Nash Stuart: Westpac New Zealand Bill — First Reading 
Nash Stuart: Westpac New Zealand Bill — First Reading 
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STUART NASH (Labour) 
: 
 I stand to support this private bill the Westpac New Zealand Bill. There are a number of reasons why we support it. It is common-sense and absolutely necessary legislation and Labour has always supported any sort of financial legislation that we believe improves business and Government efficiency. This bill is also important to the strength of the local banking sector. It has already been alluded to that Australasia came out of the financial crisis reasonably well and one of the reasons we did was that we had a very strong and sound banking sector. 
The bill is called the Westpac New Zealand Bill; I will just allay some people’s fears because we had the “Warner Bros Bill”—the Employment Relations (Film Production Work) Amendment Bill—earlier this year. People may think that a bill promoted by Westpac is one of those insidious bills that is held over New Zealand by a large international corporation. In fact it is not at all. Whereas the “Warner Bros Bill” did that eroding sovereign rights of New Zealand this bill is quite the opposite. 
We support the bill and the Reserve Bank supports it. We also understand that it is very important that Westpac New Zealand has very sound and stable New Zealand operations and enjoys the benefits of being linked to its trans-Tasman parent—for example access to capital. 
As mentioned the Reserve Bank backs this bill. As I said it is a common-sense bill and we are very much looking forward to bringing it to the Finance and Expenditure Committee so that we can look at its provisions and hear submissions on it just to make sure that it is nice and robust. But we are supporting it. 
I will make one point that I think Westpac should be aware of and that is that the level of transparency that New Zealanders demand of their banks is very important. Before I elaborate on that a little further I say that last week Westpac sent its KiwiSaver team up to Wairoa to help out some distressed freezing workers who had gone without work for up to 6 months. The team did an absolutely fantastic job of providing budgeting advice helping people apply for some of the extreme hardship provisions that are available under the KiwiSaver Act and providing a whole lot of general information to those people in Wairoa. At this point I thank Westpac for the work it did because it was absolutely brilliant and it was hugely appreciated by the people of Wairoa. 
We all understand the importance of a sound banking system—of that there is no doubt in any quarter of this House. As I mentioned our system held up very well but the one thing that is most important—and I think most New Zealanders expect if not demand it—is a level of transparency and accountability. Labour tried to bring that to bear when we held our banking inquiry because the vast majority of New Zealanders did not understand what was happening. Probably there was a very logical reason for what was happening. This was when the financial crisis was at its height. The official cash rate was quite low but the margins that the banks were making were quite high and the vast majority of people did not understand what was going on. Labour called for a banking inquiry. It was not supported except by the Greens and that was hugely appreciated— 
Hon David Parker 
: And the Progressive party. 
STUART NASH 
: —and the Progressive party sorry. We asked the banks to appear before us just so they could explain in plain English what was going on how the banks were operating and why they were doing what they were doing. The vast majority of New Zealanders were suffering but banks were declaring hundreds of millions of dollars in profit. 
That was a very good opportunity to sit down in front of ordinary New Zealanders in an open forum and get the information out there. Only one bank Kiwibank sat down in front of us and explained. Westpac did not and I say to Westpac as the Government banker that we demand a level of accountability and responsibility especially from the Government’s banker and we hope that in future Westpac takes advantage of any opportunity to explain to the public its methods of operation. 
We are supporting this bill and I look forward to its going to the select committee. But also I say to Westpac that there is an element of disquiet in the country at the moment about the situation where the New Zealand chief executive of Westpac—who is earning about $5 million I think—has just received a tax cut of about $5000 per week and the person who cleans his office has received a tax cut of about $5 a week which is about 1000 times smaller than the tax cut the chief executive is getting. A lot of New Zealanders have a level of disquiet about that situation. But this is a good bill. We support it and I look forward to it coming before the select committee. Thank you.