Katene Rahui: Animal Welfare (Treatment of Animals) Amendment Bill — First Reading 
Katene Rahui: Animal Welfare (Treatment of Animals) Amendment Bill — First Reading 
[Volume:668;Page:15229] 
RAHUI KATENE (Maori Party—Te Tai Tonga) 
: 
 The last few years have been pretty tough for funny man Mike King. The descendant of Te Mahurehure has been through his fair share of life experiences. He endured a serious motorbike accident at Christmas in 2007; suffered a massive stroke in 2007 which led to temporary paralysis and loss of speech; and then a year later underwent a major heart operation to correct an irregular heartbeat. But the Christmas Eve disaster of 2008 capped them all. After 7 years of successfully retaining a high-profile celebrity role with the New Zealand Pork Industry Board he was suddenly dismissed from his position. But it was not the sudden sacking that shocked King; it was the sickening sight of pigs screaming and froth pouring out of their mouths that utterly appalled him. 
Up until that point Mike King was known as “Mister Pork”. He had been commissioned by the New Zealand Pork Industry Board to encourage New Zealanders to eat more pork and he had been pretty successful—under his watch pork sales soared. That is when SAFE entered the fray sending him information about factory farming of pigs in New Zealand so he started asking questions to investigate for himself how pigs were reared for pork bacon and ham. He searched the Net he viewed footage taken by Open Rescue and he eventually arranged a secret farm visit to see for himself. His recollection of that experience makes disturbing reading. The North Island intensive piggery he visited included a shed crammed full of 50 to 60 large pregnant sows. He spoke of the noise as deafening the smell as overpowering and in his own words said: “I just walked around looking at these beautiful animals huge animals wedged in these cages. You look into their eyes and they were either despairing terrified lost … it was absolutely harrowing”. This story is all the evidence the Maori Party needs to support this bill. 
But there are of course many more such stories that could be told that describe the physical and mental cruelty meted out to animals in the name of profits. The Maori Party supports this bill to prevent a small but savage group of farmers who keep their animals in inhuman conditions from being able to carry on such practices. The bill will create an immediate disincentive for the use of sow crates by some pig farmers and for the use of battery hen cages on certain chicken farms. We really commend Sue Kedgley for this very significant bill which we hope will pass unopposed through this House tonight and be a fitting legacy of her work in Parliament. 
The key purpose of the bill is to clarify that certain practices although permitted by a code of animal welfare breach key sections of the Animal Welfare Act 1999 and must be phased out within 5 years. We are interested in why these offenders are given a 5-year reprieve to carry on with such harrowing practices for so long before this bill kicks in. The Maori Party is committed to keeping our natural resources and environment healthy safe and intact for everyone—including future generations—and that certainly includes animal welfare. 
I have to say how impressed I am with the endorsement from some of our finest Maori celebrities: Mike King; Tammy Davis one of the stars of  
Outrageous Fortune 
; and the filmmaker writer and actor Taika Waititi. I want to leave members with the views of Mr Waititi which the Maori Party certainly endorses. “It’s not necessarily a question of what you eat but rather where that food comes from. We like to show off our “clean green” image to the international community but we still engage in many disgraceful practices that make me embarrassed to be a Kiwi.” 
One of the most disturbing assumptions surrounding cruelty towards animals is the view that people know no better. We utterly reject this notion. For example we know that there are many time-tried techniques that can protect the welfare of laying hens. There is ample evidence around the behavioural requirements of hens that demonstrates the importance of innate behaviour such as wing flapping nest building dust bathing preening or even walking—all actions ruled out in a battery hen environment. 
The Maori Party opposes the use of cruel cages to restrict the movements of so-called battery hens. We oppose the inhumane treatment of pigs in New Zealand and we totally support this bill.