Bennett DavidHon DAVID BENNETT (National—Hamilton East): Thank you Mr Chair. I'd just like to first of all thank the Labour Party for supporting this bill. I think that it's really important that we have support across the House. The speeches tonight have shown an indication—maybe through the speaking notes but—of certainly some of the issues—Hon Member: Oh come on!Hon DAVID BENNETT: —that have arisen in this bill and I'd just like to thank you. I don't give praise to the left very often but in this case it is great to see that you are actually doing the right thing for New Zealand for once and supporting this bill. [Interruption] I know I know it's difficult for you to accept that but this legislation's really important. It's important for a number of factors. First of all New Zealand is a food-producing country and we need to have the highest standards of food production and for people to have confidence in those rules and regulations that are in this country. That's a crucial part of enabling New Zealanders who are consumers to actually have some security and that what they buy actually meets the standards. Also—Hon Dr David Clark: Careful—it makes your hair fall out. That member should know. Hon DAVID BENNETT: The member over there who is balder than anyone else in this House—it's great to hear him talking about hair loss. But I'm sure that as Minister of Health he'll work for some solutions in that area. But it is really important for New Zealanders to be able to have confidence and also for us as an export-industry country that really exports a lot of food products that we have those high standards here. So I think it is great that we see the Government parties supporting this bill along with the Opposition here tonight. I think that shows that Parliament is supportive of the general health and well-being of all New Zealanders but also is supporting our export industries in a way that I think we can all be very proud of. There are some changes that have occurred during the process of this bill and those reflect some accommodations with our Australian colleagues. We've heard about the THC and other things there that actually reflect the joint arrangements between the two countries around food safety. That's a unique arrangement—where two countries work together under the same regulatory system—and I think that's something that's also very impressive in our system. But in saying that this is not a bill that necessarily will solve all problems. The food safety and integrity issue is a difficult one and there's always going to be issues around compliance costs and balancing that against achieving the goals of higher standards of level for the safety of our consumers. That's a difficult balance to achieve and I'd just like to thank the Ministry for Primary Industries (MPI) personally for the great work that they and their officials do in supporting this bill but also for the way that they actually implement this legislation. They'll get some pressure from food producers who think that they are too regulatory but at the same time they have a very important role to play in our system of maintaining that integrity not only for our consumers but also for Brand New Zealand". So I think that we should all thank MPI for their great work in this area. It's not an easy process. It's good to see that Minister Damien O'Connor is also supporting this bill passing through. It is under a time frame that needs to be passed and we recognise that. With the contribution of all parties in this House I think that we can actually work towards a food system that is strong and maintains the values that all political parties would want to see in our New Zealand food system but at the same time it gives consumers comfort and direction around some of the issues that are involved. So this is good to see it coming through the parliamentary process. It's not perfect. It will take some time to work through. But we need to be engaging and this is a very good first step. With the good work of MPI and the understanding of food producers and consumers I think we can all work towards getting a very good resolution of these issues for the benefit of all going forward. So I thank all members for their support."