Goldsmith Paul: Debate on Prime Minister’s StatementText is incorporated into the Bound VolumeGoldsmith Paul: Debate on Prime Minister’s Statement[Sitting date: 12 February 2015. Volume:703;Page:1569. Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume.]Hon PAUL GOLDSMITH (Minister of Commerce and Consumer Affairs):It is very good to be back in the House after a great summer and to be part of a rejuvenated and energetic team determined to do our best for New Zealand. We are determined to carry on the strong stable Government of the past 6 years that we have enjoyed and that has steadily increased levels of confidence in this country.Confidence lies at the core of so much progress. It is confidence that encourages people to invest. It is confidence that encourages people to start a new business and to hire new workers. Many of the people in my neighbourhood in the Epsom electorate are doing just that and many other people around the country have had the confidence to start new businesses and employ new people this year and over the past few years. Confidence allows you to take the plunge from being on a benefit to going into a job trying a job and tens of thousands of people have been doing that over the past year. It is confidence that underpins higher aspirations. People ask: “Is it possible for me to do further training and go for a promotion?”. You need confidence and that is what this country has enjoyed in increasing levels over the past 6 years of this Government. My goal is that we have at least another 6 years of this Government in this country and this country will really sing.There are a lot of new faces in this Chamber since the last election. The curious thing is that most of the new faces are on this side of the Chamber. I suppose New Zealand First has a number of new people from an interesting range of backgrounds and I hope that they will have the opportunity to make some positive contribution to New Zealand over the years. There are 14 excellent new MPs on this side of the House from a wide range of backgrounds—business people doctors farmers and mayors of towns who have lots of new ideas and plenty of energy and are grounded in the communities from which they come. We have also seen a renewal in the executive and I am pleased to be part of that. There will be more about that later.So at the start of National’s 7th year in Government we have got a combination of proven capability and experience with fresh determination and rejuvenation and that is a good place for any party to be. We need it because the challenges facing this country have not gone away. The fundamental economic challenge for New Zealand is about continuing to become more internationally competitive in a world that never stands still. That challenge is a huge one. It requires relentless effort thought and questioning of the way we do things—from the quality of our education system to the impact of regulation on the price of land and housing the way we attract capital the competitiveness of domestic markets and to so many other things. That international competitiveness is absolutely one focus of this Government. It has been for the last 6 years and will continue to be. It is that international competitiveness that leads to higher incomes. We all know that this is an expensive time of the year as kids are going back to school. It is tough for families and it is higher incomes that make life much more enjoyable and that open up more opportunities for families in New Zealand. That is why we work so hard to improve that international competitiveness.Other fundamental challenges we face are making sure we remain plugged in to international markets. That is why Tim Groser and the Government are working so hard to continue to expand our trade relationships. The challenge remains also to continue to do everything we can as a small country to bolster the rules-based international system upon which we depend for our security and access to trade. We cannot take it for granted that we will continue to operate in an essentially benign environment like we have for so many decades. We have to continue to work hard to maintain old friendships and to develop new ones. New Zealand has a great opportunity ahead of us on the Security Council.We have also got the challenge of the growing pains of Auckland. Particularly in Auckland we need to continue to invest in infrastructure and to work hard to increase the supply of land so that housing is affordable for people who live in that beautiful city. We also have huge challenges that remain in the social sphere and I am thrilled that we have made so much progress in that area. I never thought that I would live to see the day when I would see a New Zealand Herald article that said: “State of the nation: Life getting better on most indicators”. Was that not a wonderful headline in the New Zealand Herald yesterday? That was looking at the Salvation Army’s state of the nation report where it said we have been making significant progress in 14 out of the 22 social indicators and actually progress in a whole lot more. Child poverty is down child abuse is falling early childhood education is going well and teenage pregnancy has dropped enormously over the last 5 years—down 15 percent in this year. That is so important because we know that that group of teenage parents if the resources are not thrown into them can remain on welfare for a very long time. So we are making great progress in that area.Crime is falling—serious crime is falling—the prison rate is falling reoffending is falling real incomes are growing employment is growing and benefit numbers are falling. So much progress is being made. But the point I would make is that this Government is one that is proud of the progress that we have made so far over the past 6 years but it is also keenly aware that there is so much more we can do. We are hungry to get out and do that so we can continue to drive down crime rates in this country so we can continue to raise employment and get more and more people having the opportunity to make a life for their families that is prosperous and good so continue to give people the opportunity to get off welfare and free themselves from the welfare dependency that they have had for so long and so we can continue to do the many sorts of things that this Government has done over the past 6 years.I want to talk briefly about some of the areas in the commerce and consumer affairs portfolio. I am conscious particularly in the financial markets area that we have had a very comprehensive set of reforms in the Financial Markets Conduct Act that have come into place at the end of last year and that are aimed at increasing investor confidence and improving access to capital so that businesses can get that capital that they need to grow. It has been a very very significant change and lots of companies have had to do a lot of work and will be doing a lot of work over the next couple of years as we transition into the new regulatory regime. I will be making sure that the Financial Markets Authority continues to work in a positive and open relationship with the markets as it does very successfully now so that they can all work together effectively under this new regime. We are also going to be looking at the financial advisers review over the next 18 months which we have signalled. We know that there are a number of areas under the current legislation that could be working better and I am looking forward to hearing from the sector on this important issue so that we can look at all the options to improve that area.On the consumer side we are working hard on putting the finishing touches together on the Responsible Lending Code document that will provide high-level guidance to help lenders adhere to regulations set out in the Credit Contracts and Consumer Finance Act. We know that most lenders are already following responsible lending practices with their customers and we encourage and support them but we know that there is a group—particularly loan sharks and some of the less responsible pay-day lenders—that is not and we want to make sure that we are doing all we can to protect those most vulnerable members of society from being ripped off by some of the more unscrupulous practitioners. But we are also conscious that we do not want to put too much extra burden of red tape and overly prescriptive requirements on responsible lenders. So that is a balancing act that we are working very hard to get right.Both of those areas do touch on the wider issue of the effort that we are making across the Government to raise levels of financial capability across the community because we want to create a nation of investors. We have got 2.4 million people enrolled in KiwiSaver. We encourage them to grow their wealth and we want them to have access to good advice when they need it. So the financial advisers review is considering the practice at the moment and seeing whether we can improve that. We also recognise that that absence of basic money skills is one that can really compound problems that the poorest families in New Zealand have. So the Responsible Lending Code is one part of designing legislation to protect the most vulnerable but there is also a huge effort right across the Government in terms of educating and trying to lift levels of financial literacy and that will be very much a focus of this Government over the next 3 years. Thank you.