Henare PeeniHon PEENI HENARE (Minister of Forestry): Thank you Madam Chair. I'm pleased to be here for the committee stage of the Forests (Legal Harvest Assurance) Amendment Bill. I propose this bill amends the Forests Act to establish a new regulatory system that enables the forestry and wood-processing sector to provide domestic consumers and export markets with greater assurance that the timber products they are purchasing are from legal sources. The question of how New Zealand responds to the issue of illegally harvested timber has been debated in this House for the last 10 years and it's good to see this bill being progressed. It has been the culmination of a lot of work by many groups of people and I'm grateful to them. Can I acknowledge all members on both sides of the House for engaging constructively with this important piece of legislation. I'd like to reiterate my thanks to the Primary Production Committee for their examination of the bill during the select committee stage and all submitters for their time and contribution to this bill.Through the select committee process several technical changes and several policy changes were recommended to help ensure the new legal harvest system will work well with the new registration systems for forestry advisers and log traders which were introduced by a 2020 Forests (Regulation of Log Traders and Forestry Advisers) Amendment Act. These changes will reduce regulatory burden and compliance cost for regulated parties.I've tabled a Supplementary Order Paper (SOP) on this bill which makes changes to the bill as reported back from the select committee. The SOP strengthens the bill by making further changes to align the new registration systems for forestry advisers and log traders with a proposed system for legal harvest and other technical amendments to improve the efficiency and workability of the new regulatory systems.I won't go into the background of the bill as it's been well-canvased across members here but I do want to speak just a little bit more—if the Chair will indulge me here—on the SOP. As mentioned the SOP which has been tabled—most of the changes included in the SOP are to better align the regulatory systems for forestry advisers and log traders with the proposed regulatory systems for legal harvest. The new registration systems for forestry advisers and log traders are being implemented now. Registration will become mandatory in August of this year. The purpose of the 2020 amendment was to introduce a professional registration system to ensure forest owners receive better advice and there was more transparency in the market. It is important the legal harvest system works well with these new registration systems to save on regulatory burden and administration costs. These changes had to be made via the SOP as they have become visible during the implementation of the new systems.There are a couple of other changes that need to be mentioned. One is to allow the regulator to suspend a registered forestry adviser or log trader for non-payment of fees or levies. This will make compliance more efficient and effective. Another is to clarify the meaning of legally harvested" by moving a reference on right to access the land from one subsection to another. This is a minor change but will make the definition clearer and therefore easier to comply with. The SOP makes some other technical amendments. Two of these were recommended by a submission by the New Zealand Law Society which was not considered during the select committee stage due to an administrative error. The chair of the select committee reported to the House on these changes and recommended I consider addressing these issues in an SOP during the committee stage. These are on (1) fixing a duplication in the bill on immunity from liability for assessors and (2) amending offence provisions to allow for judicial discretion when determining whether a defence is available to a person. There is a further technical amendment which removes a requirement for confirmation of instruments for three levy-making powers.Although there are a number of changes proposed in the SOP these are mainly on technical issues and are aligned with original policy intent. These changes are needed to improve the workability of the new legal harvest assurance system and make sure it complements the existing registration systems for log traders and forestry advisers. In closing for this part of my contribution I want to reiterate the importance of having a legal harvest assurance system that will shut the door on illegally harvested timber products imported into New Zealand. The harvest assurance system will further provide the international market with confidence in New Zealand's wood and wood products and show that New Zealand is taking all appropriate measures to combatting illegal harvesting and eradicating the problem. It is absolutely essential that we have a statutory framework for legal harvest. I end my contribution there."