Patterson MarkMARK PATTERSON (NZ First): Thank you Madam Assistant Speaker. Yes it is with some well not pleasure really—this is a serious matter. We need to bring this legislation forward under urgency: the National Animal Identification and Tracing Amendment Bill. In response to the previous member the Hon Amy Adams who has just resumed her seat and also other members of the Opposition who have spoken so far on this bill in questioning the need to go under urgency when you are essentially granting powers to the State it is an issue that we do take seriously on this side of the House and we would not go to this process lightly. But I think the issue that's being lost on the other side of the House is that this actually has gone through a select committee process.When the original legislation the National Animal Identification and Tracing (NAIT) Act 2012 was passed the National Animal Identification and Tracing provisions were supposed to totally align with the Search and Surveillance Act 2012 so that all went through a very extensive select committee process. So what we've found in the heat of the battle when we have had to go to these provisions is that they haven't been fit for purpose. They haven't actually been effective because they haven't aligned with the Search and Surveillance Act which they were supposed to. So this is not like we're pulling something out of left field. This is just bringing this Act into line with what it was originally intended to be when it was brought into legislation I might say under the previous Government. So maybe you'd have to take a bit of a look at your own processes here. So we are—ASSISTANT SPEAKER (Poto Williams): Order!MARK PATTERSON: Sorry?ASSISTANT SPEAKER (Poto Williams): Do not bring me into the debate.MARK PATTERSON: Sorry Madam Assistant Speaker. The Opposition—the former Government—may have to look in the mirror a little bit as to why we're here debating this very issue.But let's step back a bit for a start and just ascertain why we are here and why we are doing this. We have had a major biosecurity outbreak. This is a serious disease for which we have had to bring in a serious response. The taxpayer and the Cabinet led by our Minister the Hon Damien O'Connor have had to come up with a package of $886 million. That is shared across industry but the bulk of that is being carried by the taxpayer so this is not a trivial matter. We do have to respond in kind and if we need to take some measures to help that response that's what we need to do and we are doing it.Can I just say I need to go on record as saying to the farmers that are affected that this has been an absolute tragedy for most of them. Through absolutely no fault of their own they've found themselves mixed up in this terrible situation. The response to date has been found somewhat wanting in parts. I think most of us that have been involved in that will know some of the personal stories and we have had to cobble together a response in part and learn as we go. That is something we're working through but it's something we have to do better. There are still some people falling through the cracks.So to those farmers who've been affected all our hearts go out to them. This is not a political matter; this is a something where the whole nation is behind them. I'd just particularly like to mention the rural support trusts and the work that they have done. I think that's been absolutely invaluable. But there are lessons from this that we have had to learn. Unfortunately this is not an isolated response. If we look at pea weevil myrtle rust kauri dieback velvetleaf and Bonamia ostreae in the oysters we have had to deal with a lot of these biosecurity outbreaks so we really do need to tidy up our act here.Also just going back to their decision to eradicate I note the article in the paper. Ben Walling I think is the Southland farmer that had to put down 400 of his calves. He articulated how terrible this disease was how distressing it was on the animals and on the farmers and he said that his response was absolutely necessary. We had no option but to go for eradication if this was to get out into the wider community.So a well-functioning NAIT system is absolutely pivotal in our response. Of course we have had the review and the NAIT system has been found wanting. There has been significant non-compliance and you know this is not all just politicians or the Ministry of Primary Industries (MPI) but we farmers have to take our share of responsibility here too. But we haven't had the enforcement going behind this legislation to give it the teeth. We've been allowed to be too slack around this stuff and haven't we paid dearly for that.I will commend this Minister for his response. Since the report came out in April he's certainly stepped up the infringement and the enforcement of infringements. There's been 39 infringement notices. That's up from one in the previous five years—one—and I think that particular infringement penalty was $150. So it was totally inadequate enforcement. I would commend the Minister for the way that he has stepped up here and shown some leadership.I would also note the industry groups that have got in behind this as one. It's not a cheap exercise as we've established but the industry organisations have risen to the task. They have sold the necessity of this to their membership and I think that's what we needed. We needed to be talking from one voice and we did and that includes across the House actually. We took the politics out of this a little bit and focused on the matter at hand which was a serious one and we're getting on with doing the job as a Parliament which I think under the circumstances is commendable.Of course within that $886 million we've got $30 million being committed to science and of course we've got the spring milk testing coming up shortly. And isn't that going to be a pivotal time when we find out with the stock under pressure whether this has escaped beyond the known outbreaks to date? So that will be a pretty telling moment.The response has been hampered by non-compliance. This bill while technical is extremely important because it does as I said earlier align the NAIT Act with the Search and Surveillance Act 2012 which is always as it was intended. To the members opposite that are showing some concern it did go through a select committee process. It was the intention for this to be consistent with that Search and Surveillance Act and many of you would have been involved in drafting that.It amends some anomalies around search warrants and the way MPI and NAIT officials are able to obtain such but I think the issue that's been brought up is around the warrantless inspections. Again to repeat myself it does align with the Search and Surveillance Act but what we've got now is a situation where the NAIT inspectors are able to access a farm. They've got the ability to get on to the farm but once they've got on to the farm they're unable to actually take the actions that they might need to do whether that is copy some documents or take some videos. So we're essentially sending them in there with one hand tied behind their back. They've already got the ability to access a property but they just can't effect their duties while they're there. The checks and surveillances that are in the Search and Surveillance Act are still available within this NAIT Act as well. Of course all the movements are to be recorded between farms. That's just an eminently sensible move. Just because a farm is not necessarily registered does not mean that those cattle should not be recorded as a movement. We absolutely need to know that detail.So this is part of a suite of packages as the Minister alerted us to before. He has signalled that the NAIT Act will be reviewed in full. There is for example new technology now available to us that we must be looking at. Also the Biosecurity Act is up for review as well and for some amendments. So within that suite of packages in this response this Government is taking this issue extremely seriously. We're putting the measures in place that we need to do—we absolutely need to do. There is no alternative but to get this right. So with this New Zealand First supports this bill to the House. Thank you.