Faafoi KrisLAND TRANSPORT (WHEEL CLAMPING) AMENDMENT BILLThird ReadingHon KRIS FAAFOI (Minister of Commerce and Consumer Affairs): I move That the Land Transport (Wheel Clamping) Amendment Bill be now read a third time.I am very happy and I am very proud to get this piece of legislation to its third reading and not too far away from becoming law.I think most New Zealanders have an inherent idea of what a fair go is what is fair what is reasonable and also an inherent idea of what is unreasonable. The practice that we are regulating this evening is an area which I think for some time has been an area where most New Zealanders have seen uncontrolled exorbitant and sometimes intimidating behaviour from those who immobilise cars in the legislative sense and language or who clamp vehicles in private car parks sometimes without those cars actually breaching any time limit or rules for that car park and then charging what in many cases were unreasonable and in a few extremely unreasonable cases exorbitant amounts of money for those clamps or immobilisers to be removed.This is a piece of legislation that when I took over the Commerce and Consumer Affairs portfolio was something that I inquired into and to be perfectly frank was quite stunned that nothing could be done to deal with this issue unless there was a legislative change. The fact that we've had to take this through the legislative process has meant that it's taken some time but we're very happy to get it to this point. The point of this bill is to end the practice of the cowboy clampers who have been preying on people who can least afford to pay exorbitant amounts of money to have their cars unclamped and to cap the fee to remove that clamp in the situations contained in this bill to $100.Now there was some debate that I was witness to during the committee stage about whether or not enough work had been done to build a case for this piece of legislation. And I also note that the Opposition is voting in favour of this bill. So to the second point can I thank them for their support of this piece of legislation but to the first point can I just say that you can't have it both ways. The Opposition has criticised this side of the House for setting up reviews or working groups but this simply was a problem when I became a Minister that I wanted to deal with.There wasn't too much research to be done other than a regular reading of potentially the New Zealand Herald. An endless flow of consumer pain around stories around again the likes of $700 being charged to remove a clamp I think goes against that inherent feeling of New Zealanders of what a fair go is. Getting charged $700 to remove a clamp from a car in this Government's idea is not a fair go. So we didn't have to muck around to determine that. We didn't wait the complete term of a Government to say This is an issue." We arrived saw the problem and did something about it. It's something that might be a little bit foreign to the members on the other side of the House but I thank them for their judgment to actually support this piece of legislation.What I am looking forward to is predominantly my Auckland colleagues using this piece of legislation as one of the things that they can talk about in terms of delivery for their constituents. Again it's predominantly Auckland-based stories where those motorists have been preyed upon and nothing was done. Again endless flows of stories and nothing was done—certainly by the previous Government. So I'm proud to have got this piece of legislation through to the point where we're at the third reading.Some thanks again do need to go to the Transport and Infrastructure Committee for their work on this piece of legislation. It's not a long bill. It's quite a simple bill. But I think it will give a lot of people who park on a regular basis—and I think that's most New Zealanders who've got a car—quite a lot of peace of mind.There was some robust debate as I mentioned again around the committee stage and I just wanted to go through some points and some questions that were raised. My colleague Jamie Strange did note that during the select committee process there were some questions raised about whether or not we should do more around signage and I just wanted to reiterate the message that I gave to the House during the select committee stage that the Fair Trading Act already has the ability to create under regulations some standards when it comes to parking signage. So if there is the necessity to go beyond what we've got in this piece of legislation the Fair Trading Act can be brought into play and increased signage standards can be brought in via regulation. So this could be a moveable feast but I do think this will make a big difference in terms of consumer protection and also hopefully preventing a lot of the practices that some of these cowboy clampers have been up to for some time.I do want to notice in the legislation the penalties that will come in if those who have clamped cars transgress against the legislation. For an individual it will be a fine of up to $3000 and for a company a fine of $15000. So I hope that not only will the business model for some of those clamping companies change but those potential penalties if they continue to offend will act as a rather large financial deterrent for them to continue their ways.I do want to apologise also to my colleague Kieran McAnulty because during the committee stage I did say to him that I believed there was an incident where there was some clamping in the town of Masterton. I have rethought that and it wasn't Masterton; it was a town in the South Island that I visited which I won't mention because of the cost of the clamping there.But hopefully the passage of this legislation will mean the end of the pain for those consumers who for far too long have been scared to park in a local car park because of some of the practices of these cowboy clamping companies. We're quite happy that this legislation sends a message to them that the golden days are over and that charging whatever you like to people who least suspect it has come to an end and that there's a limit to what you can charge because we have tried to strike the balance with property rights too. There are some people who will park incorrectly and this legislation still allows clamping to occur but that exorbitant amount of money that some companies charge is to come to an end. And it will be set at $100.So again can I thank—I think—all members in the House who are going to vote for this legislation for giving those motorists the peace of mind that the maximum they will pay if they do transgress won't be $700 or $800 but that it will be $100 and I think that will give a whole lot of New Zealanders peace of mind and that they won't be scared that when they go down to the local shops they're going to end up with a $700 bill instead of a $2.50 loaf of bread. I commend this bill to the House."