Shearer DavidGEOGRAPHICAL INDICATIONS (WINE AND SPIRITS) REGISTRATION AMENDMENT BILLIn CommitteeParts 1 and 2 schedule and clauses 1 and 2DAVID SHEARER (Labour—Mt Albert): I want to begin obviously by expressing the Labour Party's view that it will be supporting this bill the Geographical Indications (Wine and Spirits) Registration Amendment Bill. It was a somewhat curious birth of this bill because this legislation was actually passed in 2006 but it has never been put into operation or passed through since that time. It needed some amendments and we are finally getting to the point where those amendments are in front of us now with this amendment bill. The 2006 legislation will be amended and finally put through this Parliament.The reason for the activity around this bill now is that we are in the process of negotiating a free-trade agreement with the EU possibly over the next few months or perhaps as close as a year away from today. This bill is important for those negotiations because what this bill does is it ensures that New Zealand wines can be attributed to their geographic area. Much like champagne is attributed to Champagne—it can be called champagne only if it is grown in the Champagne area—so too Otago pinot noir can be grown only in Otago and Marlborough sauvignon blanc can be grown only in Marlborough. Therefore the legislation protects those areas and that brand and it ensures that the quality of our wines coming from those areas is also protected.It is important when we look at the wine industry which is growing at an extraordinary rate—$1.6 billion today; by 2020 it could be worth $2 billion in terms of exports. That is an extraordinary growth and success story. I was lucky enough to be at the Air New Zealand Wine Awards on the weekend where I was able to see just how vibrant and passionate people within New Zealand are about their wine and how important it is to us in New Zealand in terms of our exports. It is also worth noting in terms of its importance that New Zealand wine per litre that we sell overseas sells for about $9 a litre. Australia sells at about $7 a litre and France sells at only $5 a litre so we are getting premium value for our wine. It is along protecting that which this bill seeks to achieve—to maintain that quality.The bill as I said was first brought in a number of years ago. One of the parts of the Act section 21—again to guarantee the quality—provides that A person may use a New Zealand registered geographical indication"—which is the area—"or indications in trade in New Zealand in relation to a wine only if—(a) at least 85% of the wine is obtained from grapes harvested in the geographical origin …" to which that geographical indicator has been registered. The second thing is the amendment to section 21 in the bill provides that the remainder of the wine if there is any—and usually in New Zealand there is not; it is normally 100 percent—must be obtained from grapes harvested in New Zealand. We cannot simply import some of that cheap French stuff and mix it in with our own. So that is section 21.What that means in terms of this bill in front of us is that we also have a number of clarifying propositions in the bill that will smooth the running of the bill and a Supplementary Order Paper (SOP) 244 that was hastily put together by Paul Goldsmith the Minister in the chair at the moment because it was left out—another sloppy bit of work by the Government. But nevertheless the SOP we will support as well because otherwise we will have a half-baked half-finished bill. And we do support it because we support New Zealand's wine industry and we believe it is important. These clauses make a lot of sense and the Labour Party has great pleasure in supporting the Government's bill."