist somewhere else and he now wants to tell you about the evidence. That is my complaint about this kangaroo court that he is making of it. Not only is he just about to infringe Standing Orders on the Privileges Committee procedures which apparently this morning were very very big in his mind but now he wants to offend against the rules of this Chamber as well. I ask you to bring him to order or to stop him speaking. 
The CHAIRPERSON (H V Ross Robertson) 
: I just say there was an exchange and I was listening very carefully. I ask the member now to address the bill. 
GERRY BROWNLEE 
: I will but I expect that there will therefore be no further reference to Gerry Brownlee Crown prosecutor or for that matter the “Rt Hon” Gerry Brownlee—which I do not mind in actual fact. 
Rt Hon Winston Peters 
: I raise a point of order Mr Chairperson. You were asked by Mr Finlayson to bring the Minister to order—wrongly of course because he was addressing the issue before the Committee. Now Mr Brownlee is now trying to raise an interjection under the Standing Orders that he finds offensive. Frankly if he cannot take an interjection—if the kitchen is too hot— 
The ASSISTANT SPEAKER (H V Ross Robertson) 
: I have a yellow card in my pocket. It is just about to come out. 
GERRY BROWNLEE 
: That would be the last thing I would want to cause you to have to do. [ 
Interruption 
] I beg your pardon? Yeah right! 
The CHAIRPERSON (H V Ross Robertson) 
: Can we get on with the debate. We have had our fun. 
GERRY BROWNLEE 
: It is serious. It is a serious point and Mr Cosgrove the Minister was quite right to say there should be concerns about people getting ripped off in real estate transactions. He pointed out the very case that I believe was the genesis of this legislation in the first place: the extraordinary situation of one real estate agent in one of our northern cities who was given a real estate agent of the year award through an agency and then later was found to be quite corrupt in his practice. [ 
Interruption 
] The Minister says that perhaps it stopped short of that. Certainly his practices were not acceptable in normal business practice and people got burnt as a result of it. Indeed the Minister himself outlined a number of cases where people got badly burnt. 
But I think simply putting together an authority to manage aspects of real estate agency functions with the authority entirely appointed by the Minister with practices developed only with the Minister’s approval and with ethical standards and statements of responsibility only according to what the Minister is prepared to approve does little if there is not some sort of fidelity fund attached to it. New Zealanders pay some of the highest real estate agency fees in the world and I would have thought that if the Government was so keen to establish yet another bureaucracy that comes under the purview of a Minister then there might well have been a case for a fidelity fund to be established. I will lay this bet: that subsequent to the passing of this bill and subsequent to the establishment of the Real Estate Agents Authority the Minister himself will not accept any liability where there is bad dealing by those people. 
I think that makes the whole thing just a little bit thin. It makes it slightly a sham and it tends to indicate that the costs associated with this legislation loaded on to the costs of selling—and ultimately purchasing—property will simply increase without any greater protection than is in place at the present time. It would be interesting for the Minister to take a call and say exactly what will come out of the new authority that will give people any greater surety about their dealings with real estate agents than they have at the present time. That would be an interesting answer from him. 
We do not doubt the sincerity with which he has brought this bill to the House; we do not doubt that. We know that everyone in this House is concerned about those cases that he raised. But each of us in our constituencies would observe that hundreds of houses are sold in a year possibly even in a month without the sorts of difficulties he outlined earlier. So we are a little perplexed by the need to set up this particular authority and are even more perplexed that the authority’s seven members are apparently all going to be appointed by the Minister according to normal appointment practice. 
Christopher Finlayson 
: Normal Labour practice. 
GERRY BROWNLEE 
: My colleague makes a comment that I will not dwell on because we have had more of those appointments today.