Scott AlastairALASTAIR SCOTT (National—Wairarapa): If I could for a moment reflect on this pin that I am wearing today. It commemorates the Battle of Messines. I have just returned from a Featherston war memorial. Many of the Kiwis who were at that battle came from there. They came from the Featherston army camp walked over the hill and ended up—700 of them—dying at Messines. So I would just like to make a note of that and acknowledge them almost exactly 100 years ago to the hour. Thank you Mr Assistant Speaker.Let us go to the bill. This is a very good bill. It tidies up what is a piece of legislation that is 30-odd years old and 30 years ago when those first eftpos machines—I can recall walking down Lambton Quay and just wondering what this new invention was that had come about. That is when this original Act was put in place. So it really is time to change and update the terms of the Act.This bill reflects a part of the banking scene in New Zealand as mentioned by the previous speaker Barry Coates. The sixth-largest financial transactor is what these credit unions represent. To give you some idea within the banking sector there are 24 registered banks: 20 are foreign-owned only one is Government-owned one is community-owned and two are cooperatively owned. Seven of those 24 banks are listed on the NZX. To Mr Coates' point—there is no reason not to have any other New Zealand bank in New Zealand. It is for shareholders Mr Coates to initiate one themselves. There is no law to stop another 100 percent New Zealand - owned cooperative bank credit union or bank from being initiated in the environment. I would just like to point that out to Mr Coates.This bill does not change the characteristic of a mutual body that is owned for the benefit of the membership and as mentioned earlier it often reflects religious groups. In this instance we are talking about a group or a customer base that supports by lending and borrowing amongst each other but at the moment there are restrictions on the credit union sector. So for example there are issues around the governance. You have still got to have at the moment trustees in place. Obviously individuals come and go. That is an inefficient governance arrangement compared with say a bank which has a board of directors a chief executive officer and so on.So this bill will tidy up and enable the society or the union to be incorporated—to have its own life its own legal entity a continuous life independent of who comes and goes on the board of directors. But it still maintains the characteristic of being mutual—that is it does not require and does not allow for third-party capital to come in as would be the case with a bank. So there are no third-party shareholders allowed into a credit union and this bill does not change that.The other important aspect is that it is not governed by the Companies Act as I hinted at earlier. It is governed by the Friendly Societies and Credit Unions Act. Although there will be some banking regulations overriding and managing the credit unions it is not going to be a bank and it will still maintain the characteristics of a credit union and the mutuality—if that is a word—Fletcher Tabuteau: It is a word. Well done!ALASTAIR SCOTT: Thank you Mr Tabuteau. This bill does create some efficiencies. It tidies up what is an old Act. It creates a level playing field for those credit unions to grow in fact—to become more efficient and to serve their members more effectively. That is why I am enthusiastic about supporting this bill. I look forward to the submissions that will inevitably come. I note also that there will be some objections. I accept that but look forward to the debate in the select committee.