Guy Nathan: Agricultural Compounds and Veterinary Medicines Amendment Bill — First ReadingText is incorporated into the Bound VolumeGuy Nathan: Agricultural Compounds and Veterinary Medicines Amendment Bill — First Reading[Sitting date: 15 September 2015. Volume:708;Page:6657. Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume.]Hon NATHAN GUY (Minister for Primary Industries) on behalf of theAssociate Minister for Primary Industries: I move That the Agricultural Compounds and Veterinary Medicines Amendment Bill be now read a first time. I nominate the Primary Production Committee to consider this bill. Before explaining this bill in more depth I want firstly to acknowledge the stakeholders who have been involved in developing this very important bill and thank them for their patience. Getting this bill into Parliament has taken some time due to the complex nature of the legislation and the subject matter. To remain internationally competitive the New Zealand agricultural industry requires access to the latest agricultural products to manage the pests of plants and animals to increase productivity and to ensure the health of our farm animals.The Agricultural Compounds and Veterinary Medicines Amendment Bill aims to remove barriers to agricultural compounds being registered in New Zealand by extending data protection for innovative trade name products and conferring data protection on non-innovative trade name products.All agricultural compounds used in New Zealand must be registered under the Agricultural Compounds and Veterinary Medicines Act 1997. When suppliers of agricultural products apply to register a product in New Zealand their application must be supported with data on the product’s safety and efficacy. For example an application to register a pesticide for use on food-producing crops would need to be accompanied by information on how the product complies with New Zealand’s maximum residue limits.Data protection is important because developing data is expensive and the New Zealand market particularly for our small horticultural sectors is relatively small. This makes the business case for investing and developing data marginal in many instances. Data protection is valued by business because it confers an advantage on an applicant by forcing later applicants to develop their own data or wait until the protection expires. In this way it prevents subsequent applicants from piggybacking on the costly research of the original applicant.We need the right level of data protection to encourage overseas suppliers to invest in registering new products and uses in New Zealand. The Agricultural Compounds and Veterinary Medicines Act currently offers much narrower protection than other countries like Australia the US the EU and Canada have. For many years industry representatives in some of our key horticultural sectors like pipfruit and citrus have advocated for longer and broader data protection. Without these products their productivity will suffer they may fall behind their international competitors and in the worst case their viability may be threatened.A Government review found examples of products available in other jurisdictions but not in New Zealand. After considering these positions the Government decided that modest extensions to data protection provisions are warranted. We do not want to inhibit competition and prevent businesses from accessing reasonably priced agricultural compounds.For innovative products the bill extends data protection from the current 5 years to a maximum of 8 years. In addition the bill introduces a new category of data protection for non-innovative products. Three years of data protection will be provided for information provided in support of applications to register non-innovative products including reformulations and new uses of existing products. The bill also makes minor consequential amendments to the Hazardous Substances and New Organisms Act 1996 and a definition in the Medicines Act 1981 to keep data protection provisions across these statutes properly aligned.In conclusion the Agricultural Compounds and Veterinary Medicines Amendment Bill is important for the suppliers of crop protection and animal health products and the industries that rely on these products for their livelihoods. I believe the bill strikes the right balance between incentivising the registration of products that our sectors need and encouraging competition in the agricultural product market place but I remain interested in stakeholder views on whether we have got the balance right. I encourage those with an interest in this area to contribute to the select committee process that will now follow. I commend this bill to the House.