Ogilvy Bernie: Veterinarians Bill — First Reading 
Ogilvy Bernie: Veterinarians Bill — First Reading 
[Volume:623;Page:18768] 
BERNIE OGILVY (United Future) 
: 
 United Future will support the first reading of the Veterinarians Bill and its referral to the Primary Production Committee. Having spent one session on that committee I was delighted indeed that the bill is going there because I think it is a very cooperative committee with a lot of good robustness about it in terms of getting to the point and ensuring that the point does not get lost. That is a very good committee for the bill to go to. 
We support this bill for a number of reasons. One reason is that when this bill takes effect even though the Act it will replace is only 10 years old it will be a growth stage in a profession and I am delighted by that. It will start to give a professionalism to veterinarians in this country and to those who will come into this country. I am quite delighted by this upgrading because when professionals take over their own profession there is a shift whereby the Government’s control mechanisms are weakened and civil society starts to get some more strength into it. We are very satisfied that this will happen. 
Indeed I wonder with the professionalism that will take place through this bill whether some of the numbers issues might well be addressed at the same time. We are losing people from this country to other nations for various reasons as other speakers have noted but one reason is certainly that they want to belong to a professional society and group. This bill now allows for that opportunity and I think this really will be another means to attract New Zealanders to stay here. We are very happy with that. 
We also support this bill because it will go to a select committee that will be able to obtain a tremendous input from people around the country. This bill as it sits needs some polishing. The select committee will be able to do that. It will be able to take hold of some of the loose ends and hear the concerns and that is what a select committee is all about as I understand it. I am very very happy that we support this bill because it is at the select committee that the veterinarians and those associated with the industry—be they on the domestic side or in the farming industries—will be able to have their input. This bill will then flourish and have strength added to it. 
I applaud a bill that gives greater flexibility to any group and this particular group the Veterinary Council will have more flexibility to operate. It is because of those sorts of things that we are for example looking at parity of degree requirements between other countries and ours. I think that that is another step in the professionalism that this nation needs and has been pursuing through the New Zealand Qualifications Authority and its various other additions over the years. This profession is just starting to catch on to that so I applaud that. Whether a person takes 4 years to obtain a degree or 5 years is not so material as what the content and the learning is. Those comparisons and other issues will come to the Primary Production Committee and will be validated or otherwise. 
United Future believes that this legislation will help this profession in this country. I believe New Zealand has a lot to offer as an agricultural nation and this is one of the things it can offer as even those who come into the country as perfect strangers will learn. One of the great benefits we get from immigrants is the innovation the drive and a way of looking at things that sometimes we are over-familiar with and we miss the point. A new view can add to our agricultural industry particularly and therefore see us grow and be enhanced as a nation. So it is with delight really that we support this bill and we hope that the Primary Production Committee will do due justice to it when it receives it.