Ardern Shane: Dairy Industry Restructuring Amendment Bill — In Committee 
Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume 
Ardern Shane: Dairy Industry Restructuring Amendment Bill — In Committee 
[Sitting date: 17 July 2012. Volume:681;Page:3567. Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume.] 
SHANE ARDERN (National—Taranaki - King Country) 
: 
 Mr Chairman I intend to speak entirely on Part 2 but can I reference first of all the comments made by the previous speaker the Hon Damien O’Connor—the scaremongering I guess you could say that is going on around the potential loss of ownership of Fonterra. As I said in Part 1 it is in dairy farmers’ DNA to maintain 100 percent ownership of this industry and can I just say it is not just a philosophical position—and it is entirely enshrined in Part 2 under “Miscellaneous”—it is a commercially driven position. It is a commercially driven position that is absolutely in the best interests of “New Zealand Inc.” so let us just talk about how that will be achieved particularly in regard to the new sections 109A and 109B in Part 2. That is the size and the protection and the ability of the fund if you like the fungibility—a new word that we learnt in the Primary Production Committee that most of us had not heard of until we started down this track—in regard to maintaining Trading Among Farmers and the dividend fund. 
 Can I just say that if the worst fears that were expressed by the previous speaker were to be realised then the shareholders themselves through the process of election of directors and chairman of the company would address that. There is a track record of that over many many years in this industry—in fact over 100 years. It is lost I think in this debate that in Taranaki alone there were over 100 processing sites and now there is one for the whole of the lower North Island. So decisions will be made—decisions that protect the best interests of the industry. 
So let us look at what is in Part 2: transitional provisions for the application under section 73 or 74 of the principal Act. Those provisions and many others that are related and tied in to section 109—well I am reading it from the bill here Mr Chairman; I am not sure whether you have got the same one but I am certainly reading directly from the bill that is tabled in the House today—are themselves a form of protection against some of the assertions that have been made by the Opposition in the previous contribution. 
Can we look at the transitional provisions for notice of withdrawal under section 97 of the principal Act which are also covered in Part 2 before we end up in the schedules and that is also a built-in protection for some of the issues that have been debated by the previous speaker. Section 77 of course and new section 77A is the area where the share price of Fonterra will be set by the Government if Trading Among Farmers does not succeed. That in itself was of great concern to the Primary Production Committee when it was first brought to the select committee and an enormous amount of work and advice not only from fund managers and valuers but also advisers to the committee and one of those was independent thrashed that round and round and round. When I look now at where we have finished up in terms of support in the House I wonder why as chair I let it go round as often as I did with the I guess naive hope at that stage being that we might reach a compromise position where we could achieve bipartisan support for this legislation. 
 So new section 77A—section 77 is mentioned in Part 2 of the bill—was amended in the select committee. 
With those words I look forward to the passage of this bill through the House. It has been a contentious debate. It has been a thoroughly considered position that the select committee ended up in and there was sufficient time for all of those who wished to ask questions and all of those who sought further advice to have that advice delivered and furnished. I think we finished up in a position where we have a fair compromise.