Williams Andrew: Credit Contracts and Consumer Finance Amendment Bill Financial Service Providers (Registration and Dispute Resolution) Amendment Bill — Third ReadingsText is incorporated into the Bound VolumeWilliams Andrew: Credit Contracts and Consumer Finance Amendment Bill Financial Service Providers (Registration and Dispute Resolution) Amendment Bill — Third Readings[Sitting date: 27 May 2014. Volume:699;Page:18362. Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume.]ANDREW WILLIAMS (NZ First): It is a great pleasure to take a call on behalf of New Zealand First following those lovely comments from the previous National speaker Kanwaljit Singh Bakshi about all his colleagues—and there are a few more you could have thanked as well who are sitting over there.But we will move on to the real subject tonight which is loan sharks. It is not all about thanking other National Party people for their contributions at the Commerce Committee and not about doing all that sort of backslapping. At the end of the day you can have all the fine print about what the moneylenders and the loan sharks will be required to do but the fine print is so small that it can hardly be read and hardly be seen. Many of the people affected by these bills the Credit Contracts and Consumer Finance Amendment Bill and the Financial Services Providers (Registration and Dispute Resolution) Amendment Bill do not speak English or have very limited understanding of English. They will simply be still taken for a ride as vulnerable people in our society who are borrowing money from unscrupulous loan sharks and moneylenders.In that respect there is one party in this House that has been consistent on this and that is New Zealand First. We have been consistent in saying that in terms of this legislation the Government is badly falling short. It is not recognising the fact that that last essential element of putting caps on interest rates would have been the ultimate determinant in this legislation that would have really made all the difference. So you can have all the fine print you like and you can have all the assurances you like but rest assured that the unscrupulous lenders will still find ways around it and will still find people who will sign up to things but cannot afford to borrow the money and will end up paying exorbitant interest rates.We cannot understand the rationale of this National Government in turning its back on other jurisdictions such as the United Kingdom the United States Canada Australia South Africa and Finland and most of the countries in Europe. The National Government here in New Zealand says it knows better—far better than all these other countries—and it will not put caps on interest rates and yet these other countries will. We have heard other speakers tonight mention some of the caps that are in place in some of these countries—the likes of 4 percent or 5 percent per month that sort of thing—to keep things realistic to keep things in single figures to keep things inperspective to what people may realistically be able to afford to then pay back. But we have not heard from the National Government how it is going to address interest rates that are into double digits—skyrocketing accumulative interest rates that end up in triple digits in some cases where people simply have no way of repaying the loans.Families end up suffering. At the end of the day it is the children who end up suffering in many cases. The children go without because simply the family is having to repay such huge amounts of interest to the loan sharks and the moneylenders. It is very sad that the National Government once again shows its lack of respect for social justice and its lack of empathy for those who are in most need of being protected and who are the most vulnerable in our society. Once again it is probably because the National members all come from backgrounds where this does not apply to them. It does not affect them. They are not affected they probably do not have people in their families affected by it and therefore it is out of sight out of mind. They do not care—too bad hard luck ain’t going to go there. Quite frankly it is very saddening that the National Government cannot recognise the fact that we as a Parliament and as the House of Representatives have a duty of care and a duty of responsibility to the people of New Zealand to protect those who are most at risk and those who are most vulnerable.It is also interesting that Carol Beaumont brought in Supplementary Order Paper 430 to put a cap on interest rates which was a follow-on from a member’s bill a couple of years ago the Credit Reforms (Responsible Lending) Bill which Charles Chauvel originally drew up. When it was a member’s bill it was put through with the support of the Hon Peter Dunne in those days—3 years ago. Peter Dunne is on record—in fact he wrote to one of his constituents—saying that he was pleased to be supporting that particular piece of legislation which included caps on interest rates and he would look forward to its being successful in the future. It is interesting that a couple of years later the Hon Peter Dunne then the Minister of Revenue and a lackey to the National Government went back on all those former assurances to support caps on interest rates and voted against it.A couple of weeks ago when this legislation was in Committee and when that amendment was put to the Committee to bring in a cap on interest rates it was lost by one vote. Again whose vote was it lost on? You do not have to guess. It was Peter Dunne’s. Once again Peter Dunne was the casting vote to ensure that caps were not brought in on interest rates. Talk about as the Rt Hon Winston Peters has said in the past double-crossing the bridge when he comes to it. That is Peter Dunne for you. He certainly double-crossed the bridge and double-crossed the people of New Zealand in terms of this bill to ensure that interest rates had caps put on them.Just in conclusion I am not going to labour the point but in some future Government that New Zealand First has a role in and where we have influence we will certainly ensure that the people of New Zealand the vulnerable people of New Zealand are protected in a greater manner and that interest rate caps are brought in. We believe that it is in the interests of all New Zealanders to have that. We believe that we should be no different from many of the other major countries that I mentioned earlier and that as a result of that New Zealand would be a far better place. We do not want to see the moneylenders and the loan sharks ripping off good hard-working Kiwi families and good hard-working Kiwi workers. We want to protect them. New Zealand First will stand up for them and ensure that that is the case.