RETURN TO ALL
I recall well Minister Andrew Bayly ferrying through amendments to the Arbitration Act in 2019. They had come about because I, as the executive director of the Arbitrators' and Mediators' Institute of New Zealand, with senior members Sir David Williams KC and John Walton had managed to persuade then Attorney General Chris Finlayson KC to add amendments to the Arbitration Act via the Judicature Amendment Bill, that was already weaving its way through parliament.
Not all the amendments we wanted to secure to make New Zealand an attractive seat for arbitration could be included in that omnibus legislation. So through the good offices of another member, Jeremy Johnson, we drafted a bill and it was sponsored by MP Paul Foster-Bell as a private member's bill and placed in the cake tin. We crossed our fingers and waited.
Imagine the delight when our bill was picked out of the cake tin! By that time it needed a new sponsor - then MP Andrew Bayly. I well-remember introducing him to the heady world of the arbitration of trust disputes, jurisdictional challenges in arbitration and the like. He was a quick study and we felt sure the bill would pass with cross-party support. Alas, we were stymied at Select Committee, which wanted to reject all the amendments. Some quick overnight manoeuvring with the chair of the Select Committee saved the day with the bill being sent back to the Select Committee for more work.
The final result was the amendments being passed under the persistence and expertise of Minister Andrew Bayly.
My path has crossed again with Minister Bayly. Earlier this year, he had the job of calling me to advise that the Consumer Advocacy Council, which I chaired, would not receive budget funding, and would be dissolved. I was disappointed, but not really surprised. The work goes on to ensure the voice of consumers are heard when it comes to electricity. We talked about that issue when we met. Luckily for me, I get to continue to work on electricity as a member of the Expert Advisory Group to the Electricity Authority.
We had other matters to canvas - groceries and the duopoly, whether $50K was a sufficient jurisdiction for a dispute resolution scheme between suppliers and retailers; financial dispute resolution schemes and how to make them consistently good and the Banking Ombudsman Scheme in particular; retirement villages and how they can be improved for the benefit of residents.
In between we talked pregnancies and deliveries - mine and Mongolian adventures - the minister's.