Eckhoff Gerrard: Animal Products Amendment Bill (No 2) Animal Products (Ancillary and Transitional Provisions) Amendment Bill (No 2) — Third Readings 
Eckhoff Gerrard: Animal Products Amendment Bill (No 2) Animal Products (Ancillary and Transitional Provisions) Amendment Bill (No 2) — Third Readings 
[Volume:624;Page:19215] 
GERRARD ECKHOFF (ACT) 
: 
 In case any people listening were not aware who the previous speaker was let me inform them that it was Doug Woolerton who was supported by the blowfish—Doug Woolerton and the “Blowfish Party”. 
While we are talking about the animal products bills let me assure that member and everybody else that the demand that has come over my desk for me to get back on the bus go right throughout New Zealand and talk about the issues affecting farmers has been immense. In a few short days I will be back talking to the farming community about access which affects the farming community; about the “fart tax”—I suppose members will claim that that was just a Federated Farmers beat-up on the farmers again—or getting political about the 5c a litre fuel tax. Farmers are very keen to know why they are being penalised when they put fuel in vehicles that they use on their own farm tracks. That 5c a litre tax will be used to fix the roads of Auckland and farmers are not happy about paying it. 
But let me say to Mr Woolerton that the job of Federated Farmers is to represent their farming communities in the way they see fit just as the trade union movement represents its members as it sees fit. The trade union movement is affiliated almost totally to the Labour Government yet Mr Woolerton says that Federated Farmers cannot align themselves with the centre-right—yeah right! 
I would like to get back to the subject of the dairy industry and the wider land-based industry and to make this observation: it is because this Government has ignored land-based industry in this country that it has been so successful. Let us think about that for a moment. It is because the Government has fundamentally ignored everything to do with land-based industry that it has been so successful. I suggest that the Government should also ignore education health welfare and all of those issues because they are outstanding failures. Yet when we look at the dairy industry we see outstanding success. Why? Why does this Government not run the food industry for example? That surely must be the most important industry in this country. If we do not eat we die. So why does the Government not take it over? The answer is obvious: we would all end up 100 metres back in the queue on a cold winter’s morning trying to get some bread. That is why we will not have Governments involved. 
I say again that I am absolutely proud of the industry that I stand in this House and represent—the farming industry. It has achieved outstanding success. Despite high-handed top-down regulation being imposed on the industry by this Government it has managed somehow to circumvent that. We had a little bit of good fortune I guess with exchange rates at one stage down to 39c but now they are up to 75c and the industry is still holding its own because of its expertise and the high demand for the quality products of this industry and of the wider land-based industry in this country. 
As an ACT party MP I am not at all keen on regulation and rules but I do accept that in the dairy industry and the food industry there has to be regulation surrounding the quality of food. But one of the great ironies about this whole thing is that the regulations surrounding the use of antibiotics and so on for animals are far more stringent than the regulations for their use by human beings. Why? Why do we virtually control the use of something like Amoxil for animals but do not restrict its use by human beings? We can swallow the stuff by the gallon if we wish to. It seems totally perverse that we have these high-handed restrictions on the farming industry yet human beings can absorb everything that is thrown at them. 
I also want to pay tribute to Mr Owen Jennings who of course would be well known to everybody in this House. We have heard about deregulation. Well it was Owen Jennings and the ACT party who back in 1996 drove this issue when every other party in this House said: “Oh no don’t touch it. Let the farming community decide.” I think we owe a huge debt of gratitude to men like Owen Jennings who had the courage to stand against the popular tide of conservatism and regulation at that time. His name shines in lights quite frankly when we talk about the success of the dairy industry and the success of deregulation of which New Zealand is rightly so very proud today. I think we owe a real debt of gratitude to Owen Jennings and like-minded people who way back—almost 10 years ago now—demanded the freedom for this industry to expand and excel which it most surely has done. 
There is a way to go yet especially for the dairy industry. I am delighted to see that a private dairy company Open Country Cheese has started up. It opened for public subscription. Shares were floated and they were taken within a matter of minutes I think. That shows that the public in this country has huge confidence in my old flatmate Wyatt Creech and the others who have started up this company. They saw the opportunity and despite what Mr Woolerton says I am told that they will have secured private or non-Fonterra suppliers before very much longer. I cannot guarantee it but it is something that I think will happen. Open Country Cheese recognises that there is a need for outside capital to come into this industry rather than farmers constantly being asked to accept a smaller payout for their product. They can expand their own industry without having to tie up all their capital within the dairy industry—without their having all their eggs in that one particular basket so to speak. 
 So we have a lot to be very very proud of in the dairy industry. This animal products legislation goes along the way of ensuring that our products are widely known and respected and command premium prices throughout the world. Alongside my colleagues I stand delighted to support this bill. I make this final point: it seems extraordinary that virtually every bill that goes through the Primary Production Committee is non-controversial and gets cross-party support. That is because by and large it is common sense that the legislation is needed and there is little or no Government involvement. That is the secret to success in this country—get the Government out of business.