Browning SteffanSTEFFAN BROWNING (Green): I rise to speak to the Geographical Indications (Wine and Spirits) Registration Amendment Bill. This is a very very positive bill as has been said and we are very keen to be supporting it. There are some issues around it and things that we should be considering while it proceeds all the same. I come from Marlborough. I was brought up in Marlborough from the age of 4. I live there currently and just the other weekend I climbed my maunga Mount Stokes or Aorere in the Outer Sounds. The area is very very precious to me but unfortunately it has become degraded somewhat and the reason for this bill is part of that. Those names of Marlborough Awatere Wairau Kaikōura and maybe Kekerengu may end up as names that have the protection that will really emphasise the positive features around this industry. I also think that we should be exploring other aspects of the food industry in this as well. I can think of Marlborough garlic for example—that is the best area in New Zealand for growing it. We are very well known for that. In Otago we have got apricots. We did actually lose a lot of apricots growing in Marlborough to wine as the wine has been shown to be maybe more consistently lucrative for landowners in the area. This is positive legislation. The move as someone previously said for the Marlborough Plains—she said the Wairau Plains—through to the Awatere Valley into grapes has been phenomenal. It is a major economic shift for the region. But our diversity has gone as well and so has the New Zealand ownership of that land—it has gone as well. Most that will benefit from this are overseas companies that are selling—or actually growing but certainly controlling—the wine out of our region and that is anathema. I just noticed the new statistics on overseas ownership and there is a lot of Chinese money in there and there is a lot of US money in there. Constellation one of the US companies is just moving through some very valuable land that would do much better food production and it is just converting that. But not only that; it is bringing in its pesticide regimes more and more. We are having some growth in organics in the area but this good labelling—Marlborough Awatere Kaikōura maybe—is likely to be lessened. It is at risk. At the moment—and some members in here will have shares in it—at least 50 percent of the surface area that is under viticulture which is the dominant thing in Marlborough is herbicide covered because in spring they think they will warm the ground and get some frost protection by doing that. It is 50 percent. In 2007 it was 70 percent at one stage and it dropped down with our work on the issue and then they said: Hey that's sustainable wine-growing." There is nothing sustainable when you cover up to 100 percent in some vineyards. There is a member here in the Government who had 100 percent when I was talking about it in 2007. It may well be more than 50 percent at the moment. I have not had time to analyse it as fully as I would like. Fifty percent of the surface area is under a probably carcinogenic regime and then there are the rest of the pesticides and the statistics around Marlborough and the statistics in Hawke's Bay—in those areas—need to be looked at. What will "Marlborough" mean when we ruin our reputation? It was good to hear Damien O'Connor mentioning the clean green image and what we are doing for Brand New Zealand. This stuff will help if we do it right but it will not help if we wreck that reputation because of what we are doing in terms of the health of the community and the health of the environment. Just this last weekend I took photos of herbicide-resistant ryegrass. That herbicide resistance started in these vineyards because they were using glyphosates so consistently.Todd Barclay: Ha ha!STEFFAN BROWNING: The member over here may well laugh but what do you use next? What did the wine industry want to use? Some of them wanted to use paraquat instead of glyphosate. They have got one tool they are allowed to use occasionally. That resistant ryegrass has now spread to the roadside corridor and so the local territorial authorities are trying to manage their roadside that they might have done with glyphosate—The ASSISTANT SPEAKER (Lindsay Tisch): Order! The member is wide of the mark on this. I just ask you to come back to the intent of the bill and its content and just focus on that.STEFFAN BROWNING: Thank you Mr Assistant Speaker. I am totally on focus because my region relies on good branding and what is happening is bad branding false branding. There is not going to be anything to be proud about if the region is being given a poor reputation. There are some major problems with the horticulture there. We have got to do it in a generally sustainable way if we are going to put our name to it and somehow protect it. What the hang are we going to protect a name like that for if it has got a bad reputation throughout the world? We will be voting for this bill because we see it as positive but hand in glove with that we must have those improvements that will protect our brand protect Brand New Zealand and our reputation at the same time. These names will be protected. They are already on a number of labels. But the same Government that is promoting this in terms of labels cannot get other aspects of food labelling correct at all. Some it has not even monitored or enforced since 2003 and consumers miss out there. So again this is a positive bill for what its intent is but let us see the other areas of food labelling have their act cleaned up at the same time. In terms of the other areas that could come under a similar bill—this one is very specific; wine and spirits—there are some problems with that. Fonterra makes some very good mozzarella and other cheeses and feta is one that I think the Greeks will push back on if we start to go down the path of registration of geographical indicators. We may actually not be able to use some names and so those are some of the complexities around that. Registration of wine and spirits is relatively simple and it has a long history. In Europe there is a long history of areas being able to protect their names. So the Green Party will be supporting this bill for those positive things. We just really hope to see that Brand New Zealand and "Brand Marlborough" will be protected by some good sustainable practices. Thank you."