Catchpole Brent: Motor Vehicle Sales Bill — In Committee Third Reading 
Catchpole Brent: Motor Vehicle Sales Bill — In Committee Third Reading 
[Volume:607;Page:4786] 
BRENT CATCHPOLE (NZ First) 
: 
 In going through the Supplementary Order Paper we discover that an additional clause has been added to Part 5—Clause 130A “Regulations may impose levy”. This Government stated during the election campaign that it would not add any more costs to businesses and it would not increase taxes. But what has it done in this particular Supplementary Order Paper which has not been discussed at any select committee whatsoever but just brought up in this debate? It has added a tax a levy an additional compliance cost or whatever one likes to call it. The Government has gone and added it without any consultation with the industry or with anybody else. It certainly was not discussed with members on this side of the Chamber. The amendment was just dropped on to the table in a very large Supplementary Order Paper to add an additional cost. 
So what happened to the promise that Labour members made during the election that they would not increase costs add levies or add taxes? This is another tax by any other name. They like to call it a levy but it is still a tax and it is still a compliance cost. The Supplementary Order Paper goes against the whole spirit of the bill. 
Clause 142 deals with the transitional provisions for the fund. I see that the fund will be wiped out after 12 months. What is the point of wiping out the fund when clause 143 “Claims against Fund” states: “(1) No person is entitled to make any claim against the Fund for any act or thing done or omitted to be done after the commencement of this Act. (2) No person is entitled to make any claim against the Fund for any act or thing done or omitted to be done before the commencement of this Act ...”? In other words if something happens before or after the Act that fund cannot be accessed. So the fund is basically wiped immediately the bill comes into effect yet the Government is trying to say that it will be there for another 12 months after this bill comes into effect. What is the point? It is being wiped out in the next clause. The fund should either be disbanded immediately or kept until the Act is reviewed to make sure that it supports the consumer because the consumer has been completely left out in the cold by this Act. 
The Supplementary Order Paper adds another clause to the bill—clause 146 “Review of operation of Act”. Why would the Government want to review the Act so soon after it comes in? It is because it is uncertain of its ability to achieve what it sets out to do. I know that the industry is calling for legislation that will sort the industry out but this Government has put forward a bill that it has suddenly realised will not work. It has no confidence in it so it has put in an extra clause under the Supplementary Order Paper to provide for a review of it. But what will happen when that review is done? There is nothing in the clause in the Supplementary Order Paper that states what has to be done once it has been reviewed. The Government could review it then sit there and do nothing even though it may find some major problems with it. There is nothing in the legislation to insist that it does anything about the review once it has been done. It could just do the review and ignore it as it does with most things. 
With this Supplementary Order Paper the Government has ignored the select committee process. It did not allow any consultation on the Supplementary Order Paper. It has dropped huge new parts into the bill and additional clauses that did not go through the consultation process.