O'Connor Damien: Animal Welfare Amendment Bill — Second Reading 
O'Connor Damien: Animal Welfare Amendment Bill — Second Reading 
[Volume:663;Page:11281] 
Hon DAMIEN O’CONNOR (Labour) 
: 
 I guess we should answer the question that my colleague the Hon Darren Hughes asked the Minister of Agriculture during the Minister’s speech about what the Animal Welfare Amendment Bill will do. By itself this bill will not do much. Again it encapsulates classic Tory policy which is to think that by waving a big stick around we will get a change in behaviour. Yes the stick has certainly been increased in size. Along with the Minister I acknowledge the good work that happened in the Primary Production Committee. There are some very good members on that committee I have to say and I think I may be one of them myself. [ 
Interruption 
] Yes that is right. The chair of that committee Shane Ardern has done a great job. He should in fact be the Minister. I have always believed that but I guess having two Ministers of Agriculture would be a bit much even for the National Government. 
When this bill was introduced to the House it was a reaction to a couple of high-profile shocking incidents that horrified the country. The Government in its usual way reacted and said it would put up the penalties. It did not at that point commit at any stage to provide any further resourcing of the department— 
Hon David Carter 
: Read the Budget. 
Hon DAMIEN O’CONNOR 
: I will get on to that I say to Mr Carter in a moment. The Budget came out last week and some more money was put into animal welfare policing and monitoring. I applaud the Minister for that up to a point. Before he becomes too excited I say I went to the Budget documents to find out where he had obtained that money from. The tight Bill English is giving money only to his rich mates through tax cuts not to any important area of this economy so I wondered where the money had come from to increase the monitoring and policing of animal welfare. I think that the increased funding is necessary; in fact it might be a result of the pressure that we brought on the Government. When the Government introduced this bill we raised the issue of there being no funding and no resources. I think the Government bowed to that pressure. Anyway the Minister received an increased allocation. 
The money comes from—can I just quote the words “transferred from”. There is no new money at all for the Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry for animal welfare. The Government has simply shuffled money around. Do members know what I think is the reason why Bill English and John Key agreed to that? It is because John Key understands that if we shuffle money around we can get a slice of it and make a whole lot of money. He has not quite worked it out that shuffling money within departments does not actually deliver any more resources. 
In acknowledging the support for this bill—the bill in itself does not do anything; it makes an adjustment—I will make one small concession to the Minister. Under the definition of “reckless ill-treatment” and “wilful ill-treatment” if the resources allocated through the Budget properly fund the people who follow up on these cases the bill makes an adjustment to allow people to be prosecuted and not fall through the cracks which was one of the problems that occurred. But let us be honest: we have a huge task ahead of us. Of the 14000 complaints made in 2008 only 58 prosecutions resulted in convictions. Usually fair-minded New Zealanders who are aware of our agricultural and rural economy complain only when there is a fairly legitimate case. Neglect is not wilful ill-treatment I have to say. There was a big gap between the notification level and the cases that actually went through to prosecution. 
I acknowledge there are now more resources a small amount of additional resources in this area but they have all come from the area of climate change from other animal welfare initiatives from policy advice around animal welfare and from the area of grant assessment and management. The resources have come from a lot of areas and we have yet to hear what effect that might have on the Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry. 
The Labour Party will support this bill because Labour members along with a lot— 
Hon Simon Power 
: Ha ha! 
Hon DAMIEN O’CONNOR 
: Mr Power is astounded at that. I am surprised. Mr Power comes from a rural electorate—if he ever puts his gumboots on and goes out there of course. 
Hon Simon Power 
: I had them on on Saturday. 
Hon DAMIEN O’CONNOR 
: And they might have got dirty. Did they get dirty? No not quite. It was a good look I am sure I say to Simon. The Labour Party along with an increasing number of leaders—and I say we need more of those in agriculture—and certainly commentators say that animal welfare is a key part of our future in terms of our economy. Sixty-five percent of our exports still come from the primary sector. Pastoral farming the management of animals and the welfare of animals is still a huge part of that and we have to get it right no ifs no buts no maybes. 
I would like to promote a report. I do not always promote consultants in this House or indeed anywhere around the country but I say this is a very very good report from KPMG. It is KPMG’s first attempt— 
Hon David Carter 
: Reads like a National Party manifesto. 
Hon DAMIEN O’CONNOR 
: No it does not; it has far more vision than a National Party manifesto. I hope that the Minister has read the report because most of the contents will be news to him. The report says something about the need for leadership. It mentions the need for rural infrastructure. It also says there is a need for proper animal welfare management in this country. If we drop the ball on that then there is a risk that our high-value customers will simply drop the ball on our products. I would like to read from the report because I think it is valuable: “Increasingly customers want to understand where their food has come from and have certainty that it has been produced using best practice animal welfare standards.” This is a warning and the Minister should be listening to this. “While New Zealand farmers may see short-term economic benefits from establishing animal welfare standards below global best practices in respect of the sow stalls for example”—and I know that the Greens may raise that issue here—“these benefits are likely to be short-lived as the major supermarket chains increasingly adopt strategies to target sourcing towards products that meet the very highest standards.” 
We have to be able to hold our heads up high and say that in terms of animal welfare standards we reach the very highest standards in the world and that we uphold them and police them. This bill of itself is one step in that process. It does not guarantee anything. We have had a slight increase in the Budget for the people who go around and monitor these standards and the SPCA which is a voluntary organisation must be acknowledged in this area. The society has received an additional amount of money which no doubt will be put to very good use. To the farmers who are concerned that people from the SPCA may be unfairly knocking on their door or monitoring their animal management practices I say the simple fact is that it is often the urban standards that determine the purchasing behaviour of our consumers. Those urban standards and assessments will no doubt be applied to farmers up and down this country. If farmers have stock that are in a tight situation they should not put those animals by the road. In fact those farmers should make sure that they do not get into a tight situation. Mr Ardern will know and Mr David Carter might know—no he would not know this; he is a Canterbury sheep and beef farmer—that dairy farmers in particular sometimes come under tight situations. They have to do their best to uphold the standards look after their animals and show and prove to the world— 
Hon Darren Hughes 
: He just sells another silver teapot. 
Hon DAMIEN O’CONNOR 
: That is right. Mr Carter will be in touch with reality at some stage in his short career perhaps. I acknowledge that Mr Ardern on the other hand knows what agriculture is about; he should be the Minister of Agriculture. 
But to come back to the bill I say we acknowledge this bill and we support it for the reality that it is one chunk in an improving situation that New Zealand can proudly show off to the world. We are upholding the highest standards of animal welfare. We uphold the highest standards of animal management including welfare in order to achieve good production but we do it in a way that meets the ever-increasing expectations of people in the global market place and their desire for quality food. We support this bill.