Flavell Te Ururoa: Consumer Guarantees Amendment Bill — First Reading 
Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume 
Flavell Te Ururoa: Consumer Guarantees Amendment Bill — First Reading 
[Sitting date: 21 July 2010. Volume:665;Page:12574. Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume.] 
TE URUROA FLAVELL (Maori Party—Waiariki) 
: 
 Tena no tatou katoa e te Whare. A simple browse of today’s TradeMe listings on Maori heritage yields the following classic finds: with a starting price of $6 I could buy a vintage stereoscopic postcard of Maori children in Rotorua. It is a used postcard posted on 3 September 1906 with a genuine message on the back. For a dollar more I could get another postcard called: “In the Ngawhas—Whakarewarewa”. It is described as being in excellent condition. Or for the mighty starting price of $12.50 I could buy the postcard known as “A Haka for a Penny” featuring the children of Ohinemutu and categorised as a “Nice tidy piece of historical significance.” All of these examples are from my electorate and my home town of Rotorua which is the home town of the Hon Steve Chadwick as well. The problem is that from the luxury of our computer how do we know whether we are getting a good deal? How reliable is the classification of the stereoscopic postcard? Is it really 3-D or is the illusion of depth just a marketing technique? What does it mean to be in “excellent used condition”? Without a trademark in sight how can we guarantee whether a postcard is a tidy piece of historical significance or just a big huge rip-off? 
The Consumer Guarantees Amendment Bill is about giving us some confidence with the supply of goods and services by suppliers through competitive online bidding such as on TradeMe. We in the Maori Party support the concept of safer trading using online auction websites and the assurances that purchases of goods and services through online auctions will be protected under the Consumer Guarantees Act. We are also pleased that this bill will require transparency with the benefits of extended warranties. From time to time some might ask how the key kaupapa of the Maori Party fits with these sorts of bills. We have rangatiratanga kaitiakitanga and manaakitangi and those are values that promote excellence accountability and transparency. We support the notion inherent in this bill that consumers should be informed about whether any extended warranty they are considering purchasing provides any benefit right or convenience. 
One of the issues that creates some debate amongst many Maori is the cultural authenticity of objects listed in online auctions or for competitive tender. Under the Protected Objects Act of 1975 it is an offence to sell taonga tuturu—in other words Maori cultural objects—to people other than registered collectors public museums or licensed dealers. It states that there should be a banned or restricted items section on for example TradeMe sites. The question we have is who monitors the vast range of products for sale on sites such as TradeMe. The bill requires that retailers who are offering extended warranties to consumers must fully inform the consumer about the benefits of that warranty. I remember a couple of years ago a huge furore broke out about a set of wooden stacking Maori dolls which were selling for up to $35 a set at souvenir and gift stores around Aotearoa. Aroha Mead a senior lecturer in Maori studies at Victoria University said that the dolls were an insult to traditional artists. They were basically a derivative of an original Russian doll but made in China. The key question is whether this bill will do anything to improve the extended warranty one might get for products such as those. 
In closing I note that the concept of an extended warranty is frequently applied to hire purchase agreements for vehicle sales. We know that many of our low-income communities particularly Maori and Pacific communities are often encouraged to sign up to hire purchase agreements as a way of being able to buy up front without needing to show the cash. It is an issue that will come up again particularly with the next bill that is to be debated the “Loan Sharks Bill”. It is suffice to say that we support the concept of increasing the accountability and transparency of any of these transactions. The Maori Party is pleased to say that we will be supporting this bill’s referral to a select committee.