Guy Nathan: Farmers' Mutual Group Bill — Second Reading Procedure Third Reading 
Guy Nathan: Farmers' Mutual Group Bill — Second Reading Procedure Third Reading 
[Volume:641;Page:11155] 
NATHAN GUY (National) 
: 
 I just want to put on the record that I—like the Hon David Carter chair of the Primary Production Committee—am a member of the Farmers’ Mutual Insurance Association. I just want that recorded in  
Hansard 
. If I can I will cover a little background about the Farmers’ Mutual Insurance Association a little about the bill as it weaved its way through the select committee and a little about what the future holds I believe for the association and this bill as it progresses its way through the House this evening. 
As was touched on by one of our previous speakers in the early 1900s a group of farmers came together to form this mutual group. They had no capital no business plan and no marketing experience. They set up the mutual group because they were concerned about the ravages of fire and what it could do to their businesses. We have to reflect back a hundred years to what it would have been like for those farmers. They would have had crops of barley or wheat and if a fire went through that and into their crops of stored hay for their winter supplements we can imagine how it would have impacted on their farming business. So when we look at the 1920s right through to the 1950s we can see the result of what our pioneering forefathers did for agriculture. They had the foresight to set up this group and I think that is absolutely fantastic. 
As the member David Carter mentioned in 1978 the Farmers’ Mutual Insurance Association through amalgamation set up its head office in Palmerston North. Of course I have a great affinity with that city having been educated at Massey University. 
Hon David Carter 
: Go and get a real degree—at Lincoln. 
NATHAN GUY 
: I would tell Mr Carter not to worry about that; I will challenge him about that outside the House later. 
In 2002 the association was re-branded and now it has 35000 members and 55000 customers. For a while during the select committee process I was a little bit worried that this bill would get caught up in the spider web of the Review of Financial Products and Providers. This review has been around and stumbling through the Cabinet process for quite a while and it was meant to be reported back in February 2007. Now the report-back date will be in November 2007 and I think Lianne Dalziel’s office has had a fair bit to do with that. I was really concerned that this bill would be caught in the spider web of that review. That is just the review I am talking about; not the legislation coming into Parliament that would take another 2 or 3 years to get here. Thank goodness that the Parliamentary Counsel Office stepped in and managed to forge this bill together. The Ministry of Economic Development and the Farmers’ Mutual Insurance Association were working hard on it for 2 years but they could not quite get it together so thank goodness for the good work of the Parliamentary Counsel Office and the Primary Production Committee. 
National supports this bill. I think it is important for the association as it moves forward because it wants to diversify and to move with the times. If it could not get this bill through the House now then it would feel that it was missing out on opportunities. 
I was interested before to hear Mr Tanczos when he was talking about climate change because I think that is one of the real challenges that the association faces going forward. We all know that over the last 100 years the farming sector has had to face the challenges of climate change. The sector has faced snowfalls flooding hill country erosion earthquakes and droughts. 
But now the association is challenged to think about the future. What is the future in terms of risk for our farming community? I would ask whether it is something like biological terrorism. When we think about the UK and its current outbreak of foot-and-mouth disease which occurred very close to a research plant there are questions that I think need to be answered. Members should think about the bird flu. These are the challenges that the association faces. The group needs to think ahead about the real issues that the farming primary production industry of New Zealand has to face. I think that is partly why the group wants to get the changes made through this bill this evening. 
Just in closing I wish the association well on its AGM at the end of this month. It has already gone out and advertised to all its members and sought feedback. It got 28 written responses all pretty much in favour of this bill as it passes through this House this evening. 
I just want to put on the record that I wish Peter Jensen all the very best. He has been involved with the association for 16 years and is choosing to step down. I acknowledge not only his contribution with the Farmers’ Mutual Insurance Association but also what he has done for New Zealand farming as a whole.