Katene Rahui: Financial Markets (Regulators and KiwiSaver) Bill Auditor Regulation and External Reporting Bill — First Reading 
Katene Rahui: Financial Markets (Regulators and KiwiSaver) Bill Auditor Regulation and External Reporting Bill — First Reading 
[Volume:667;Page:14303] 
RAHUI KATENE (Maori Party—Te Tai Tonga) 
: 
 I am pleased to stand to talk on the Financial Markets (Regulators and KiwiSaver) Bill and the Auditor Regulation and External Reporting Bill. I say from the outset that although I am naturally suspicious whenever leave is sought for bills to be brought together under one umbrella—so-called cognate bills—in this case I am prepared to grant an exemption. These bills are truly what we might call companion bills. The Auditor Regulation and External Reporting Bill is absolutely linked to the establishment of the Financial Markets Authority an initiative in the Financial Markets (Regulators and KiwiSaver) Bill. The Financial Markets Authority once it is up and running will be the Government regulator of the audit profession so the two bills are virtually one and the same. It is in the philosophical intent that the linkages are most explicit with both bills designed to foster confidence in our finance industry and in doing so to strengthen the base for our markets. 
I have come straight from Otautahi and I have been immersed in the situation of our people there since the earthquake on the morning of Saturday 4 September. The perilous situation of some of our families as they consider their capacity to provide for the basics of life—food shelter a place to sleep and a roof over their heads—has been truly hard to bear. I have seen our elders weep in despair as they wonder how they will manage. I have sat with families who are struggling to cope and it reminded me of just how important it is to ensure our financial viability is secure. On a different scale but essentially driven by the same hopes and fears the financial confidence of our markets is a critical factor in establishing a secure foundation for our economy. The last few years have seen many analysts expressing concerns about the viability of our regulator agencies and in particular whether there are sufficient checks and balances in the system to ensure that providers act with integrity and honesty. 
Such concerns have sparked off an enormous legislative agenda around financial advisers securities capital market development prudential regulation governance of financial service provides and the like. I cannot help but think that if only the Government could put such effort into addressing the situations of abject poverty that so many New Zealand families find themselves in we could make a difference overnight. I am thinking of aspirations to create confidence in our communities such as setting a deadline to eliminate child poverty by 2020 or initiatives to address the basic levers such as raising core benefit levels including superannuation and the veterans pension and increasing the minimum wage to at least $15 an hour—of course not to mention removing GST from healthy food. 
These bills do not do that but they do look after the interests of some people who are cash rich and are able to invest in our financial markets primarily through the creation and establishment of a new Financial Markets Authority. This is being promoted as a super-regulator for our financial markets bringing together functions that have been spread across the Securities Commission the Ministry of Economic Development the Government Actuary and NZX. This Government clearly likes the super-size concept—the super-regulator the super-city—but only to a degree and we have to remember that the “Supersize my pay!” campaign is a message that this Government is yet to deliver on. The “Supersize my pay!” campaign was launched in late 2005. It revolved around three main planks: the minimum wage abolishment of the youth rate and secure hours. One would think they are all perfectly reasonable. However this bill does not deal with that. It aims to promote fair efficient and transparent financial markets. We know that the Government is anxious to fast-track this legislation to establish the authority as soon as possible in order to promote confidence in Aotearoa’s financial markets. However there is always the concern that fast-tracking the authority’s establishment might mean that the work carried out by the authority would be done under uncertainty as the finer details of the shape of the new regulator are still being sorted out and might not be completed by the time the authority is established. 
I want to turn my attention to the proposals in this bill to improve an oversight in KiwiSaver. We have been really pleased to be part of the developments around KiwiSaver that are focused on housing. I come back to the basic needs I talked about earlier as demonstrated in the last couple of weeks in Otautahi. Some members of this House might be familiar with Maslow’s hierarchy of needs. They include safety and security which are so fundamental to survival. One of the developments we are really proud of over the last 18 months since we have been in a confidence and supply arrangement with the Government is the KiwiSaver deposit subsidy and the KiwiSaver first home withdrawal option which helps people with the deposit for a home. In our analysis about 10 percent of current KiwiSaver members are Maori. With this new development the home deposit elements of the scheme can be coupled with a Kainga Whenua a Welcome Home Loan and the Welcome Home First Steps education course providing another pathway for Maori into homeownership. This is a significant advance to help create opportunities for Maori to enjoy homeownership along with other New Zealanders. 
We have had a particular interest in looking into the KiwiSaver changes to ensure that basic thresholds of fairness and justice apply to that scheme along with any others. The changes to the KiwiSaver regulatory regime include making fund managers more accountable to regulators and investors and requiring fund managers to disclose information about returns fees and assets in a consistent and comparable manner. In the current environment there is only limited regulation of fund managers within the KiwiSaver regulatory regime. These bills will move the KiwiSaver scheme closer to the legal structure of unit trusts and bring trustees closer to the licensing regime that will be established by the Securities Trustees and Statutory Supervisors Bill. We support all these measures as we believe they are being done in the spirit of accountability transparency and security. We are pleased to support this bill at its first reading.