McClay ToddREGULATORY SYSTEMS (PRIMARY INDUSTRIES) AMENDMENT BILLFirst ReadingHon TODD McCLAY (Minister of Agriculture): I present a legislative statement on the Regulatory Systems (Primary Industries) Amendment Bill.ASSISTANT SPEAKER (Teanau Tuiono): That legislative statement is published under the authority of the House and can be found on the Parliament website.Hon TODD McCLAY: I move That the Regulatory Systems (Primary Industries) Amendment Bill be now read a first time. I nominate the Primary Production Committee to consider the Regulatory Systems (Primary Industries) Amendment Bill.It's a pleasure to rise this evening to bring this bill to the House. This is a bill all about good regulatory practice and reducing regulatory burden cutting red tape. Each change in the bill is small by itself but collectively they will provide benefits across the primary sector.This is an omnibus bill introduced with the agreement of the Business Committee to make minor technical and uncontentious changes to a range of legislation effecting the primary industries. There's a very broad range from the Animal Welfare Act to the Wine Act—not quite the A to Z but very close. The bill amends 19 Acts as well as a handful of associated regulations and other instruments that effects legislation across five ministerial portfolios—from agriculture biosecurity food safety forestry and oceans and fisheries—held by three Ministers: myself Minister Jones and Minister Hoggard.The bill will improve the quality of regulation affecting the primary industries. It will reduce costs and inefficiencies to benefit businesses and the wider economy. Updating the legislation will reduce regulatory burden for businesses enabling them to focus on their work rather than outdated regulatory requirements. Part of the good regulatory practice is adopting settings as needed and avoiding future problems. That's what this bill is about: making those minor technical adaptations so that the legislations serve New Zealand better not waiting for a big reform to try and fix everything all at once.Improvements are being identified all the time and I'm keen to make full use this opportunity that the bill represents for repairs and maintenance to primary industries' legislation. I will invite the Primary Production Committee to consider and seek public submissions on proposed additional amendments to the bill at the same time as they consider the bill as a whole. This allows for public and select committee input making the bill as effective and efficient as it can be.I'd like to give the House a few example of the kinds of changes this bill will make. The bill will repeal five Acts that no longer serve any useful purpose. From time to time Parliament passes legislation that has one-time use; it might be to regulate an industry or make a suite of changes to existing legislation. But some of those Acts still hang around long after their provisions have expired cluttering the statute book. This bill will repeal five such Acts. These are Acts to disestablish the Hop Marketing Board a process that was completed by the House in 2004; or to transition from the old Meat Act to the Animal Products Act a process that was completed in 2006 this legislation is no longer doing anything and it can and should be repealed.The bill will amend the Agricultural Compounds and Veterinary Medicines Act (ACVM) to include references to inhibitors. Inhibitors are compounds used in agricultural production to modify certain biological or chemical processes to mitigate environmental or climate change impacts as an example. The ACVM Act currently deals with these indirectly so we're making sure they are squarely included in the Act. Inhibitors are important all through our primary producers to improve environmental sustainability including reducing greenhouse gas emissions and improving water quality.It will make changes to the Animal Products Act. If an individual is travelling overseas and they want to take some animal product with them as gifts or for personal use—say a jar of mānuka honey—they don't have to register as an exporter to do so provided of course that the honey they are taking meets all of the requirements for the country that they're going to. But if that same person wants to send that same jar of honey overseas whether as a gift or some other non-commercial purpose they do have to register as an exporter. This bill will enable an exemption so that whether you're travelling overseas or sending goods overseas as a gift you won't have to register as an exporter in order to do so as long as you're not doing so for commercial purposes.Through this bill we're also going to simplify the job of biosecurity inspectors and the New Zealand Police. Currently the Biosecurity Act requires an inspector executing a search warrant to be accompanied by a constable. The Ministry for Primary Industries trains its inspectors in executing search warrants so there's often nothing for a constable to do but they have to be there because the law currently says so. Removing that requirement for an inspector to be accompanied by a constable will reduce time and effort required for a relatively simple task. The option will remain—and I want to stress—for an inspector to request a constable to accompany them should they deem it necessary. The point now is that it can be an option rather than a requirement.Staying with the Biosecurity Act the Act sets out the procedure for giving directions or making requirements for any number of things via a written notice. However the notice if not physically delivered can only be sent by fax or email. We recognise that the world has moved on and don't use faxes anywhere near as often as we used to.Hon Peeni Henare: Except in Northland!Hon TODD McCLAY: I did say as we used to". There are likely to be future ways of sending information that we haven't—it says "thought of yet" but—been told of yet. So this amendment allows for a notice to be sent by any electronic means including email. This is futureproofing the Biosecurity Act. So to round off there are a couple of very minor proposed changes that are worth mentioning.The Commodity Levies Act requires a levy body to table their annual report in this House. But we don't table annual reports in the House anymore; they're presented to the House. So we're updating the terminology to reflect that the times have changed and the procedures have also changed with them and moved on. For example there is a bracket in the wrong place in the National Animal Identification and Tracing Act (NAIT). At the moment a literal reading of the Act implies that wild cattle are part of the NAIT scheme so we're going to fix that. I think everybody agrees that wild cattle should not be part of the NAIT scheme but it's a drafting error that needs to be tidied up to take away any uncertainty.This bill will make a measurable difference to New Zealanders across the primary sector. It will make legislation more effective and more efficient. Taken in its totality it does much more than any one small part. I overwhelmingly commend this bill to the House."