Whaitiri MekaHon MEKA WHAITIRI (Associate Minister of Agriculture): Thank you very much Madam Deputy Speaker. It's a delight to take a call in support of the Dairy Industry Restructuring Amendment Bill (No 2) and obviously standing in support. After that last contribution by David Bennett you'd almost think that the sky is going to fall in.I want to take the opportunity to acknowledge what my colleague the Hon Damien O'Connor has done on behalf of particularly the Southland dairy farmers who were looking at the expiry of the regulative provisions in this particular Act.I wanted in my contribution to talk about the process in which this new Labour - New Zealand First - Greens coalition Government took in response to this particular issue in this bill that we are addressing at the moment. I just want to share with the members that clearly this was a bill introduced by the former Government and remind the House they had every opportunity to pass it but like we've heard in this debate over this bill ran out of time.We had a new Government announced at the end of October. My calculation is that on 18 December which is nearly 6 weeks Cabinet agreed to progress this bill under urgency. Why did they do that? Because of the fact that come 28 February Fonterra's shareholding application periods closed. It would close on 28 February of this year. So it was Cabinet that decided to bring this bill into this House under urgency on 18 December merely six weeks after forming the Government.So here we are under urgency. The honourable Minister Damien O'Connor brought the bill to this House and we debated it under urgency purely because of the time pressures of 28 February on which Fonterra shareholders or farmers could put in applications and that was looming if we didn't make amendments to this bill. So I do want to acknowledge the quickness with which this Government addressed the issue that was at hand and the risk to those dairy farmers in the South Island. I just wanted to share that piece of information with the House.The second important part that this bill enables—and it shouldn't be underestimated—is this opportunity to review the dairy industry. The Dairy Industry Restructuring Act (DIRA) hasn't been addressed for 17 years. I do want to respond to the former speaker the Hon David Bennett's comments around doom and gloom for dairy farmers around the country. It's clear to me that there has been a significant shift amongst dairy farmers across the country—not just dairy famers; growers sheep and beef farmers—and we have to now look at the way in which we practise both on the land and the utilisation of water if we are going to keep ahead in terms of international competitiveness for our products to market. It's clear that there's a movement that we cannot keep doing the same thing and get different results.I want to acknowledge this bill enables the review that the Minister has outlined in his earlier contribution. I want to support all dairy farmers and acknowledge that they will all have a contribution in looking at the industry in a much more strategic way as we go forward into the nation. I think this bill does address and puts aside the real priorities particularly of the dairy farmers in the South Island by removing the expiry provisions under the Act but it also signals very clearly as we move forward as a Government that we need to take a more strategic view of the dairy industry across the board. From where I sit I think dairy farmers will be pleased to be able to participate in that review so that we do get the right mix and the system is right and like I said maintains our competitive international advantage. To that end I gladly commend this bill to the House.