Fears on Commerce Bill

Press, Volume CXIV, Issue 33539, 21 May 1974, Page 2

Fears on Commerce Bill

(N.Z. Press Association) WELLINGTON, May 20. A commission with a positive task to help develop New Zealand’s industry and commerce would be preferable to the present Commerce Bill, said the president of the Chambers of Commerce (Mr L. A. Cameron) today. Such a commission could regulate and control abuses, and build up a code of rulings for the guidance of businessmen, Mr Cameron said in a statement.

The present Commerce Bill, he said, would be more appropriately titled the “commerce restriction bill.”

As the Government had legislated for the health of the industrial community, so must it legislate for and understand the businessman, the self-employed professional and the manager. "As it is important that industrial relations should not be hedged by penalties, so it is important that the t

Commerce Bill should not inhibit businessmen, more especially the smaller businessman, with repressive provisions and penalties. “The entire business community, from the largest manufacturer down to the smallest shopkeeper, is now singled out as the cause of domestic inflation,” Mr Cameron said. NOT DISPUTED "We do not dispute the need for fresh legislation to consolidate the Trade Practices Act and the Control of Prices Act. We readily accept that there should be adequate legislation to deal with the occasional cases of irresponsibility which arise in commerce as in any other field.” But a commerce bill which did not build commerce, and merely acted as a policeman would — unless redrafted — contribute not to the development, but to the destruction of business enterprise. The situation illustrated the need for the Government and its agencies to make much greater use of the top quality advice, which was available from competent outside sources before

embarking on such farreaching legislation, said Mr Cameron.

An example of the negative restrictive nature of the bill lay in the extremely wide regulatory powers in the hands of the Minister, his department, and the proposed commerce commission.

"The commission is required to assume that businessmen are gujlty of acting contrary to the public interest unless they prove otherwise. Such an approach is not only discriminatory against the commercial community — it is a dangerous departure from the principle that a man is assumed innocent until proved guilty,” said Mr Cameron.

Under the' bill a shopkeeper could be convicted for profiteering even if he sold below cost, and moreover, if he took steps to avoid profiteering he might be held guilty of a restrictive trade practice. Mr Cameron said it should be realised by now that the best way to keep prices down was to encourage the competitive system without the expensive imposition of more and more controls.