Grigg NicolaNICOLA GRIGG (National—Selwyn): Thank you Mr Speaker. I too rise in support of the Organic Products Bill and I just want to make a couple of comments in line with my colleague Tim van de Molen. We do support this bill to the extent that it will certainly increase the confidence for consumers who are looking to buy organic products. We often talk about organic food products but then of course there are the fibre products as well. I know a number of people like to ensure they're wearing organic cotton or organic wool or even organic silk but it does certainly give some confidence to the consumer industry in a day and age when retail is in an incredibly competitive environment as is the food and beverage sector. For a long time New Zealand producers of organic products have traded on their reputation which is richly deserved but at least now in an international environment particularly there will be a framework set in place whereby offshore consumers can also recognise the same standards that our growers and producers are required to meet.It is quite extraordinary that organic growers and producers have relied for so long entirely on private certification regimes with private standards and of course with no particular set of governing rules. This could have meant that anything and everything could have been considered an organic product. There have been those who have simply been able to self-certify. I often think of the wine industry purchasing their gold stars and I as a consumer automatically go for the cheap row but those with the gold stars because I like to think I'm getting a good deal. But who am I to know that it's actually a gold star wine?Simon Court: Does it taste good?NICOLA GRIGG: It always tastes good Simon!Simon Court: That's the test!NICOLA GRIGG: Now now—we're not here to talk about the gold stars and my lack of knowledge around wine. But the Organic Products Bill will also implement—[Interruption] Anna Lorck I could talk about wine and Berocca all day if you'd like but not for now.This bill will also of course implement a framework that will allow those businesses themselves let alone the consumer certainty around the processes that are needed for them to claim organic status or that their products are of organic origin. As many people have acknowledged this is a large and rapidly growing industry. I understand it's growing at about 9 percent a year I think worth a quarter of a billion dollars to our domestic market and closer to $700 million in the offshore market which as we all know is incredibly competitive. We've just seen in recent months the signing of free-trade agreements with the likes of the UK and the EU. We know these are highly discerning markets and of course we must as a legislator do everything we can to increase the competitive edge.Rachel Brooking: Wonderful Minister of Trade.NICOLA GRIGG: They were wonderful deals. Thank you very much to the Labour colleague across there. And isn't it great that the National Government started the process of those free-trade agreements. But of course it has been an enormous frustration to growers and producers that this legislation has taken so long. Indeed a couple of Parliaments ago it was begun. It's taken this long to come into law. I do also acknowledge Minister James Shaw and I'm very surprised that he's not down in the House this afternoon to celebrate the second reading because I know he's been like the proverbial dog with a bone on this one. Anyway I digress again.The certification system I mentioned earlier has in a funny old way been organic itself but it has seen vastly different requirements and standards that have meant both the grower/producer and the consumer haven't been able to identify what exactly that claim on organic has meant. I think that this inconsistency and this confusion has led to a certain amount of distrust and I think from a consumer perspective we must do everything we can to dampen that distrust because I think in a world where food security and food safety is paramount we've got to do here in this House all that we can to engender trust in food and product that comes out of this country because as we know our export industry is so vitally important to us as an economy and as a society. But we do of course need to stay ahead of the curve. We do know that demand for organic product is growing. I understand the global market itself is well in excess of $100 billion annually and as that growth continues New Zealand has to be in as firm a position as our offshore trading partners. By having a widely recognised certification system anyone shopping in an offshore supermarket—or indeed an offshore retail outlet—is going to be able to immediately recognise that our producers are using similar and recognised standards to our offshore partners.As I said and a lot of people have acknowledged this this has not been a fast-moving piece of legislation. It started with good intentions over a decade ago but we do on this side of the House feel that it's lost its way a little bit in that policy development area and indeed in the regulation setting role that the Ministry for Primary Industries (MPI) will take. I also note that the Minister's Supplementary Order Paper if I can just borrow my colleague's copy of it here is as big as the bill itself. I just can't help but wonder with all these very clever policy makers that we have in this precinct why on earth this was not brought to the select committee at an earlier date so that it could be discussed and it could be debated. We on the Primary Production Committee have a very collegial relationship and I would have thought this could have been implemented in the primary legislation itself rather than coming to the House as a very late Supplementary Order Paper whereby we haven't had the opportunity to discuss it let alone read it from my perspective.National has made it very clear in our minority view that despite the fact that we do welcome this bill and we are pleased that it is giving the industry a little bit of certainty we are concerned as we've outlined in our minority view that the costs of this regulation are going to prove yet another onerous burden on growers and producers. And we do feel very much that MPI plays a role in being aware—and I should just quote—of the costs of regulation on some organic farmers" and "It may lead to much higher costs on some producers and MPI should be ensuring the most cost-effective regulation process." And secondly—and I again quote—"MPI has given no indication of the costs involved." That I think is the crux of the matter for us and hence our reservation about supporting the bill entirely. It's that this lack of transparency on this issue has created a divided reaction amongst organic producers and I think that some are quite correct to fear that they don't know what they're heading into in the likes of an audit process. They don't know what they're heading into and the costs that will ultimately come off their bottom line.I think the really important point to observe here is that we've all agreed this country is in the grips of a cost of living crisis. The more costs and the more compliance issues we pour on to our growers and producers ultimately does get fed downstream to the consumers. When we look to families who are looking to put good wholesome nutritious food on the dining table three times a day—or indeed at night when families sit down to dinner as is tradition—we want families to be able to eat the best of what New Zealand can produce and of course if this does become an onerous cost on growers that does get passed on as an onerous cost to families.So the National Party as I've outlined has reservations about the lack of guidance about how this bill will be implemented—how it will be enforced—but we do support it because it does serve the wider interests of the sector and indeed of making New Zealand's organic sector more transparent and of course internationally competitive. So I do commend this bill to the House."