Dalziel Lianne: Motor Vehicle Sales Amendment Bill — First Reading 
Dalziel Lianne: Motor Vehicle Sales Amendment Bill — First Reading 
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Hon LIANNE DALZIEL (Labour—Christchurch East) 
: 
 I listened to that contribution with great interest but I gained no additional information other than that contained in the explanatory note at the front of the bill. In fact the speech was a very good reading of the explanatory note of the bill with a couple of additional pieces of information and that indicates that the member does not actually understand what the bill does. But that is OK because I do not either. I do not know why private traders are being asked not to display certificates when they are selling motor vehicles in a market. My understanding in this particular area is that a lot of car dealers are a little bit worried about people being car dealers under the table and about those people putting their cars into car markets and undertaking work that is not being picked up by the Inland Revenue Department or by the motor vehicle sales legislation. But this bill as I understand it is being referred to the Commerce Committee so we will be receiving submissions and obviously we will take some advice on it. 
I find it fascinating that the Minister of Consumer Affairs who has held that portfolio for several months now has given three speeches in her role as Minister of Consumer Affairs. She has given three speeches and the last one she gave was back in March. I am not including her first reading speech on this bill; that makes four speeches since she has been Minister of Consumer Affairs. 
The last speech she made really got to me because it is so relevant to this Motor Vehicle Sales Amendment Bill. The Minister was addressing the Cosmetic Toiletry and Fragrance Association of New Zealand. Members might ask how that is relevant to this bill but I assure them that it is. In that speech she said and she has said the same thing in other speeches: “I am committed to simplifying rather than increasing the complexity of consumer law in New Zealand. My test for any existing or proposed legislation is a simple one: does the benefit to the economy as a whole outweigh the total economic cost of the regulations?”. I say that is a very very good thing and a very structured way of thinking around regulations. 
The Minister also stated: “I have directed Ministry staff to commence research on a simplification programme I have called ‘One Law - One Door’. The ‘one law’ refers to a goal of a single principle-based piece of consumer-supplier legislation to replace the raft of laws dealing with a variety of transaction types and which—in most cases—have been overtaken by marketplace and technological changes.” That is one of these bills. So we will get another bill later on after the Minister’s officials have finished doing this work to replace this Motor Vehicle Sales Amendment Bill and all the other bills— 
Hon Darren Hughes 
: It sounds a bit cosmetic. 
Hon LIANNE DALZIEL 
: It does sound cosmetic to me. That is why I wonder why this bill suddenly found its way so far up the Order Paper. I know that my colleague Chris Hipkins who was speaking earlier made the point as to why would this suddenly be such an important issue when the Government is struggling with massive levels of unemployment that are increasing daily. Why would it bring forward the Motor Vehicle Sales Amendment Bill which as the previous speaker said herself was the result of a review that was completed 3 years ago? The Government is rushing into it. 
In that wonderful speech made by the Minister she took a quote from the Revlon co-founder and adapted it somewhat: “In our factory we make cosmetics. In the store we sell hope.” Guess how she reviewed that particular phrase. She said: “The same logic is true for politicians: ‘In our Party think-tanks we make policies. In election campaigns we sell hope.’ ” So finally we have it out on the table—“selling hope” was all that ACT was doing during the election campaign. 
How many commitments were on National’s pledge card? There were 11 but they were personal guarantees. I am just merely saying that on that list of personal guarantees I did not see the Motor Vehicle Sales Amendment Bill. I do not know why but there we go. It does seem to me there are some issues around the priorities that this Government is applying to this legislation. If the Minister of Consumer Affairs wants to be taken seriously on this matter one has to wonder why this bill is the first one she has brought before the House as Minister of Consumer Affairs. 
Let us look at what the Minister is attempting to do. There is a process in the bill that I think is very very good. I want to give total credit where credit is due. I always like to do that in this House and of course I am now going to give credit to the previous Minister of Consumer Affairs who in introducing legislation in December 2003 had provided for the Ministry of Consumer Affairs under a section of the Act to conduct a review of the Act following 2 years of its operation. 
That is a very good process. I am not saying that 2 years will be the right length of time in any particular issue. It may be that 5 years is an appropriate period; it may be that 10 years will be an appropriate period. It does not really matter what it is. It is the fact that under the legislation itself the ministry was required to conduct a review of the operation of the Act. I say that is a very good model and I think the House should think seriously about adopting that model for a number of regulatory frameworks that it is considering for adoption. The reason I like this particular model not that I am attached to the time frame that was chosen on this one is that often Parliament will go ahead with regulatory reform in this kind of area and not know how it will be implemented on the ground. It is a very good matter of practice to bring the legislation back to the ministry and to review its operation. 
Again in this case the Ministry of Consumer Affairs is to be congratulated on what was a model process. After 2 years of the Act’s operation the ministry was required to undertake this review. It put out a discussion document which it developed over a period. It received only 18 submissions on it which indicates a relative level of comfort with the legislation as originally passed. However there obviously were issues that were picked up on and in fact there are very minor amendments to the Motor Vehicle Sales Act included in this Motor Vehicle Sales Amendment Bill. I do not think that any of them will require any great analysis other than this one around the display of the certificate as it relates to private traders and the potential for the impact that it might have on the industry itself. I certainly will be asking questions about that level of detail. 
The previous speaker Jo Goodhew who unfortunately is not on the Commerce Committee any more so will not get a chance to ask all the questions that obviously she needed to ask in the circumstances said that this bill was to remove compliance costs. But then she failed to point out that the bill adds a new requirement for providing information to the Registrar of Motor Vehicles when there are new directors or persons involved in the management of a registered company. Far from removing the annual statutory declaration it simply allows for one person to make the annual statutory declaration on behalf of all others in the sense of saying that it would be particularly onerous when there are overseas directors. Therefore it enables one person to make the declaration on behalf of all others. But there still has to be a declaration and that point would not have been picked up if someone was relying on that address to determine whether this was— 
Chris Hipkins 
: She probably hasn’t read it! 
Hon LIANNE DALZIEL 
: Well I think she was reading from the explanatory note. Mr Hipkins may not have been there when I made that point but she did read the explanatory note very well. 
This is good process and it is good to see the bill before the House but we do not think it is a very good use of Parliament’s time when there are pressing matters before us such as an increasing rate of unemployment. We are losing 1200 jobs a week from our economy and the Government thinks that the Motor Vehicle Sales Amendment Bill is its top priority.