McClay ToddHon TODD McCLAY (National—Rotorua): Madam Speaker thank you very much. The National Party will be supporting this legislation at first reading and it is important to give certainty to small businesses up and down the country particularly in the construction sector. But I need to pick up on a point the last speaker finished with: the support that the Government has for small businesses. Setting this one piece of legislation aside that was not evident in the Budget. It's such a claim in a first reading when we have a piece of legislation that's so very very important that the Labour Government is supporting small businesses when actually the small businesses that are being supported through this legislation have had so much cost imposed upon them that actually I think that they will be struggling. So anybody listening shouldn't believe just because they've heard it in this House that there is a significant amount of support for small businesses. Small businesses in New Zealand are struggling. They're doing it hard and this is a Government that remains out of touch with them.However for this piece of legislation it is a good thing. The reason for that is we have hard-working construction companies small businesses builders electricians plumbers up and down the country who are out there helping to rebuild parts of the country for us. And of course when they are subcontracting they don't hold the entire contract themselves. Where the larger company that holds the contract fails they often are left out of pocket and that can create a lot of additional stress upon their businesses. Of course there is always money left over. The liquidators come in or the receiver they look at what the assets are the liabilities they free them up. But inevitably the subcontractors individuals or companies are not preferential debtors and therefore they miss out. And it's not right that they do because inevitably also money has been paid for the construction work. There was an example of the hospital in Rotorua that was completed. It was finished. There was additional work that the DHB wanted done to make sure it was up to the standard. The subcontractors and others had met their obligation or responsibility. Money was held back as part of the contract with the overall contract holder so that the DHB could make sure the work that they had contracted for was done and inevitably that company ran into trouble and the subcontractors themselves were likely to miss out. I do understand the DHB came to an arrangement so that they wouldn't miss out because many of them were good hard-working local people of Rotorua. So this legislation will help with that.We do think there are some areas we need to look a lot more closely and in greater detail. I don't think the Government has entirely got it right. Actually there is probably a bit more protection that's needed or other ways to make sure that what we're trying to achieve with this legislation is actually achieved. But I would say to the subcontractors we need them out there working very very hard. We need them to grow their businesses. We want them to have less uncertainty. We want them to get paid. We want a very light touch in that; we only want the Government involved with their businesses where they really need to be. That's not what we've seen from the Government so far but in this respect for this legislation if that's the case of how it works it would be very very good for them.The final thing I think I want to say here is that when it comes to construction in New Zealand be it large or small we need to do so very much more. So we need these guys out there growing their companies and looking for ways to take on contracts themselves. We don't have enough houses in New Zealand. It's not what the Government has said about the demand side. Everything they've done pushes up the price of houses pushes up the price of rentals. It is around the supply side. There are still not enough houses being built in New Zealand. There are a multitude of reasons for that but none of them are good reasons because the Government has the ability to do something about it. This in essence won't mean more houses are built. This won't mean more houses are built. It means we're still going to have the same backlogs and the same challenges the same problems that are pushing up rents and are pushing up the cost of houses in New Zealand. But what it will do is mean that there are small businesses builders and others out there who remain and their builders and businesses are not put under pressure. They don't fold. They themselves don't go into liquidation have to close down because they're owing money by a larger contractor who has gone into liquidation and these poor hard-working Kiwis miss out.We will be supporting this at first reading. We want to see some changes to make it better than it is. The Government hasn't done all of the work that they tell us they have done. And I want to finish where I started: when members of Government stand up and say they're helping small business they should get out of Wellington a bit talk to small businesses because they're not. They continue to struggle. This will help a few but not in the way that they need to be helped. Thank you.