Russell DeborahHon Dr DEBORAH RUSSELL (Labour): Madam Speaker I seek leave to table a letter from Sarah Pallett former MP for Ilam to the then Minister of commerce Minister Clark. It's not publicly available. It just sets out the problem as it has been addressed. Tabling it would enable it to be in the record.DEPUTY SPEAKER: Leave is sought for that purpose. Is there any objection? There is not.Document by leave laid on the Table of the House.Hon Dr DEBORAH RUSSELL: Thank you Madam Speaker. I'd like to begin this final speech by saying well I'm pretty sad that this bill looks like it won't make it through the first reading. That's a real shame because I think it does address a real problem and addresses it in a thoroughly reasonable way.I would like to begin by acknowledging again Sarah Pallett who put this bill in the ballot during the last Parliament which meant that in this Parliament when it was in the ballot in my name it was able to be drawn out. So a thank you to Sarah for her work on this bill. I'd also like to thank Laura Trask who has had a very similar bill in the ballot addressing the same sort of issue. I'm grateful to Laura for a really good conversation about it and I acknowledge that she personally supports this particular bill.I guess in this final address I'd like to just go to how this problem is really caused. It is caused by the fact that we can find a director's name and address very very quickly and easily. When this bill was first drawn from the ballot I wrote to the Minister of commerce asking for his support for the bill. He did come to the House tonight and I'm grateful for him coming himself—and he said he won't support it. Nevertheless as I wrote to him I said Actually Andrew"—although I did it a little more formally—"I managed to search the Companies Register and find your"—meaning his Madam Speaker not yours—"home address within about 30 seconds." That's how quickly I found his home address—being a middle-aged woman I've probably forgotten it. I didn't record it—DEPUTY SPEAKER: We'll let the member be the judge of that.Hon Dr DEBORAH RUSSELL: Ha ha! Because that wasn't the point. But it did only take about 30 seconds to find the Minister of commerce's home address. And that's the problem: that people's home addresses can be found so quickly and so easily.Now members opposite have pointed out some problems. They've said that of course the same thing applies to shareholders too—that can be easily searched. But that is precisely the sort of problem that can be ironed out at the Economic Development Science and Innovation Committee. If this bill is a good idea—and they have said the principle is a good idea. Nevertheless some of those problems could be ironed out at select committee so it's disappointing that it looks like we're not going to have that process.The last speaker Nancy Lu did raise an interesting point about transparency pointing out that New Zealand does have very transparent businesses and it's a very good point. But of course this bill does not seek to enable all directors to use different addresses; it is just in the case where a director has serious fears for their own safety or for the safety of someone who lives with them and they sign a statutory declaration to that effect and then they can apply to have their name removed from the register and a different address used instead. That to me strikes the right balance between personal safety and maintaining transparency.There is a balance to be sought there—of course we want to be transparent about business and I think that's quite correct too given some of the problems I talked about myself with phoenix companies. Nevertheless I think we also need to be seriously concerned about physical safety. The rate of violence against women in this country is quite extraordinary. As I talked about it's not just women who are affected by this; it's men as well.We should be doing all we can to ensure that that people are safe in their own homes and this bill would have added to that. So I am deeply disappointed that a couple of the parties opposite are not able to support this bill this evening. I am grateful for Laura Trask's support and I'm grateful for the support of the Māori Party and the Green Party on this bill. Having said that I commend it to the House."