Henare PeeniHon PEENI HENARE (Labour): Fantastic Madam Speaker. It's always important that we get things right—DEPUTY SPEAKER: Absolutely.Hon PEENI HENARE: —which is why we're here this evening. I want to acknowledge the Minister the Hon Todd McClay who reached out and with the support of the industry made it very clear why getting these things right is important.To the Minister's credit we were very clear that we would still prosecute a number of matters; we will still continue to push the Labour position on forestry while also supporting this bill. That's important because it is very clear Labour's position when it comes to forestry and the Minister touched on a number of those matters in his third reading speech—that is that we do want to see more logs more raw timber products processed and developed here in New Zealand.I mentioned it earlier: that all members of the House have driven past the port and said Why are there so many logs sitting there in raw form ready to be exported overseas?" and then thought "We want to have jobs we want to grow the economy here locally and why don't we continue to do more of that manufacturing and wood processing here in New Zealand?" The Labour Party has been staunch supporters of that. In fact during our time in Government we set aside quite a large amount of money in order to support those aspirations that small communities have to be able to process the timber that is around them.I'm always reminded when I think of forestry about one example—and I'm going to be very careful about the names. I won't mention the names but it's an example that I'm sure resonates with every member in this House. Not too long ago in a staunch forest community by the way of planters harvesters and processors a new community building was opened. All of the materials used to build that building were imported from Australia and that building was erected in one of the biggest forestry towns in this country. To me that's ludicrous. To me that doesn't make sense. To me we want to show the forestry sector that we support them.I support the Minister's push towards growing our exports and log value offshore—I think that's a good thing. But I do want to highlight one of the things that came to my attention last year in July when the Rt Hon Chris Hipkins led a trade delegation to China and we noticed—and it was made very clear to us—that in particular for Māori land owners who have forests we are over-invested in this space and that the risk that it exposes Māori land owners and Māori forestry owners to was great it was significant and couldn't go without clear direction about where that particular sector is heading.I believe that in passing this bill this evening we are providing that to the sector. We're allowing the sector to create a registration system. As the Minister has already mentioned there is another example that he favours but we're going to put that in the hands of the sector to say "That's fine but let's make sure that we get it right this time."What we're also saying though is that in entrusting the sector to do this we want to encourage the sector not simply to meet with the big owners—not simply to meet with the big operators—but to meet with the small to medium sized owner-operators growers right across this country. I think that's a really important step to make sure that we do have a system that works for the entire sector not just for the big players. I respect the big players—the role they play in leading our industry—but we know there are a large number of small-forest owners medium-sized forest owners who are looking to be part of the action that is really important to the forestry sector as we export our logs overseas.I do want to also reiterate our point for the Labour Party about the protection of indigenous species and making sure that we're not feeding into a black market offshore. The Minister made it very clear that in his role as trade Minister he'll continue to promote our forestry products offshore and I totally support that. What we can't support though is the illegal trade of indigenous species of timber from New Zealand into black markets—and I'm sure every member in this House will agree—and we want to continue as the Labour Party to reiterate that point through the passage of this bill.The other point we want to make: the term "cowboys" was used regularly throughout the debate we want to make sure that we have a good system that certainly doesn't see the increase or the rise of cowboys in the sector but that continues to support the growth in the forestry sector to make sure that in the future no cowboys can come back. Others as my colleague described it someone with a ute and a laptop could go up and offer services to somebody who might not have the full expertise to be able to export their logs and simply be taken advantage of. We can't tolerate that and we want to make sure—and I've said it throughout the progress of this bill—that we want to support the Minister in what he said about how we can look towards having a robust system moving forward. But we will need to continue to ensure that those safeguards are in place so that people aren't taken advantage of. I take the Minister at his word in his assurances that we will be able to make sure that those safeguards between now and the August 2027 date will continue to keep our sector safe.The other point I want to make: the forestry sector relies on security and long-term vision. However it doesn't mean it isn't impacted by the influx of the market. It doesn't mean that it isn't impacted by what is and has been a fair amount of instability in the log exports for this country. It has been challenging. What we've seen in places like China was best described to me by one forestry owner as "a turning down of the tap" or of the volume that they're looking towards—knowing full well that we export large amounts of wood product into China.So we want to make sure that we can actually look towards protecting those markets while also looking towards growing more markets and doing so in the right way knowing full well that those who do trade with New Zealand with respect to logs as we export them out of this country come to New Zealand because they like our reputation when it comes to the way that we grow forests—the way that we trade in logs offshore.I do want to though reiterate that as we do that it would be remiss if the Labour Party didn't mention the health and safety of those workers who work in the forestry sector. We are the Labour Party—it's what we've stood for: protecting workers to make sure that the reputation that foreign buyers look towards our forestry sector they know that they've got a strong reputation here in New Zealand that can continue to be protected into the future. We can't see workers going to work and not coming home. That's just not the way we do things in this country.So my final comment is to our families on the East Coast at the moment. They've been hit so many times over the past 18 months by huge weather events. We know the forestry sector is a big part of the economy on the East Coast. We hope that the bill that we're passing here this evening may help the forestry sector—in particular on the East Coast but right across the country—to be able to rebound from what has been a difficult time. Our thoughts and our hearts go out to those on the East Coast as they continue to be pounded by rain and make sure that we in this House can support them to recover and I believe the forestry sector is one of those sectors that will help them to do that.We support this bill and we look forward to supporting the Minister in making sure that the safeguards that were mentioned by the Minister throughout the passage of this bill will continue to protect the sector—a sector this country needs."