Dairy Industry Restructuring Amendment Bill (No 2)
Second Reading, In Committee, Third Reading
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NATHAN GUY (National) : I think it is important that I make a contribution to this debate. I want to put it on the record from the start that the company I am involved with is a Fonterra supplier and a shareholder in LIC, but the Dairy Industry Restructuring Amendment Bill (No 2) is going to enable greater competition in the dairy industry, which I think is fundamental. The important point I want to make around those two companies is that there are seven players outside of Fonterra, albeit they are small players in the overall dairy industry. But it is important that the markets are opened up and that Fonterra does not have a monopoly over them. I think that that is what this bill sets out to achieve.
I also make the particular point that here we are, at 20 to 12 during the day. We are in urgency—we do not normally sit at this time of the day—to put this bill through Parliament because it is important. But I say to the Minister and the other members over on the other side of the Chamber in the Labour Government, and to those members who prop up the Labour Government, that this bill has been lurking around on the Order Paper for about the last month. Yet here we are, having to put this legislation through in a mad panic under urgency. It is important for the cornerstone of our economy that it goes through today—extremely important—and we will support it in going through. But I make the point that the Government has had to slam the House into urgency because it is so hopeless at managing the things on its Order Paper. This is a hopeless Government. It has had a month to get this legislation through, but here we are today, at 20 to 12, having to put it through under urgency.
Another important point that I make on this bill—and I will probably make further contributions on it when we get into the Committee stage—is that it will allow export licences to be allocated on the basis of a proportion of the milk solids collected from dairy farmers, with a minimum threshold of 0.1 percent of the total milk solids collected. Those export rights will become available between 2008 and 2010 on a yearly basis. That is a very important point to make there. Those rights outside that period will become available from 2011 on a 3-yearly basis.
The other important point, which has been touched on but which I think it is worth making a further contribution on, is around the core database that LIC tends to have a monopoly over in the current regime. It was a little outside this bill to get into the nitty-gritty of that, but I think that with Mr Carter’s chairmanship of the Primary Production Committee, it may be something that the select committee seeks to have a further look at in 2008. It is not necessarily fair that price dictates the level of service for the other minority companies that are trying to get involved in providing a service and dealing with the core database.
So those are some issues that I think we need to make a contribution on. I would like to get the Minister, in the Committee stage, to talk about the definition of milk solids, because that would be an important contribution. I think the Minister should tell the House that whether “milk solids” is written as one word or as two words is significant, because the words have a different definition. So it would be worthy of the Minister in the Committee stage to make a contribution and explain the definition and why that is so, for the benefit of listeners.
National is supporting the passage of this legislation through the House. We wonder why we need to be in urgency to get it through, because if the Government were organised we would not need to be ramming it through under urgency.
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NATHAN GUY (National) : I want to make a contribution today that I think is very important in the Chamber. I want to talk just on the schedule. The Primary Production Committee worked hard on this to get it right, and I think it is a fair point that I am about to make. The director-general or chief executive of the Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry technically allocates the export licences. We need to be mindful that the New Zealand dairy industry is primarily based on pasture-fed diet, and primarily our animals are outdoors all year round. We all know that climatic changes occur. In parts of New Zealand we can have a drought, and we are currently experiencing a mini-drought on the East Coast of the North Island. If we think back, in recent times we have had floods, we have had snowstorms, and we have had weather bombs throughout the country.
The significant point I want to make to the Committee is that the select committee worked hard and has come up with the provision in schedule 5B that allows those seeking an export licence to have their historical data analysed out to three seasons. The point I am making is that if we have a weather bomb, and farmers are constrained, as we know can be the case, that flows through to the heifer replacements—that is, the young cows that are going to come into the herd. It needs to be broad in its approach, so that we looking at not just one season or two seasons, but we are taking that data analysis out to three seasons, which I think is very, very important. I acknowledge the hard work, under David Carter’s leadership, of those members on the select committee who do own a set of gumboots, and who have come through a grassroots upbringing, like some of us in the National Party, who were well aware of the point that this is very, very important.
I turn to those members on the other side of the Chamber who were on the select committee and who have not come through that process. I am not sure whether there is one farmer left in the Labour caucus who would even be aware of that point. So this is a significant point in this bill that will mean it is fair, right across the board, that when the director-general or the chief executive of the ministry is technically allocating quota, he or she can look back across those three seasons of data.
Clause 1 agreed to.
Clause 2 agreed to.
Bill reported with amendment.
Report adopted.