Swarbrick ChlöeCHLÖE SWARBRICK (Green—Auckland Central): E te Māngai tēnā koe. Tēnā koutou e te Whare. I want to start this contribution tonight with a quote from a parliamentarian in this Chamber in 2015—and I quote: [This] bill will go some way—some way—to strengthening [the] standards of animal welfare and protecting animals from ill-treatment. But it also represents a real missed opportunity to take our legal protections for animals a lot further and to be a world leader in the area of animal welfare. I am pleased for instance that there will be a new "low-level" [offending] for people who [want to] hurt animals so [that we're] not focused just on the worst offending. We need to be focused on all offending and this bill addresses just that. I am pleased the new regulations will specify mandatory and enforceable animal welfare standards. I am pleased that the wilful or reckless ill-treatment of wild animals will now be an offence that can be prosecuted. These were [some of the] issues [that] I raised with the Minister at the time all those years ago so I am pleased that some of them are being addressed in this piece of legislation." I think that this is a really important reflection on the Hansard only several years ago to bring to the Chamber tonight because that contribution was of course from John Banks the former leader of the ACT Party who also in that contribution went on to say—and I quote: "Live animal exports need to be very closely monitored—indeed if they are necessary at all and I am not convinced." This of course was during a debate in a 2015 amendment bill on the Animal Welfare Act which was celebrated and introduced by the then National Government Minister Nathan Guy and inserted what we now know as the welfares or the wellbeings inside of the Animal Welfare Act. That night Nathan Guy said—and I quote: "I am very pleased to speak on the third reading of the Animal Welfare Amendment Bill. Animal welfare matters to [all] New Zealanders. It matters because we know that animals are sentient—capable of having feelings perceptions and experiences."Referring to I guess the chronology of events that have led us to this tonight—and I want to acknowledge as other parliamentarians have the loss and devastation with a number of ships on live export routes sinking—it was in 2008 per concerns about animal welfare that Aotearoa New Zealand initially banned live export for slaughter. Illogically we did not extend that to live export for continued growth of those animals. It simply does not make sense to have a situation where we were comfortable seemingly as a Parliament and seemingly across parliamentary lines to have a situation where we recognise that we could not control the animal welfare standards with regard to slaughter at the point of live export but that we were somehow willing to entertain continual enablement of live export for sake of live export for sake of that continued growth and eventual slaughter—none of that animal welfare standard that we would be able to impose on other countries.The main contributions from the Opposition to this legislation tonight have focused primarily on what the former speaker Joseph Mooney was alluding to as the so-called "ecosystem of the economy". I'm so glad to be talking about the ecosystem of the economy because this is a concept that the Greens have been banging on about for a really long time now. When we start to think about the economy it's really important that we ask ourselves "What actually is the economy?" Well the economy it happens is all of us and the things that we create and the planet that we extract resources from and the relationships that we have with each other and with the planet. That former National Party speaker also went on to say that when you break one part of it that you go on to break other parts. I think the point was that there are flow-on effects for actions that we in this House make in terms of the broader economy. To that effect I would invite again National Party members to reflect on the fact that in so many areas of our economy where we've continued to see persistent inequality and extraction of our planet to the detriment of the literal life-support system that all of us rely on that that ecosystem is very much out of balance but not in the way that they would be seeking for us to entertain tonight.They've also spoken about how this is again going to be detrimental to our economic outlook. To that effect I would just again raise the point as put forward by the Minister and by officials that live export makes up 0.2 percent of New Zealand's primary sector export revenue since 2015. It might also be worth thinking about the fact that European Parliaments in February 2019 voted on a series of changes representing a shift away from live export.We have the primary piece of legislation which this bill is seeking to amend that has in it the wellbeings as initially put in by a former National Government Minister and with contributions from a former ACT Party leader asking for it to go further and questioning whether there should continue to be the existence of live export because it was questionable and dubious at that point in time. This cannot come soon enough. Again I want to acknowledge the activists and the advocates who have spent so long in trying to draw the public's attention to just this.I also want to reflect on the Primary Production Committee report which the Opposition has spent a long time referring to one perspective as raised at committee. But quoting from the select committee's report it says—and I quote: "A number of submitters who supported the ban believe that it should instead take effect immediately or as soon as possible." Because the fact of the matter is that in that two-year phase-out period we have continued to see dozens of ships with thousands of animals being live exported to countries with which we have no control over the animal welfare standards of at their point of arrival let alone the questionable standards with which we continue to see some problems in that process of live export on those ships.I also want to acknowledge my forebears in the animal welfare portfolio in the Greens particularly Mojo Mathers—who I believe should have the honourable title—who has continued to have a lasting impact and legacy on this Parliament subsequent to her departure. She was calling for this a decade ago.It would be remiss of me too to not acknowledge the incredible mahi of my colleague in the last term of Parliament and somebody who has continued to go on to advocate for animal welfare. That is of course Gareth Hughes who accepted a petition back in 2019 from Save Animals From Exploitation from 30000 New Zealanders begging the Government to just get on with it and phase out live exports.I also want to acknowledge the fact that there are a number of submitters who were speaking to the reality that whilst this legislation focuses on live export via sea there are still other types of live export—particularly those via air which we continue to export our animals to other countries with which we do not have control over the animal welfare standards of. This of course was the rationale with which we ended live export for slaughter in 2008 but made the very illogical decision not to extend for live export writ large.So again referring to the contribution as made by my colleague in the Labour Party to those National Party MPs who continue to raise the fact that we could seek to maybe have some kind of discussions with these countries that we're exporting to around their animal welfare standards. Once again if you look at the Heron report you will see very clearly—as I'm sure the National Party would understand given their constant banging of the drum of their economic literacy—that we cannot regulate the markets internally what's occurring with regard to animal welfare standards in those other countries. Again this is why we sought to do it in 2008. I'm hearing from the National Party that this is why we can seek to regulate. We can seek to regulate and licence those who are leaving our shores absolutely. But we have next to no control over what happens when those animals arrive on that foreign soil. And that is the point.The Greens agree with those submitters who ask for this to go further and faster and with that I will end my contribution. Kia ora."