Willis NicolaNICOLA WILLIS (National): I rise to speak on this Part 2 of the National Animal Identification and Tracing Amendment Bill drawing particular attention of course to clauses 9 and 10. Now essentially the amendments to these regulations widen the scope in which they can be applied. They're intended to clarify farmers' obligations under National Animal Identification and Tracing (NAIT) to support investigation and management of non-compliance. So it's very important if they are to achieve that intention that we can be sure in this House that they will in fact be clear to farmers.So I want to put a question to the Minister in the chair today around these regulations specifically in relation to the exemption for calf shows that has been discussed in this debate. What the Minister has assured us is that when people are bringing their animals to school for calf competitions and are trying to go in the draw to win a prize—just like Peeni Henare was successful in doing as a young lad back when he was a winner back before he joined the other team—that when they do that it will be exempt from this regulation. What I'm unable to see when I look at what's here in the law which we intend to pass in this House is where that exemption in fact lies. Of course what the law says here is that this will be for a NAIT location" or "other location"."Other location" to my mind and I'm sure to the mind of many reasonably minded and pragmatically minded farmers would include a school. So if there is to be an exemption of the sort that the Minister has assured the Chamber about in this debate today it's important that that is on the record. Of course this goes to the very heart of what regulation is about because it is one thing for us in this House to regulate to allow for regulation but actually the practical import of that regulation is how members of the public are informed about it and how it is enforced.Of course it goes without saying that the Ministry for Primary Industries (MPI) is one of the departments in the New Zealand Government that has the most amount of legislative instruments under its control. That is for good reason—because the Ministry of Primary Industries is controlling food safety and other things—but we have to be realistic about what clauses 9 and 10 mean because if NAIT is going to work effectively into the future farmers need to understand very clearly what it is. So I just put that question around the exemption.I also note that the expectation is that these regulations are not expected to be controversial because the intent is that their impact be on those who are already not complying or who are suspected of not complying. If that is the case I think it would be useful for the Minister for the record for Hansard and for farmers who may show particular interest in these matters—in fact for agribusiness advisers who once this legislation is passed want to be informing members of the community about how they comply with it. Because of those reasons I think it would be useful for the Minister in the chair to give us a couple of examples of instances where officials have been unable to prosecute or begin a prosecution for someone because these regulations haven't been wide enough. On a pure read of them as they stand the description of a "NAIT location" and the description of "transport or droving" seem broad enough to carry scope so that any breaches could be prosecuted currently.So some clarification of the difficulties that the ministry has had would be useful so that farmers and those affected by this law have a better idea of what it is that these are intended to capture. Of course what we are not trying to do with this law is make life harder for farmers. What we are trying to do is support them to support the eradication of Mycoplasma bovis to ensure that they're operating in a regime that allows for the effective tracing of animals.At that I just go back to the point I touched on earlier which is to say that these clauses 9 and 10 will only achieve their intention if indeed MPI put the information campaigns and enforcement behind them to ensure that this is a real and live regime that actually supports the work of the National Identification and Tracing system. It is one thing to amend the law; it is another to ensure that people know how to comply with it and when they don't there is enforcement. So if the Minister would be so kind to tell us a bit more about his winning calf and to answer those questions I'm sure that the committee would appreciate that. Thank you Mr Chair."