Tuiono TeanauTEANAU TUIONO (Green): Madam Speaker I rise on behalf of the Greens to take a call on the Dairy Industry Restructuring (Fonterra Capital Restructuring) Amendment Bill or DIRA". DIRA's such an unassuming disarming name. It's like DIRA is an old friend—"I'm going to pop up the road and have a cup of tea with old Dira. Me and Dira go way back." The problems however that the Greens have with "old Dira" is that there are two areas of concern that still remain with us through the first reading and through the select committee process. Thank you to the select committee for doing that work but for us "old Dira" is still not up to the mark. Those two aspects are around emissions; implications and issues around entrenching monopolies. So in layman's terms—sorry about it DIRA—there's been a whole lot of promises made about dealing with submissions and also we don't like the way you're hoarding all the cookies. So that's the bit on entrenched monopolies.The emissions implications in summary: we still see that the legislation is likely to have a negative impact on emissions reduction efforts making it more difficult to leave Fonterra and incentivising increased milk production and will dis-incentivise sustainable land-use change and entrench intensive dairying. And as a reminder for folks that are just tuning in tonight climate impact policy assessment was not completed for the policy as it did not meet the Ministry for the Environment (MfE) requirements which seems inadequate given we are in the middle of a climate crisis. MfE did note however preliminary views that the proposals would lead to increased emissions. The regulatory impact statement also noted that reduced shareholder requirements will free up farmer capital which could be invested in sustainability and climate improvements. However there will be no requirement for investments to be focused on sustainability; they could equally be targeted at increasing production.I reflected on this as I went through a number of the submissions and I just wanted to reflect on the combined submission of Forest & Bird Greenpeace Aotearoa the Environmental Defence Society and Choose Clean Water. I want to thank them for submitting to the committee—for a well-thought-out submission—because it crystallised for me the need for the Government to really think across their legislative programme; to really think about it; to look at the connections which for us are still missing from this legislation. Does the right hand know what the left hand is doing? Does the left fully know what the right wing is doing in that corner? On one hand we are saying that the climate crisis is our nuclear moment and on the other hand we are giving the nuclear codes to the agribusiness lobby—and in particular Fonterra.The Environmental NGOs have said it better to me and I will quote them from their submission: "We consider the decision to progress The Dairy Industry Restructuring … Bill"—old Dira—"fails to take in to account key environmental issues. It is inconsistent with important developments in wider public policy that are starting to address environmental issues that are national and international priorities and commitments. In this respect it feels like the Bill has been drafted in isolation from the significant public policy changes the government has adopted to address climate pollution and environmental degradation. These include:"—and they list them—"…The National Emissions Reduction Plan 2022 … The National Adaptation Plan 2022 … Te Mana o te Taiao – Aotearoa New Zealand Biodiversity Strategy and Implementation Plan [and] The National Policy Statement for Freshwater Management … and related regulations under the Resource Management Act."If I can just emphasise part of this by quoting from the emissions reduction plan whose goal amongst other things is about reducing emissions: "Reducing [agricultural] emissions is needed to achieve our 2050 target including the requirement to reduce biogenic methane emissions by 24-47 per cent by 2050. Reducing agricultural emissions will enhance Aotearoa New Zealand's reputation as a low-emissions and trusted provider of agricultural products. This plan must work with other initiatives to improve productivity sustainability inclusivity in the primary sector in line with the Government's Fit for a Better World – Accelerating our Economic Potential roadmap" and outlines that key action is to and I quote that—double quote that just for all the DIRA fans out there—a "transition to lower-emission land uses and systems."So it was interesting to hear the call for support for a just transition and I wonder from my Labour colleagues how they see this is helping to do that—to help to move people from more intensive dairying practices into something that is more regenerative because that is what the climate moment is calling for. In that submission they also point to the evidence of environmental degradation—so actual evidence. We consider that the effectiveness of the original 2001 DIRA has been eroded by successive amendments. It has not adequately managed the risk arising from Fonterra's dominance in New Zealand dairy markets for some time. As a national membership organisation Forest & Bird in particular see these risks materialising across the country. This is evident in parts of the degraded state of Aotearoa's rivers and lakes as well as our high level of ongoing climate pollution.ASSISTANT SPEAKER (Hon Jacqui Dean): Order! Order! There's two things Teanau Tuiono. I'd appreciate the member not reading the speech; he's been here for a couple of years now. Secondly I am looking at the bill and listening very carefully to the member's speech and I invite the member to address the issues that are in this bill. The member has had a few moments on other issues unrelated to this bill. So I'm asking him now to come back to the bill.TEANAU TUIONO: Thank you Madam Speaker; I was just reflecting on some of the submissions that landed at the select committee. But I will move on.Another one of the major concerns was around entrenching monopolies. The bill does provide new measures to support the dairy monopoly including restricting Fonterra's exposure to external ownership by delinking its unit fund and making it more difficult for other processors to compete with Fonterra by reducing barriers to entry. This will have the effect of stifling innovation in the sector. This is because as a monopoly provider Fonterra has less incentive to innovate and competitors face greater difficulty in entering the market.I reflect on the submission put forward by Miraka Open Country Dairy Synlait Milk and Westland Milk Products who expressed similar concerns in their own way when they reflected on the history of the DIRA and concerns around Fonterra's over and above anti-competitive impacts that the DIRA was supposed to guard against. Just a quote from their submission: "Once again the Government is shoring up the [continued] dominant position of Fonterra without adequately balancing that … rightful concerns of other parties". So that bit about hoarding all the cookies in the cookie jar—well what about everybody else that wants to participate in the market?So in conclusion industrial dairy farming is one of the main sources of greenhouse gas emissions in Aotearoa and therefore a leading cause of climate change. So if we're going to these types of law it needs to be comprehensive and cohesive across the legislative programme and the Greens don't see this. We will not be supporting this bill."