Faafoi's personal benchmark fair enough

Kris Faafoi. Photo / Mark Mitchell

Kris Faafoi nominates an inherent sense of fairness — "whether that be at the market and industry level or at the very basic consumer level," as the most important quality he brings to the role of Minister of Commerce and Consumer Affairs.

"Fairness essentially boils down to ensuring markets are operating effectively, so that small businesses and markets at a high level are operating efficiently," says Faafoi. "Because at the end of the day that means businesses are doing well and consumers are getting the best deal."

A journalist and subsequently chief press secretary for then Labour leader Phil Goff, Faafoi became an MP after winning a by-election in the Mana electorate eight years ago.
Faafoi says he has a "natural instinct" to engage with stakeholders and seek "a happy medium to issues within the portfolio."

He points to his handling of April's Alpha-type Takata airbags recall as an example of his preferred approach — "we managed to get all the players around a table onboard and in a happy enough space to be able to deal with that".

But that doesn't mean Faafoi's not prepared to metaphorically rap market participants across their knuckles with a regulatory ruler if he judges that's what required.

Although he expresses confidence that "most New Zealand businesses do act in good faith in the markets they operate in," he does not share an ideological faith in the markets' intrinsic ability — or willingness — to satisfactorily regulate themselves.

That's borne out by the Labour-led Government's reintroduction of criminal sanctions in the pending Commerce (Criminalisation of Cartels) Amendment Bill.

It's also evident in the way the coalition is pushing ahead with amendments to the Commerce Act that will give the Commerce Commission additional investigative powers to ensure markets are operating in the best interests of consumers.

"Not all markets are perfect, which is why it's important to have the ability to intervene in the public interest," Faafoi says.

One piece of work that is a personal priority involves what he refers to as "the triple CFA space" — otherwise known as the Credit Contracts and Consumer Finance Act, which is theoretically intended to clamp down on dodgy loan sharks.

The upshot is a strengthened view that the 2015 amendments made by the previous government didn't go far enough. "A lot of the behaviour we saw before the (prior) changes is continuing. So tightening up the legislation and making sure that people have the ability to make wise, motivated and sound financial decisions is important to us."
Another priority is a review of insurance contract law.

A public discussion document is expected to be put out in the next few months.

But although Faafoi says the Government is approaching it with a sense of urgency, "given the likes of what you might call the cookie cutter horror story or what's happened in Christchurch and Kaikoura," he also says it's unlikely there'll be any related legislation introduced prior to the next election.

"I think that will probably take us most of the term to get to the end of a process where we're keeping consumers happy, regulators happy and also the industry happy — because all three sides of that triangle do think work needs to be done there.

"It's going to be complex and it will take time. If you look at the oldest piece of legislation, it dates back to 1908, so it's been a while since it's been given a good look."