12. Question No. 12—Commerce and Consumer AffairsKIRITAPU ALLAN (Labour) to the Minister of Commerce and Consumer AffairsQuestion No. 12—Commerce and Consumer Affairs12. KIRITAPU ALLAN (Labour) to the Minister of Commerce and Consumer Affairs: What changes to commerce regulation has the Government made in response to COVID-19?Hon KRIS FAAFOI (Minister of Commerce and Consumer Affairs): Our Government recognises the severe impact of COVID-19 on businesses and consumers and we've moved quickly to ensure that regulation can support both the response and recovery. In particular we've provided a temporary exemption from parts of the Credit Contracts and Consumer Finance Act to support the bank mortgage deferral scheme which will give consumers and businesses much-needed flexibility with their mortgages. We've also issued a Government policy statement on essential goods and services to enable businesses to work collaboratively to maintain confidence in supply chains to get household supplies to consumers during the COVID-19 lockdown. We've also pushed out the implementation of new regulations to give businesses and institutions more time to both respond to the effects of COVID and adjust to new regimes. And we're also making changes to the Companies Act and other corporate governance legislation to provide relief for businesses from potential insolvency and some reporting requirements. All of these measures are designed to help businesses facing difficulties due to COVID-19 to remain viable and to keep New Zealanders in jobs.Kiritapu Allan: How is the Government supporting companies that are facing insolvency because of COVID-19?Hon KRIS FAAFOI: We are implementing a number of measures and these include giving directors of companies facing significant liquidity problems because of COVID-19 a temporary safe harbour from insolvency duties under the Companies Act. We're enabling businesses affected by COVID-19 to place existing debts into hibernation until they're able to start trading normally again. We're also giving the Registrar of Companies the power to temporarily extend deadlines imposed on companies incorporated societies charitable trusts and other entities under legislation and we're also giving temporary relief for entities that are unable to comply with the requirements of their constitutions or rules because of COVID-19.Kiritapu Allan: Why did the Government issue a policy statement on commercial cooperation during COVID-19?Hon KRIS FAAFOI: Level 4 required flexibility in how businesses worked together shared resources or took cooperative measures with other businesses under level 4. The policy statement was issued to make sure businesses can work together in ways that allow them to provide things like food and other grocery products and other essential goods and services that New Zealanders needed in a fair and equitable way. The Government recognised that going into alert level 4 was not the time for strict competition rules to get in the way of the common good of making sure New Zealanders got access to essential items that they needed. We also made it clear that this did not mean that COVID-19 could be used as an excuse for non-essential collaboration or anti-competitive business practices such as price fixing.Kiritapu Allan: And what other changes has the Government made to protect business and consumers during COVID-19?Hon KRIS FAAFOI: We were aware that in a minority of cases some retailers or businesses were taking advantage of COVID-19 to inflate the prices they were charging for essential goods. That is why we set up the email address: to give people a simple and effective tool to report any instances of price gouging. This tool proved highly successful with over 3500 emails being received and investigated by officials. In many cases Ministry of Business Innovation and Employment officials contacted retailers directly and many of those cases resulted in prices being lowered. When genuine instances of price gouging are identified referrals will be made to the Commerce Commission to deal with under the Fair Trading Act.