Norman Russel: Regulatory Reform Bill Regulatory Reform (Repeals) Bill — Second Readings 
Norman Russel: Regulatory Reform Bill Regulatory Reform (Repeals) Bill — Second Readings 
[Volume:678;Page:1334] 
Dr RUSSEL NORMAN (Co-Leader—Green) 
: 
 This legislation combines many parts but I am speaking particularly to the Regulatory Reform Bill rather than the Regulatory Reform (Repeals) Bill. Looking at the Regulatory Reform Bill there are some parts of it that I think are very good and some parts that we have some concerns about. This of course creates a problem because there are some things that are good and some things that are problematic.  
The good parts of the Regulatory Reform Bill that I would like to focus on in my brief talk here are about credit unions and building societies. We know that the finance sector in New Zealand is dominated by the large overseas-owned banks and that creates a real problem for the New Zealand economy. There is basically a huge fiscal drag on the New Zealand economy as $2 billion a year goes over to Australia. So encouraging the credit unions and the building societies is an important thing for us to do and there is a very important element within this bill that will make it easier for credit unions and building societies which is removing the $250000 cap that currently applies to them in terms of the size of deposits they can accept. The amount of $250000 used to be a lot of money but these days if you sell a house or if someone in your family dies and the family house is sold you will often get more than $250000 and you cannot deposit it in a credit union as things stand at the moment. So removing that statutory cap to the amount that can be deposited in a credit union as this bill does I think is a very very important development.  
Given that it is the International Year of Cooperatives—in fact there is an event happening just next door straight after we rise for the dinner break—it is very important that we support cooperatives. The Green Party has long been a supporter of cooperatives unlike most parties in this Parliament particularly the Government party which opposes cooperatives. The Green Party thinks that this is an important development because if we do not actually support cooperatives and the alternatives to the banks—and of course the Government is a big supporter of the banks and does everything it can— 
Hon Maurice Williamson 
: You’d be the least cooperative party in this House. You’ve never cooperated. 
Dr RUSSEL NORMAN 
: The Hon Maurice Williamson of course is a big supporter of the Australian banks. That is why his Government constantly backs them and supports them. However the Green Party thinks that we should be supporting the credit union sector and the building society sector so that we have some competition in the finance industry to the big Australian-owned banks. So there is that element of this bill that is very good.  
There is another element of the bill that is not so good and that is around the changes to concessions on the conservation estate. That part of the bill we have some concerns about: whether it will actually make it easier for destructive commercial activities to occur on the conservation estate. There are lots of concessions on the conservation estate that are good and are non-destructive. Ecotourism and all sorts of ventures that occur are very positive. But there are some parts of the concessions that occur on the conservation estate that are problematic. Obviously mining is one of them but it is not the only one. Sometimes large-scale tourism ventures can be problematic for their impact on the conservation estate. So Part 4 of the Regulatory Reform Bill which makes amendments to how concessions are dealt with on the conservation estate is a more problematic area.  
So this is a case of a bill that has some very good and important elements in terms of supporting the credit unions in their competition with the large Australian banks and also has some elements of it that are problematic in terms of creating issues around the applications for concessions on the conservation estate. That is the nature of a large bill like this that combines all the different elements. This is an important bill. At this stage the Green Party will not be supporting it because of the elements around the concessions on the conservation estate. But we will be moving amendments at the Committee stage to see whether we can improve the bill because there are some very good elements of this bill that we would like to support.