Laban Luamanuvao Winnie: State-Owned Enterprises (AgriQuality Limited and Asure New Zealand Limited) Bill — First Reading 
Laban Luamanuvao Winnie: State-Owned Enterprises (AgriQuality Limited and Asure New Zealand Limited) Bill — First Reading 
[Volume:638;Page:8570] 
Hon LUAMANUVAO WINNIE LABAN (Minister for the Community and Voluntary Sector) 
: 
 Kia ora talofa lava and warm Pacific greetings. It is my pleasure indeed to stand and speak in support of the State-Owned Enterprises (AgriQuality Limited and Asure New Zealand Limited) Bill. This bill makes for good common sense and is very well supported by the sector. 
I wish to make a couple of points about it. The bill provides for a possible merger between the two State-owned enterprises—AgriQuality and Asure New Zealand. The bill does not force a merger or require a merger; it simply enables a merger between the two State-owned enterprises to take place. It is good to see that both AgriQuality and Asure New Zealand have both agreed to work together to explore the possibility of a merger. Rakihia Tau Chair of AgriQuality has expressed his company’s strong support for this initiative and Asure New Zealand has also agreed to cooperate. In a recent media statement the Chair of the board confirmed Asure’s willingness to cooperate fully in the preparation of a business case to assess the economic viability of the merger. 
Unions also support the bill and as my colleague Maryan Street said the Public Service Association which represents meat inspectors employed at Asure and staff at AgriQuality says that the benefits of a possible merger to union members and the taxpayer are significant. It is really heartening to see the two State-owned enterprises and the union in agreement at such an early stage as this Labour-led Government prefers to see State-owned enterprises collaborating and cooperating together where they can instead of competing with each other and spending taxpayers’ money to do so. 
The bill will also prevent direct competition between the two State-owned enterprises and companies in delivering export red meat inspection services. Our Labour-led Government is committed to value for money and value for people and to competing in the global market to maximise gains for New Zealand quality product quality service and quality business. That is the Kiwi way. That also feeds nicely into an important provision of this bill. It authorises shareholding Ministers to issue a direction to AgriQuality to prevent it from providing export red meat inspection services. It is very important that the interests of the wider public and the sector are represented and this bill allows shareholding Ministers to do that. 
If in the future it is seen as viable and AgriQuality and Asure merge there will be many benefits for taxpayers and the sector. As outlined earlier by our Minister for State Owned Enterprises Trevor Mallard there will be cost efficiencies from having a single national provider. There will be improved integration of national biosecurity capability which is a point not to be missed I might add given the increased vulnerability of New Zealand and other nations to breaches in biosecurity in today’s interdependent interconnected and global world. There would also be the ability to provide better information for consumers about where their food comes from and additional revenue opportunities from offering quality assurance services to the wider food industry. A single integrated service provider would be better placed against international competition. 
Again Rakihia Tau Chair of AgriQuality sums this up better than I can in his recent media statement when he said: “The possible merger of AgriQuality and Asure would have the added advantage of allowing effective traceability of food from the paddock right through to the supermarket shelf strengthening access to international markets across the breadth of the supply chain. Any move in this direction will see our reputation for producing safe and wholesome food products enhanced with the potential to benefit the wider agricultural and food industries in New Zealand.” 
A previous speaker Nathan Guy made many assumptions about this bill—for example that there would be increased costs with this process and that competition is good. We are not disputing that. It is also important to have the pragmatic business savvy to collaboratively work out the best bang for our buck for business consumers taxpayers and the State. Each has a role to play in order to keep the checks and balances of our respective responsibilities to ensure we get a win-win for New Zealand. It is also important that we support AgriQuality Ltd and Asure New Zealand Ltd’s decision to work together to explore the possibility of a merger and to not make assumptions and pre-empt the process at this stage. 
This is a common-sense bill. It is also an example of a proactive Government working on behalf of all New Zealanders to ensure that where opportunities that benefit the taxpayer and industry exist they are acted on properly explored and if viable fully implemented. I congratulate my colleague the Hon Trevor Mallard for his leadership in introducing this bill and I look forward to discussing it further at our Commerce Committee. Thank you Mr Speaker.