Mallard Trevor: Animal Welfare Amendment Bill — Third ReadingText is incorporated into the Bound VolumeMallard Trevor: Animal Welfare Amendment Bill — Third Reading[Sitting date: 05 May 2015. Volume:705;Page:3148. Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume.]Hon TREVOR MALLARD (Labour—Hutt South): When I was sort of rudely interrupted by the clock at 6 o’clock last Thursday I was indicating to the House that I thought that although Nathan Guy is a nice chap he has been pretty ineffectual in this area. He has been very ineffectual in getting the resources necessary to have a proper and independent service that focuses on animal welfare particularly in the area of primary production. I think he relies on the Royal New Zealand Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals pretty heavily within domestic arrangements but what he does not have is a good force out on farms ensuring that the small minority of farmers who treat animals badly are dealt with properly.I also indicated that the Government’s approach to allow cruelty to animals to continue for another 15 years—so practices that this Minister accepts are cruel and must go do not have to go for another 15 years—in my opinion is just not good enough. As well as being cruel and wrong—cruel and wrong—those practices are not in New Zealand’s economic interests. It is in the interests of our farmers for New Zealand to have a reputation of being world leading in farming production practices. Generally most of our farmers are but there are some whose practices are awful. They are generally—but not only—centred in the pork and the poultry industries. That is where the biggest problems come from. The most obvious problems come from there but we also have some very poor examples of farmers in some other areas as well.If we want to grab hold of the opportunities especially in Europe but actually in a number of other countries as well—increasingly in the United States and even in parts of the middle class in Asia—we need to be aware that there is more and more focus on the way we treat our animals in a way that is similar to the way that we treat our environment. If we are not seen to be world leading in this area over a period of time we will go backwards. Unfortunately it is often the fact that we mistreat our pigs that will end up being a problem for our sheep. The fact that we mistreat our poultry will end up being a problem for our beef offshore because it is a country’s reputation across all of the cruelty practices that is in my opinion very important. I am holding up now a sheet of paper that is the area that will be the area available to chooks including size 18 and size 20 chooks under National’s new advanced 2022 rules. Under the rules that will come into effect then a chook will have 750 square centimetres—a tiny area. A decent chook will have trouble turning round. It might be a wee bit of progress but frankly it is not good enough.In conclusion I want to thank again Mojo Mathers for the work that she did. I thank the Government for running out of other business so it could get on with getting this bill through. I say that eventually we are going to have to look at the real question and that is to allow all farmed animals the right to go outside. If we do not let all farmed animals have the right to go outside we will be regarded as cruel and our exports will suffer. Thank you.