Strange JamieJAMIE STRANGE (Labour—Hamilton East): Thank you Madam Speaker. I appreciate the opportunity to take a call on this bill as the chair of the Economic Development Science and Innovation Committee. As the Minister outlined in his opening speech—the Minister on behalf of the Minister—we had 55 submissions to this committee and I'd also like on behalf of the committee to thank all of those submitters who spent an incredible amount of time on those submissions. They're quite detailed submissions that we received and a number presented oral submissions as well so we'd like to thank them.There were some common themes that came out. Overall most of the submitters were supportive of the intent of the bill. They recognise the need for New Zealand to do our bit on climate change. We have signed up to the Paris Accord and it is important that we do our bit. The reality is that this legislation is actually world-leading and that was commented on by quite a few of the submitters around the aspect that no other country has legislation like this. So we're the first country to bring this legislation into law. I expect other countries will be following suit when this passes.There was another theme which was around widening the scope and that came from quite a few submitters and we heard in the first speech in this debate on the second reading from the Minister the reasons why the scope was retained. But I was pleased to hear and I'm sure the submitters will be pleased to hear from the Minister that there is an intention to look at widening the scope to include other entities potentially including Government agencies and other businesses who are not associated with the financial markets. That will certainly be looked at at a later date after this legislation is passed into law. So I think that's something positive.We heard from the previous speaker the member from the National Party Todd McClay that businesses have to report but don't have to actually do anything about it.Hon Michael Woodhouse: That is not what he said. That is not what he said Mr Strange.JAMIE STRANGE: Well he said that Ministers need to report but there is no enforcement for them to actually change their practices. That's what he was saying and he did raise it during the committee a number of times and look that is a fair point. But I believe that the market will force change from businesses. I believe that the market will force and at the very least encourage businesses to become more climate friendly. Investors are becoming more savvy. Investors are certainly very much switched on to climate-related aspects and they're starting to look quite closely at the investment portfolios of businesses. They're starting to look quite closely at the actions of businesses and how they affect climate change. I believe that investors as the reporting increases will make decisions on where they invest accordingly. So yes there is no regulation around businesses being forced to change their environmental practices but the market will I believe cause that to happen.I'd just like to highlight a couple of submissions. One in particular which was quite interesting was from Business and Professional Women (BPW). They're an international agency and they highlighted the aspect that New Zealand will become the first country to introduce such legislation and they hope that BPW International will support the introduction of this type of reporting globally across other countries. So we're already starting to see groups here in New Zealand who see this world-leading legislation come in starting to talk to their groups in other countries saying Start lobbying your Governments in order to bring some similar legislation." They also highlighted the fact that climate change will affect women and girls disproportionately as they are more vulnerable to its effects constituting the majority of the world's poor and being more likely to rely on natural resources for their livelihood. They spoke very strongly in support of this legislation in terms of the aspect around climate change and the importance of climate change.I'll just touch on one final submission which was the submission from 350 Aotearoa. In their submission they said that they recognise the climate change risk data in accounting is lacking and that many industries and investors need more information to make prudent decisions. And that's what this is about. This is about giving information to investors to inform their decisions and I believe that those investment decisions will then cause businesses to become more environmentally friendly. The reality is that most businesses are doing a fairly good job in this area but we can always do better and the investors will make their decisions accordingly once the reporting increases.I commend this bill to the House and look forward to hearing the rest of the debate."