Robertson Grant: Motor Vehicle Sales Amendment Bill — In Committee Third Reading 
Robertson Grant: Motor Vehicle Sales Amendment Bill — In Committee Third Reading 
[Volume:666;Page:13618] 
GRANT ROBERTSON (Labour—Wellington Central) 
: 
 I am pleased to be able to take a call on the Motor Vehicle Sales Amendment Bill and I join with other colleagues in acknowledging the presence of the new Minister in the chair John Boscawen. I have been waiting for the Minister of Consumer Affairs to tell us what his first car was. Someone cruelly suggested that it was a “Lamington 3000”. I do not know whether that is true but it would be interesting to hear from the Minister on that. 
I also acknowledge my colleague in the Wellington central area Heather Roy the previous Minister of Consumer Affairs. I know that she as a Minister took that job particularly seriously including the area of motor vehicle sales where a lot of consumers make what is perhaps one of their larger purchases. I know that she took her responsibilities seriously and it is very good to see her back in the House today. 
I will focus my first contribution today on a couple of sections in this bill—in particular new section 40A to be inserted by clause 12 about the requirements for people to notify the registrar if a new person becomes involved in the management of a company that is selling motor vehicles. On reflection I think that is something the new Minister might be interested in in another part of his life because the requirement is in relation to a new person becoming concerned with the management of a company. The Minister himself has just recently become concerned about the management of an organisation and I am not sure whether he has notified all of the appropriate people about that. But if the Minister were a motor vehicle trader—actually in the bill it is extended to a licensed car wrecker and perhaps some people could suggest that Mr Boscawen has been involved in the wrecking and dismantling of something this week if not a motor vehicle—he would be interested that new section 40A requires that all people who are doing that give notification about their change of arrangements. 
The Chairperson will have to indulge me a little on this but it is relevant; the purchase of the second car I owned had some relevance to this new section. I purchased a particularly poorly running Nissan Sunny station wagon. That was about 20 years ago; I know that the Hon Judith Collins was somewhat alarmed to learn that she had been driving for 5 years longer than Mr Hipkins had been alive. That is probably alarming for all of us actually but particularly— 
Hon Judith Collins 
: Oh no—that was legally. 
GRANT ROBERTSON 
: Oh right. So the member was legal when she was driving. That is excellent and important to know. I purchased my second car the Nissan Sunny station wagon from a used-car salesman in Invercargill. That probably should have been my first warning—that I was both in Invercargill and in the presence of a used-car salesman—not that I am making any reflection on Invercargill— 
The CHAIRPERSON (Eric Roy) 
: I just caution the member to be relevant to the bill. 
GRANT ROBERTSON 
: Thank you very much Mr Chairperson. I was in Invercargill purchasing this car and it was purchased from the father of a friend of mine who was involved in the firm. Some time had elapsed and I had to drive from Dunedin to Invercargill with friends to purchase that car. But when I finally got around to purchasing it the ownership of the dealership had changed and my friend’s father was no longer involved. It would be fair to say that as I drove back from Invercargill to Dunedin—and the Chairperson may be familiar with the part of the road that I am talking about there; there are some quite good straight stretches as one leaves Invercargill—I noticed the car had a distinct wobble. I almost made it to Clinton which the Chairperson will know well before we discovered that the crossmember was completely rusted all the way through. That caused me a bit of drama but had new section 40A under clause 12 been in place at that time I would have at least been able to know there were some changes in the ownership of the company. I think that is important because as we all know used-car sales folk rank somewhere about where we do in terms of trustworthiness. In the last survey politicians were still beating used-car salespeople but prostitution had moved above us in terms of being a trusted profession. 
Chris Hipkins 
: It is legal. 
GRANT ROBERTSON 
: That is right; Mr Hipkins seems well informed on that subject. It is important now that we— 
Moana Mackey 
: He keeps a close eye on what’s legal and what’s not. 
GRANT ROBERTSON 
: —ha ha—have within this amendment legislation new obligations on people to register a change in ownership. As with all professions it is important that the motor vehicle sales industry improves its credibility and its performance. Cars are a very important part of people’s purchasing lives and anything we can do in this bill—and we are doing some good things in this bill to improve that—is great. New section 40A requires people to notify the registrar if a new person becomes concerned in the management of that company. 
Later on in clause 14 it is stated that it is an offence to fail to notify the registrar of a change and failure to comply with the provision will see the person banned from trading motor vehicles. That is a very strong punishment and a very good one because it means that it is an effective tool; people will want to register the changes if they want to carry on being motor vehicle salespeople. I believe that that is a very useful advance in this bill. 
I refer back to the process for renewing annual registration which is provided for in clause 9. Again this is a balance as in all consumer legislation between compliance and the rights and needs of the consumer. In respect of the process that Mr Boscawen will follow as he moves through his time as the Minister of Consumer Affairs in the next 18 months—sadly for him that time will end next year when the Government changes—I say that it is important that that balance is right. Here in this bill we are making certain new obligations for motor vehicle salespeople—in particular we are making sure that they register and that they notify any change in the ownership of a company—and there are now penalties in place for not doing that. I think that can be only good for the consumer. 
As earlier colleagues have mentioned a lot of people purchase cars—cars are required by most people in their daily lives—but a lot of the people who are purchasing cars are perhaps not familiar with all aspects of consumer law. Therefore we need tight protections in this area of consumer law. Someone like Mr Hipkins who purchased a car when he was about 12 years old by the sounds of it— 
Chris Hipkins 
: I was 15. 
GRANT ROBERTSON 
: —he was 15 years old so that was last year—was obviously somebody who like a lot of people would have been in need of greater consumer protection. Young people purchasing what for them is perhaps their major asset at that time need the improved and enhanced rules in relation to motor vehicle sales that we see in the bill in front of us today. 
There is within this bill the ability for the registrar to cancel the registrations of motor vehicle salespeople if the registrar is satisfied that their company is one that people should not be buying cars from. But as is good in any consumer legislation there is another stage in the legislation for motor vehicle salespeople themselves if they feel they have been hard done by. That route to redress in this bill is by the disputes tribunal; clearly it is important for that to be covered. I see that the committee in its process of working through the bill made some changes in that area. Perhaps a member of the committee or the Minister might like to clarify what those were. Essentially the disputes tribunal has jurisdiction over that matter and it is important that there is a place where any dispute on such matters can be resolved. As motor vehicle salespeople have a fairly bad name in the community it is possible that they would want the ability to be able to show to people that they had been unfairly dealt with. Clauses 16 and 17 go through and make clear where people will have to go if they are dealing with the disputes tribunal what the fines are and where the process will lead them. 
I think the bill in general and Part 1 in particular contain some very good things. I am pleased that Mr Boscawen is here. Most vehicles I know of have four wheels; five wheels is perhaps the preferred option for Mr Boscawen and his party although it was touch-and-go this week as to whether 4 wheels would be viable. But it seems that the spare wheel is back and hopefully will be able to be used frequently because I think most of us who have driven cars over a period of time know that the spare wheel can sometimes be the most important wheel on a car.