King Annette: Agricultural Compounds and Veterinary Medicines Amendment Bill — Third Reading 
King Annette: Agricultural Compounds and Veterinary Medicines Amendment Bill — Third Reading 
[Volume:642;Page:12156] 
Hon ANNETTE KING (Minister for Food Safety) 
: 
 I move  
That the Agricultural Compounds and Veterinary Medicines Amendment Bill be now read a third time 
. As has been noted in previous debates on this bill access to and use of agricultural compounds and veterinary medicines is vital to our pastoral horticultural and forestry sectors. But there are risks if these products are used inappropriately or unwisely. These include risks to human and animal health to our biosecurity and to our agricultural and horticultural exports. The Agricultural Compounds and Veterinary Medicines Act is a key part of New Zealand’s regulatory framework for the managing of these risks and the changes to the principal Act made by this bill will serve to provide greater transparency for stakeholders and improve the workability of the legislation. Further the changes deliver on the policy objectives and intent of the principal Act. 
I am pleased to say that the bill and the changes made by the Primary Production Committee have widespread and—I may even say—unanimous support in this House. This bill provides for changes to be made to the principal Act the Agricultural Compounds and Veterinary Medicines Act—the “ACVM Act 1997”—to make it more effective and administratively efficient. The changes improve the workability of the Act for the stakeholders and close several gaps identified in the coverage of the Act in order to better manage the public health effects of agricultural compounds and the regulations of all parts of the supply chain. 
These provisions amongst other things expand the purpose of the Act to include managing the risks to public health thus ensuring that all relevant risk factors can be considered. The bill clarifies the statutory backing for the arrangements to restrict the supply sale or use of products such as prescription animal medicines and poisons such as cyanide to authorised persons. It also clarifies that pet foods and stock foods are covered under the Act. 
The bill also makes changes to improve the enforcement of the Act. It provides for the alignment of the processes and powers relating to the imports of agricultural compound and veterinary medicine products with those of the Biosecurity Act. It enables the director-general to recall non-compliant products or suspend product registration and provides a more appropriate and effective range of penalties for offences. The bill improves the flexibility in the administration of the Act by providing an alternative approval process in special circumstances for the import manufacture or use of agricultural compounds without registration. It allows for the recognition of persons or agencies to carry out specified activities or functions for the purposes of the Act and provides for the issue of certificates of compliance to assist exporters. It also updates the cost recovery provisions of the Act. Finally the bill tidies up aspects of the Act by removing regulatory requirements that are in excess of those necessary to manage risks deleting provisions that have become redundant or are no longer necessary and making other minor changes such as updating terminology. 
The bill was considered by the Primary Production Committee and a number of amendments were made to clarify the way in which the Act works in respect of several matters. The select committee made changes to the bill to clarify the relationship between codes standards and conditions on trade name products. The mechanisms for setting regulatory requirements were amended to ensure that they were made in a more straightforward manner and they will be subject to an increased level of parliamentary scrutiny via the Regulations Review Committee. These changes arose from concerns raised by the Legislation Advisory Committee to the New Zealand Food Safety Authority officials advising the select committee who then brought these matters to the committee’s attention. 
I would like to take this opportunity to thank the officials of the New Zealand Food Safety Authority for their work on this bill and to acknowledge the work done by the select committee. Its members worked in a very constructive manner. My only disappointment I have to say was the contribution from the chair of the committee who during the Committee stage complained that it had taken 4 months to get to that stage. I did point out in the Committee stage that I had been in this House when a National Government had petitions and bills that never made it to a debate at all so I had to say to the member that in fact he was crying crocodile tears. Putting that to one side I think that the work done by the select committee was commendable and I commend the Agricultural Compounds and Veterinary Medicines Amendment Bill to the House.