Tamihere John: Credit Contracts and Consumer Finance Bill — Third Reading 
Tamihere John: Credit Contracts and Consumer Finance Bill — Third Reading 
[Volume:612;Page:8892] 
Hon JOHN TAMIHERE (Associate Minister of Commerce) 
: 
 First I would like to thank my colleague the Minister of Consumer Affairs Judith Tizard for her work on this bill. Although the bill has a number of applications I would like to focus on the impact it will have on housing buy-back schemes. Earlier this year I became aware that a number of my constituents in the electorate of Tamaki Makaurau many of them from the poorer parts of south Auckland and many of them elderly people had lost their homes or were under threat of losing their homes through housing buy-back schemes. That led us to lay complaints with the Serious Fraud Office the Banking Ombudsman the police Auckland District Law Society and the Commerce Commission. Upon further investigation it turned out that although the buy-back schemes were most concentrated in Auckland they were also operating in other parts of the country including Christchurch and Tauranga. Investigations by the authorities involved continue and I am confident that those whose conduct is found to have been illegal unprofessional or unethical will face the full consequences of such behaviour. 
I would also like to commend the Minister of Commerce Lianne Dalziel for her efforts in bringing to account the companies involved in operating housing buy-back schemes. In June she moved to place into statutory management eight companies that were operating buy-back schemes. That prevented the immediate sale of a number of families’ homes. No other Government would have taken such quick and decisive action in that regard. This Government also set up a hotline so that victims of housing buy-back schemes would get help and alert the Government to the full extent of the problem. The people duped into those scams were not greedy people hooked into get-rich schemes by their own greed as Rodney Hide would tell members. Not all of them were the most sophisticated people in the world; they were ordinary honest hardworking Kiwis. They were people who through years of hard work and saving had sometimes built up a substantial equity in their homes which they were offered the chance to use in order to help family members to be on-financed into their homes. They took that opportunity. People entered into those schemes without independent legal advice; the same people who gave them legal advice also acted as lawyers for the finance companies. 
Amendments to the bill will protect consumers against future loses through such schemes and will provide remedies for those already involved in those deals. The bill will ensure that any consumer entering into a deal has received independent legal advice. 
Simon Power 
: Throw the notes away and speak from the heart! 
Hon JOHN TAMIHERE 
: It will prevent the sale of property without court permission where full disclosure has not been made or independent legal advice has not been given. Furthermore the bill’s provisions relating to oppressive conduct will provide consumers with remedies against scam operators. The member for Rangitikei knows about oppressive conduct particularly with regard to the caucus he is in. Together those elements of the legislation should put an end to buy-back schemes. Similar provisions in Australian law against unconscionable conduct covering credit arrangements banking transactions and financial advice particularly for disadvantaged groups have been effected and I expect that this legislation will carry similar weight to that in protecting consumers. 
I am glad to be part of a Government that acts promptly to put an end to scams targeting innocent New Zealanders. I commend the bill to the House.