Williams Andrew: Commerce (Cartels and Other Matters) Amendment Bill — First Reading 
Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume 
Williams Andrew: Commerce (Cartels and Other Matters) Amendment Bill — First Reading 
[Sitting date: 24 July 2012. Volume:682;Page:3877. Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume.] 
ANDREW WILLIAMS (NZ First) 
: 
 I rise on behalf of New Zealand First to speak on the Commerce (Cartels and Other Matters) Amendment Bill. New Zealand First will be supporting this bill through the House. However we still do have some concerns like the previous bill that was discussed tonight about some aspects of it. 
I personally can recall over the last few decades how New Zealand has been subjected to influences of what could have been termed cartels. From my experience in the shipping and meat industry over many many years we certainly were subject to price fixing by international shipping lines serving this country. Being an island State and dependent on our exports of meat and foodstuffs it was certainly disappointing to see that occurring over many many years. The cost of shipping containers 20 years ago was absolutely horrendous. For a period of time I worked for an independent shipping line ABC Container Lines which challenged the cartel and brought independent cheaper freight rates particularly for wool to New Zealand. As a result the returns to New Zealand wool growers returns to the Wool Board and returns to sheep farmers in New Zealand increased considerably because the cost of freight to Europe and other markets was lessened. Likewise during my time in the air cargo business I was certainly witness to the fact that there was a great deal of price fixing on the part of airlines and in fact it was very difficult to get New Zealand cargo into many markets without having to take a fixed price on the freight rate because there simply was not much choice over many many years. 
We are asked often in this country to this very day whether we still have cartels in this country and whether there is price fixing. One has to ask the question really when we continue to see the price of petrol being adjusted by the major four companies basically following each other within minutes or hours of another moving their prices. You do wonder how much independence there is in the price of petrol in this country when you drive down a road and you see the same prices at every consecutive petrol station. Likewise when you go into the supermarkets and see the bottles of milk there from one major chain to the next major chain and they are an identical price you do start to wonder how much independence there is there and whether there is true competition in our milk pricing. Similarly New Zealand is one of the most expensive countries in the world for telecommunications. Our mobile phones are extremely expensive. Again you do wonder how much competition is out there. Is it genuine competition or is it just working the system to ensure that the consumers of New Zealand pay as much as they can take out of them? Likewise as was mentioned by the Green Party tonight you do wonder similarly about the banking system where again many of our bank rates and many of our bank charges are so similar particularly coming out of the Australian banks how much is “wink wink nudge nudge” and let us just get on with it. So there is a lot there on the table and certainly I hope and New Zealand First hopes that the Commerce (Cartels and Other Matters) Amendment Bill will address some of these issues. 
At the same time we would hope that this bill addresses situations where there could be what is called the rigging of bids or the fixing of bids. One does have to ask whether this sort of situation is occurring in New Zealand as well. We are not saying it is and we are not pointing any fingers but with this Government dismissing three or four bids for the International Convention Centre in favour of only one bidder one does start to wonder whether there is price fixing in this country or there is “wink wink nudge nudge” from the Government—the same Government that chose to have its conference last weekend at that same Skycity convention centre had its victory party for the election at that same convention centre had its campaign launch last year at that same convention centre and gave that convention centre another 500 pokie machines—or is going to. Within this situation and where this bill refers to price fixing or rigging of bids and being pro-competitive you do hope that the same rules will apply to the Government as well. We also see in Christchurch again where there is a huge amount of work being done questions being asked as to whether the one preferred contractor of the Earthquake Commission and the Government is in fact providing a competitive situation. This week they have reduced the rates of pay by $6 per hour and the labourers and workers have simply had to take that pay cut or leave it—lump it or leave it. They are the only Government-appointed contractor and you do again wonder whether within this country there is price fixing and arrangements going on that are not necessarily competitive but which are actually anti-competitive. 
In closing I would note at the front of this bill the following paragraph. I would like to read this out because I think it is very very pertinent and the people out there perhaps listening to Parliament should be aware of it. It says on the front of this bill: “As noted by the OECD in 2003 the pernicious effects of cartels on economic efficiency are wide-reaching. By raising prices above the competitive level and decreasing output cartels have the effect of making consumers either pay a higher price for the product or forgo the product entirely. The consumer is therefore an unknowing participant in the illegitimate transfer of wealth to the cartelists.” That is very damning in terms of how this could occur in this country how it has occurred in the past how we would want to stamp this out and how we do not want to see “wink wink nudge nudge” deals done by the private sector or the Government sector or indeed by the Government itself or indeed by Cabinet in this country to provide a situation where the “wink wink nudge nudge” deals get done while others are left out in the cold and in an anti-competitive situation. New Zealand First will support this bill.