Tabuteau FletcherFLETCHER TABUTEAU (NZ First): I rise on behalf of Richard Prosser to take a call on the New Zealand Horticulture Export Authority Amendment Bill's second reading. You can just picture it—it is like the industry came to a Government representative and said: We want to tidy this up we want to fix a few things up we need to modernise it and we need to elevate our game but we're going to need your help in legislation." You can imagine one of those MPs on that side of the House there going: "So what do you want?". "Well what we need"—they would tell the Government—"is we want to be able to effectively charge higher prices increase yield through an integrated approach and we need legislation to do it." You can just picture the MP on that side of the House going "OK OK but it is going to take quite a long time to make it happen." and the industry rep says: "No we need you to do it now. It's critical. We need it to happen." The National MP goes "Well OK we'll help you out. We'll do it now but what if we add this to it and this to it?" and the industry rep goes: "No leave it alone. Don't touch it. It's good as it is and this will work just how we want it to." and the National MP goes "Well OK OK we won't do that but what if we add this?". You can just picture the industry rep looking them in the eye saying: "Leave it alone. Do it."I take that creative licence in the House today because this is a good piece of legislation that does what it seeks to do in a simple eloquent straightforward way so it made me think that those on that side of the House did not write it. They could not have is basically the summation there. New Zealand First is supporting this bill because we do believe it will achieve its written objective and I will take some of the time of the House this evening just to enunciate why we think that is the case.You will forgive me for using some script here for specific detail but what we are doing is amending the 1987 Act to provide more flexibility which is what the industry—they did come to the Government to say they needed this flexibility for the growers and exporters of horticultural products so they can target their marketing strategies to meet the needs of specific markets. Originally the group was achieving its goals but as they said and as the contributions noted they need the update and I think my little skit illustrated what that conversation looked like.There are some administrative processes that were cleaned up. There was clarification around the requirements for the product groups to enter—The ASSISTANT SPEAKER (Hon Trevor Mallard): Order! I am going to ask the member to resume his seat. All members have in front of them the explanatory note of the bill and reading the explanatory note of the bill—even with a few insertions—does not add anything to the House. I will say at the same time that I realise the member is not the member who is familiar with it but unless someone is a member including a Minister in charge of a bill or asking a question for another member or is replying for another Minister or member one does not do it on a member's behalf. The member is speaking and the requirements are the same. Can I ask him if he has got something to say to say it but not just to read out the front page of the bill. Thank you.FLETCHER TABUTEAU: My apologies Mr Assistant Speaker. My notes were such that I thought that I was speaking words to the effect of the front page but not the front page itself so I apologise to you.The ASSISTANT SPEAKER (Hon Trevor Mallard): I can read it.FLETCHER TABUTEAU: The administrative update which I apologise for reading in the exact detail—in terms of the unavailability of that person and conflicts of interest and making that a notifiable process for the group. But what I think is important from my perspective and from New Zealand First's perspective are the changes to the tiers of the licence. What we had was an inability to be responsive. The industry came forward and said it had a 2-year process and it was probably taking too long and I think that comes back to the flexibility noted in contributions earlier today—including from myself actually. What it would do is we would have a 2-year turnover and that was actually holding back some of the industry players who were wanting to be a bit more responsive to the needs of the market or in fact potential markets and so it moved to the 1-year process. Those concerns were raised and they were dealt with.In fact the Persimmon Industry Council agreed that the flexibility would provide practical options for exporters who wished to use that second-tier process which was and is important as we note. Assistant Speaker Mallard is being quite strict on me in terms of detail and perhaps I might acknowledge a bit of repetition and I do not want to waste the House's time but I do want to add and conclude though—and I think it was spoken of before by one of the previous speakers from Labour—by noting the goals for the New Zealand export market set by that Government over there the National Party members over there. It was at the time what looked like a very sensible and achievable goal with regard to growing exports as a percentage of GDP to that 40 percent mark.What we have here is almost a fluke because industry players actually have come to the members opposite and said that they wanted this legislation—and what do you know? Actually we have got legislation that we believe will enable a growth in quantity and an increase in yield from that quantity which is just as important in New Zealand First's position on exports. We do want that value added and we support efforts that make that happen. We do want to support the growth of volume and yield. This is a win-win for industry and New Zealand and there is no reason when you read the legislation in detail to oppose it.We hope it achieves what the industry set out to do but we do note again that the buy-in is optional and the measure of participation going forward has yet to be established. So we do watch and we hope that the industry having set that support through legislation uses it and it does achieve the goals for which it is intended. Thank you for your patience Mr Assistant Speaker."