Bakshi Kanwaljit SinghKANWALJIT SINGH BAKSHI (National): Thank you for the opportunity to support the Commerce (Cartels and Other Matters) Amendment Bill in its third reading. This Government has been working for the past 9 years to make sure that the consumers benefit from the laws that are being passed through this House. Some of the points I would like to touch upon first of all are those laws that have passed and are benefiting consumers in the long term. There are improved financial reporting requirements and so far 90 percent of New Zealand businesses no longer need to produce full financial accounting. That is helping businesses to do what they are best at. We do not want them to just sit in front of computers or file papers. We want them to go out and do the business that they are best at.We have also strengthened the capital market and created more opportunities through crowdfunding. We have got many small investors who do not have real opportunity because they do not have big money but through crowdfunding they can collaborate and have good capital and they can invest in start-up companies that are looking for some capital investment. We have also tightened the regime for those providing financial advice because those small investors are at risk. We do not want them to make a wrong decision in investing somewhere on the wrong advice from a financial adviser who advised them to invest somewhere and then lose all their capital. We want to ensure that the advice given by the financial advisers is appropriate and helpful to them.We have introduced standardised reporting for the KiwiSaver funds allowing a more informed comparison. They are required to give what kind of return they are giving in comparison to others so that the investors feel confident. If investors do not get the proper return they can move on to some other KiwiSaver fund so that they can have secure funding and good return on their investment.We have progressed our commitment toward a single economic market with Australia. This is very important because we are a very small economy in comparison with Australia. We want to ensure that with a single regime there is benefit to our small businesses by filing less paperwork and having more access to the bigger market so that they can have better access to Australian markets. Some of the bills that have been passed by this House are helping the businesses.We have improved intellectual property settings which allow innovative local companies to grow. The other day I had a visit from a company from Dunedin that has patented an instrument that is helpful in detecting gases through a laser. That is a very innovative product is selling very well in New Zealand and they are going to launch that product in Australia. So we want to talk to those innovative companies and help them have access to the market.This bill which has got some major provisions will help competitive behaviour for the companies which benefits the consumer. One example I would like to quote is that when we travel from New Zealand to other parts of the world the code-sharing between the airlines has really helped the competitive nature of that. I remember when I came to New Zealand in early 2000 it used to cost about $3000 to travel to India. Now it has come down to almost $1500 to travel to India. That is because of the competitive nature—we have got those proper laws in place.This bill has provision for a penalty regime whereby if the Commerce Commission finds that somebody is doing something uncompetitive in business then there are penalties. For example recently we saw that the Commerce Commission imposed $6 million on Air New Zealand because of its uncompetitive behaviour in freight movement. We have given an exemption for maritime so that they can work together because as I said we are a small economy. We do not have too much freight movement in the Pacific in particular. We want to ensure that the importers as well as the exporters get best benefit out of the pricing and they can collaborate in ship movements so that one vessel can take all of the products together of those importers and exporters.For individuals a penalty with a limit of half a million dollars can be imposed whereas there is no limit for corporates. The Commerce Commission can decide whatever amount it wants to impose for unruly behaviour and that can help a more competitive nature. In fact as I said going back to the shipping on the Pacific Island route there are some dedicated shipping companies between New Zealand and the Pacific Islands that operate on a thin margin to provide essential services. Many of these routes are serviced through vessels that link slots and share arrangements which would be permitted by the block exemption. That is important because we want to ensure that our importers and exporters are not harmed by this.Overseas acquisition is another area that is very important for us because what happens is that if a company merges overseas the consumer over here can be affected. We want to ensure that if such mergers take place the Commerce Commission has the tools to look into those areas and ensure that those mergers are not going to affect the New Zealand consumers. For example we can see that many of the online television companies are providing content to consumers. We want to ensure that the consumers and the viewers in New Zealand have access to those markets and that there is no monopoly on such events particularly the sports events.A strong capital market provides vital sources of finance to help our businesses to grow and create jobs. These are central to improving the financial well-being of New Zealanders. We want to ensure that we have proper laws in place so that the financial market can grow. We firmly believe in supporting New Zealand businesses to be the best they can be in both the domestic as well as international market. We want to ensure that they have got those facilities. The Commerce (Cartels and Other Matters) Amendment Bill promotes economic growth by enabling broad competitive collaborative between firms while also deterring hard-core cartel conduct. It is a very important bill and I commend it to the House.