McKelvie Ian: New Zealand Horticulture Export Authority Amendment Bill — First ReadingText is incorporated into the Bound VolumeMcKelvie Ian: New Zealand Horticulture Export Authority Amendment Bill — First Reading[Sitting date: 29 March 2016. Volume:712;Page:9968. Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume.]IAN McKELVIE (National—Rangitīkei): Thank you Mr Deputy Speaker—I will take his 25 seconds for him. What a pleasure it is to get up and follow a very positive Minister the Hon Nikki Kaye and a very positive contribution interestingly from the primary production spokesperson for the Labour Party Damien O’Connor on a bill that will make a difference to some small but very good players on the world stage—on a very big world stage.The purpose of this bill is to amend the New Zealand Horticulture Export Authority Act to provide more flexibility and clarity around processes and export strategies. It currently enables nine different horticultural-based industries to operate under the Act—more can join if they so wish. The changes are necessary to bring the Act into line with legislation that governs the industry in its broader sense such as the Kiwifruit Industry Restructuring Act 1999 and a number of others. This bill allows for regulation providing the sectors the ability to set levies in accordance with the Commodity Levies Act 1990—that Act of course enables a number of other primarily agricultural organisations to set levies and they do of course. The principal organisations I guess are Beef and Lamb New Zealand and Dairy New Zealand who utilise such levies and have contributed massively to the respective industries’ prosperity over the years.The ideaof setting levies as the previous speaker referred to is to enable the producers to structure themselves in a manner that promotes efficiencies and gives them advantages in the world market that they would not otherwise be able to achieve on their own. Any farmer who produces stock or milk and sends it to the factory or the processor will well know the cost of these levies and you pretty quickly sharpen your vision as to what those levies are used for. I have got no problem defending the use of levies; I think they are a very practical way of enabling the industry right across the board to structure itself in a manner that creates advantages for New Zealand.New Zealand is a small highly productive food processor and provider many kilometres from our markets. It is necessary for our Government to provide every opportunity for collaboration and efficiency for our producers. It is also the Government’s role to facilitate the environment to allow our export-driven economy to perform as well as possible. As the Minister said in her introductory speech the sector is growing rapidly with exports shifting from some $50 million in 1988 to some $300 million last year. I am confident that this growth will continue or dramatically increase in the near future as transport becomes more efficient and cost effective and as our industries seize the opportunity to trade in the Asia and Pacific regions.As they are introduced to the amazing quality of New Zealand produce I can imagine a time when our world-class products in the Rangitīkei are venturing straight into markets or the shelves of Hanoi Jakarta or Beijing superstores 36 hours after leaving the farm in New Zealand—pretty much as quickly as it could leave the farm in New Zealand and get into the centre of Wellington. I think that is our great opportunity in the future. This bill of course enables that to happen and will certainly firm up our opportunity to achieve that. It facilitates the ability to achieve this more effectively and efficiently and also enables the participants to monitor quality and much better take opportunities as the market place changes.The horticulturalists are a particularly proud group of people in an industry with a great track record in quality. As a matter of interest I am going to list the nine industry groups that currently operate under the principal Act. There is summer fruit—a sector that interestingly contains nectarines peaches cherries plums and apricots; it does not interestingly contain the apple and pear industries as those groupings are separate and operate under their own producer board at one stage and alone have provided some $570 million in export earnings to New Zealand. Other participants are kiwifruit exporters avocados blackcurrants buttercup squash chestnuts tamarillos truffles and persimmons. You can see why we need to have an Act that gives these very small sector participants the opportunity to participate in a much greater world market. It also gives them the opportunity to utilise the “New Zealand Inc.” brand better and plan the future. The revamp of this Act will assist in this.Anyone involved in the primary sector knows only too well that there is only about 1 percent in supply terms between an undersupply and an oversupply in a very fickle market place. This can result in crops being left in the paddocks—an undesirable situation. It can also result in unsustainably high prices—an equally undesirable situation ironically. Although this bill will not prevent those things it will assist the participants to lessen the risk of their occurring. I have great pleasure in recommending this bill to the House and look forward to progressing it through the Primary Production Committee in conjunction with my excellent team-mates. I look forward to hearing their take on the bill as the evening progresses.