Strange JamieJAMIE STRANGE (Labour—Hamilton East): Madam Speaker thank you for the opportunity to take a call on the Commerce Amendment Bill. I'd like to acknowledge the Minister the Hon David Clark for bringing this bill to the House and also acknowledge the aspect that he has been working on this for quite a while. I also acknowledge the previous Minister the Hon Kris Faafoi.I'd also like to mention as the chair of the Economic Development Science and Innovation Committee the recommendation from the Minister that this bill does come to that committee. On behalf of the committee we certainly welcome that bill and look forward to the many submissions that I'm sure will follow on this bill.The previous speaker the Hon Todd McClay made some good points around supporting businesses and consumers in terms of ensuring that we get the legislation right for our market economy and I'm confident that the legislation that the Minister has brought to the House does strike the right balance. And at the same time we look forward to hearing from a range of submitters in terms of their views around this piece of legislation. I will talk briefly around what the bill does and then I'll talk a little bit about how it links into New Zealand's free market economy and the importance of strong competition within our economy.The Commerce Amendment Bill amends the Commerce Act 1986 to improve the reach and functioning of competition law and that's the key point—the aspect around competition—with the Act's purpose of promoting competition in markets for the long-term benefit of consumers in New Zealand. There are four key ways that the bill does this. The first one is by strengthening the Act's section 36 the prohibition against the misuse of market power. And as I've said we do have a market economy in New Zealand and an incredibly successful market economy and it's important that we continue to support our market economy to do what it has been doing well for a number of years. Also even through the challenges of COVID our market economy has held up relatively well.The second thing the bill does is empower the Commerce Commission to authorise conduct that may contravene the section 36 prohibition but is also in the public interest. The third one is repealing safe harbours in the Act for intellectual property and I'll touch on that later in my speech. And the fourth one makes a number of technical changes.As I've said New Zealand has a free market economy and competition plays a key role in prices and in terms of consumer behaviour. Five of the key features in terms of New Zealand's economy are economic freedom voluntary and willing exchange of goods and services private property rights the profit motive and the fifth aspect which specifically relates to this bill is the aspect around competition. Those watching this speech at home might be asking: why is competition so important to an economy and why would the Minister bring a bill to the House to ensure that there is a good strong amount of competition within an economy? Why is that important? I'd like to speak to the House for those people watching at home in terms of just highlighting a few aspects around why competition is important and hence why this bill is important.The first point is that competition is clearly good for consumers in terms of prices. If you don't have competition then the prices tend to balloon up. If we have good strong competition within a market economy then the prices stay relatively low which is good for consumers. It means that money freely flows throughout the economy as consumers make purchases and ideally the more purchases that consumers make is obviously better for the free flow of money.The second reason why competition is important and why this bill is important is because it encourages businesses to produce and boost the economy. So if a business has a monopoly within an economy then there is no incentive particularly for them to actually work to boost the economy to grow the economy because they've got their share and there's no incentive for them to look forward—which causes growth in the economy.The third reason why competition is important is because it encourages businesses to improve the quality of goods and services that they sell and I'm sure all members in this House would agree that our very diverse economy produces a number of good-quality and high-value goods and services. The high-value goods and services that we produce certainly adds to our standard of living. So competition is important in terms of those services.Another reason why competition is important is around innovation. When there is competition businesses are forced to innovate. The reality is that over many years we have had a number of Kiwi businesses that I'm sure we're all very proud of who have innovated very well and increased the quality of their products and increased our standard of living. Actually from a personal point of view both my uncles and my grandfather were dairy farmers down in the South Island and my grandfather in particular was constantly innovating as a business owner. He was constantly looking for new tools and new products to help his business innovate. There is a local company in the Hamilton region—and I acknowledge my colleague the Hon David Bennett; I'm sure he would agree with me—the Gallagher Group who are world-leading in terms of innovation and last year turned over $300 million.Hon David Bennett: Why didn't you guys help out Pacific Aerospace?JAMIE STRANGE: What?Hon David Bennett: Why didn't you help out Pacific Aerospace?JAMIE STRANGE: We are supporting all businesses on this side of the House and this is one of the ways we are supporting businesses I say to the Hon David Bennett. We are supporting businesses by bringing about competition in the market encouraging those businesses to innovate and also supporting them with R & D tax credits but that's for another time. I will return to the bill.This aspect around competition is policed by the Commerce Commission. I'd like to acknowledge the work that the Commerce Commission does across New Zealand. This bill provides further support for the Commerce Commission. The Commerce Commission ensures that consumers are protected and ensures that clear and accurate information is provided to them so that there's a level playing field for competitors the rules are known they are monitored and market power is not taken advantage of and used for anti-competitive purposes. The previous speaker mentioned the Commerce Commission and talked about how they are well resourced and I acknowledge that they are but at times it falls on us as members of Parliament to ensure that the legislation is fit and right so that the Commerce Commission can do their job. One of the key roles of the Commerce Commission is to ensure that there is a strong level of competition within our free market economy and this piece of legislation does further work to empower the Commerce Commission to do their work.Back in 2016 there was an example of anti-competitive behaviour in Australia. I know that that example which I'll elaborate on soon has featured into the thinking on this bill. In Australia there is a piece of legislation very similar to the piece of legislation that the Minister is bringing into the House today. What happened over in Australia was there was a company called Cement Australia Ltd and they effectively had a monopoly on a product called fly ash. Fly ash is a product that's used towards making cement products. So this company had control over all of the fly ash in the Queensland area. So it meant that other companies weren't able to compete with this product and the Federal Court of Australia actually ordered penalties totalling $18.6 million against Cement Australia because of their anti-competitive behaviour in terms of this fly ash. Justice Greenwood over in Australia found that the conduct had the purpose and effect of preventing a competitor from entering the market by preventing them from obtaining direct access to the source of fly ash. That is exactly an example of what we don't want to happen here in New Zealand in terms of anti-competitive behaviour. I know that that example certainly formed part of the work that has been done around this legislation.I will just summarise by saying that we have an absolutely fantastic free market economy here in New Zealand and as a Government we are working hard to continue to support our economy and one of the ways we are doing that is through encouraging competitive behaviour. I look forward to calls from the other side of the House and I commend this bill to the House.