Hughes GarethGARETH HUGHES (Green): Kia ora Madam Assistant Speaker. Ngā mihi nui ki a koutou kia ora. I guess in this call I really want to acknowledge the elephant in the room or I guess you'd call it the cow in the paddock which is the sacred cow of New Zealand which is our dairy industry which is the 10 million beef and dairy cattle we have across this country. I guess the elephant or the cow in the room is the effluent it produces. Did you know the 10 million beef and dairy cattle we have in this country are the equivalent of a population of 141 million people of course putting that effluent out? And it's not even treated to the same standard you'd expect for humans. So this is the issue that hasn't been discussed much in the debate. As we talk about the dairy industry and the Dairy Industry Restructuring Act (DIRA) and what happens with Fonterra and South Island farmers we haven't talked about the environmental impact of all those cattle on the New Zealand environment. When the Labour Party came to us about this amendment we had some big concerns because basically the original Dairy Industry Restructuring Act had created this gigantic machine where any farmer who wanted to farm dairy cattle to produce milk could be part of the Fonterra behemoth. Now Fonterra of course is the second-largest dairy export company in the world. We know it's responsible for 40 percent of our primary industry exports one of our main export industries. We've created this gigantic machine and any farmer that wants to bowl over wetland forests or existing arable crops can and they've got an existing market. So we had some major concerns with it because basically this machine has been designed to despoil our environment and that's the exact result. That's why in two-thirds of our rivers our kids risk getting sick if they put their heads under water: because there's so much effluent and other nasties that go into our water. We want to restructure that machine so it can become a force for good—so that we can still have a prosperous sustainable dairy industry but it's one that protects our environment; it's one that actually grows more jobs; it's one that actually earns more internationally because we're focusing on value instead of focusing on volume. So we did have some concerns and that's why we're glad the Labour Party and in particular the Minister of Agriculture Damien O'Connor were really responsive to our concerns which were: how do we get a more sustainable approach to automatic entry and exit provisions under the DIRA? How could we actually take advantage of the organics industry which we know has been earning $2 extra per kilogram of milksolids? How do we focus on value instead of volume? Look we're great at producing milk products around the world but on a global standard of value we rank 18th in the world. So we are I guess mugs because what we're seeing is people making a profit on one side but we're seeing a massive environmental cost on the other paid by all New Zealanders. What we want to see in this review is the chance not to just have a slight tick over which is what would have happened with National with the existing legislation. This entirely reasonable legislation simply extends the provisions that would have expired in May of this year to give us a year's breathing space to give us a year to get around that table and have a conversation which is: how do we make our dairy industry a force for good supporting those family farmers cleaning up our rivers growing exports growing jobs? Look we've got a massive problem when it comes to the fact that our dairy industry is also our largest coal consumer. It's responsible our agricultural sector for half of our emissions. Other countries have their factories and smokestacks; we have dairy farms and coal-fired boilers in New Zealand. Let's look at that. Let's focus on innovation getting us out of the bottom half of the developed world when it comes to our spending on research and development.So this is why we're supporting the legislation. We have to change this machine which has been designed by this Parliament to make sure it's a force for good so we don't have this constant growth on a finite country. The way we've approached the dairy industry in New Zealand is as if we had wetlands for ever and that's why we've seen the greatest wetland destruction in more than 100 years in this country. We've seen the greatest decline in water quality standards in absolute generations—perhaps in our country's history—from human causes. Look we've got massive problems but such a massive opportunity to grow a low-carbon value-added innovative smart clean and green dairy industry. That's our vision. We want to work with farmers. We want to work with their industry bodies. This review is a fantastic opportunity. The fact is that we've been able to work with the Government to get these very important issues such as value organics and automatic pick-up into the 12-month review. We look forward to engaging with it. We've got such a tremendous opportunity and that's why the Green Party is voting for it. Kia ora Madam Assistant Speaker.