Prasad Rajen: Third Readings — 
Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume 
Prasad Rajen: Third Readings — 
[Sitting date: 16 October 2012. Volume:684;Page:5846. Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume.] 
Dr RAJEN PRASAD (Labour) 
: 
 I am destined to have breaks in my speech—[ 
Interruption 
]—and I am sure that keeps members opposite entertained especially Mr Maurice Williamson. Just to reiterate the Commerce Commission (International Co-operation and Fees) Bill was originally introduced by my colleague the Hon Lianne Dalziel. It was adopted by Simon Power and now the Hon Craig Foss. It was reported back from the Commerce Committee in November 2010 and it has languished on the Order Paper but it is good to see the legislation arising from it back here in the House. 
The proposals of the legislation are part of the work programme supporting the memorandum of understanding on business law coordination with Australia—therefore the legislation aligns the systems of the two countries—where similar legislation was passed in 2007. So finally in 2013 we do catch up with Australia on this matter. The legislation certainly expects to facilitate greater reciprocal assistance from equivalent overseas regulators which is increasingly important for the effective enforcement of competition and consumer law where businesses operate in multiple jurisdictions. 
What is interesting for me in this legislation is that there are now provisions about cooperation and the flexible way in which we will engage in that cooperative relationship. 
Sitting suspended from 6 p.m. to 7.30 p.m. 
Dr RAJEN PRASAD 
: Well this is my third go at it and it feels like a bit of a conspiracy. Two weeks ago I was given 1½ minutes and a couple of hours ago I was given another 2½ minutes. This is the third go. But it is good that I have the chance to finish what I was going to say. 
As I said the Commerce (International Co-operation and Fees) Amendment Bill is a bill that we support. It puts in place some very good provisions around cooperation with Australia to give meat if you like to the memorandum of understanding that has been signed. The bit here that is of interest to me is the cooperation arrangements that the bill proposes. That seems to be the flavour of the provisions in the bill—in all of the bills now as the bill has been broken up into four. 
So it is the desire here to get regulators to cooperate to manage competition and consumer effects of transactions on domestic markets. And then in the legislation there are the provisions about how information that has been acquired compulsorily on this side of the Tasman is then to be shared with regulators across the board. That is provided for and further down in the legislation there are some safeguards that are built in about the sharing of this information. Indeed it says very clearly and very directly that the matters of maintaining confidentiality of information the storage of information the copying returning and disposal of anything that is provided and the payment costs are some of the provisions. 
It is good to see in the bills those kinds of provisions put in place. So the point here is about information sharing and maintaining the confidentiality of information. But I have to say that this is not a good week if you like to have a look at— 
Hon Simon Bridges 
: Oh it’s a great week. 
Dr RAJEN PRASAD 
: Mr Bridges will soon realise exactly what I am talking about. Mr Bridges it is about maintaining the confidentiality of information. So for the member’s Government this has been a bad week where information that should have been well protected was actually made available accidentally. So there you are Mr Bridges. I say that his Government now has a bad record and therefore I am glad that this part of the legislation is here. But I hope that his Government can deliver on it because the kind of information that is collected around credit and around payments etc. is really highly confidential. 
Mr Bridges has gone quiet. I am pleased he has because he acknowledges that there are some holes in the Government’s commitment to protecting information and protecting privacy in that way. So those provisions are here. The Government has had a bad week. It has got a lot of work to get through to regain the confidence of the public around information and around maintaining the confidentiality of information. These bills enable that type of information collected here to be treated in a confidential manner when it is to be shared with our counterparts in Australia. 
There are many warnings from the recent experiences that the Government has had around ACC and around the Ministry of Social Development just a few days ago about information. So with those kinds of statements those kinds of anxieties we have about confidentiality of information we are pleased to be supporting these bills. I am glad that I finally got to finish my last comments without interruption. Thank you.