Hughes GarethGARETH HUGHES (Green): Kia ora Madam Deputy Speaker. Ngā mihi nui ki a koutou. Kia ora. We took the kids to the circus recently. I don't think they saw in the circus events more acrobatics and backflips than we saw from the National Party tonight. Every single allegation against this legislation can be rebutted with the simple question: Why did you put it to the House in the beginning?"What we heard from the last member Andrew Bayly is it was a philosophical chase it was anti-business it won't achieve anything. Why didn't the member ask Minister Goldsmith when it was originally put to the House? We also heard that member say "Where's the evidence?" Well I would point to the OECD. I would point to the market studies that we've seen conducted by the US Department of Justice the studies conducted in the UK the studies conducted in Japan. Where's the evidence? It's all over the world Mr Bayly and you should look at it.Now I also heard from that member this was all about meddling. This Parliament is acting on behalf of consumers making sure they get a fair go; making sure businesses operating in a competitive fair environment get a fair go and can compete. What we are talking about tonight isn't about meddling; it's about making sure we've got a fair market so consumers and market participants can have confidence in the system. That's exactly why the Government put it originally. Now remember the National Party was for it then they were against it and we don't know where they are today. I urge them to support it because what we're talking about is—the evidence is very clear—that criminalisation of cartels is effective. That's what the OECD has found.What they've also found is that New Zealand is particularly susceptible as a small economy with limited market participants in various fields. When you look around the world there's $16 trillion of activity estimated by participants associated with cartel behaviour. Where New Zealand is particularly susceptible and we've seen various cases in our history from the ophthalmologists through to the air transport case—look it's important that we make sure that we listen to the evidence and actually have the deterrents. Now what we know from the data is that having a criminal charge on our statute book does act as a deterrent. The OECD has also found that it's more effective at actually finding it.It's important because the negative impacts on an economy are so widespread. It's in terms of market concentration—the ability to screw the scrum. Now as a country that saw one of the most closed economies outside of the Soviet bloc in the 1970s through to the 1980s where you saw companies get rich simply because they were able to get an import licence under Muldoon's Government we've got to be wary of concentrating too much power and screwing that market scrum. For a country that's languishing in the bottom half of the OECD or the developed world when it comes to investing in R & D and when the officials are advising us that cartel behaviour limits innovation in an economy we should be acting and the evidence says that criminalisation means detection is easier and it's also a more effective remedy to stop it in the first place.So look we're absolutely right behind this legislation. We even note that similar countries such as Australia the UK the US Canada and Japan all have these. The officials have advised the Parliament that international cooperation will be furthered if cartel behaviour does have a criminal charge on the statute book. Look it's been through a select committee at the moment and that's why we're supporting the process. We've got to speed up. I mean this was originally—we saw the first report back in 2010. The legislation was originally put to the House back in 2011. We've got the opportunity to protect consumers and protect our economy at the moment. I would note that the Minister has pointed out the very pragmatic and reasonable exceptions such as collaborative activity to encourage business certainty and the block exemption—for example in the shipping industries and noted the transition period of two years to give businesses certainty and the ability to get up to speed with this new statute. Look it's all about protecting consumers.What I've heard from the National members is for some reason for want of activity this is the only legislation the Government has put to the House. Well we heard from the Minister that all the work on his work programme is to protect consumers and to protect the economy such as the Commerce Commission market studies and the section 36 review to stop the abuse of market power. This Government is acting to protect consumers and to make sure that all participants in the market get a fair go and that no one is screwing the scrum because ultimately what this is about is giving New Zealand consumers the ability to purchase products and services at a fair price. When you look at our supermarket sector and at food prices and petrol prices important questions have been raised as to whether Kiwis are in fact getting a fair go. In a small economy and a small country like ours it's particularly important.I'm disappointed that National originally had the right idea based on evidence flip-flopped and back-flipped and here we are tonight. I hope they can flip back the right way look at the evidence and make sure they're voting along the right side to protect the Kiwi consumers. Thank you."