Woolerton R Doug: Debate on Prime Minister’s Statement 
Woolerton R Doug: Debate on Prime Minister’s Statement 
[Volume:645;Page:14193] 
R DOUG WOOLERTON (NZ First) 
: 
 It is not for me to talk about my personal preferences but I quite like that member. I quite like Judith Collins. But I have to tell members that I have read  
The Hollow Men 
 and Bill English said she had been promoted beyond her level of capacity. I thought that was rather harsh— 
Hon Dr Nick Smith 
: They can’t say that of you. 
R DOUG WOOLERTON 
: No they cannot say that of me. But every time the member speaks I think sadly that Bill English was right and he obviously knows the member better than I do. 
I want to talk about things that affect exporters because it is exporters that put the dollars in New Zealand’s pockets and largely set the standard of living we enjoy as citizens. It is no secret that New Zealand First is concerned about the US89c dollar and that we believe that changes should be made to the Reserve Bank of New Zealand Act that would have the Governor of the Reserve Bank taken to account for the effect that a high interest rate and high dollars would have on our exporters. But sadly I did not hear any of that in the speeches yesterday either from the Government or from the National Party. 
We all know and again it has been written about recently that the leader of the National Party John Key took positions—I think that is what they call them—against the New Zealand dollar when he was a financial trader. There were certainly adverse effects on the New Zealand dollar. He did that because he was told to he has said. I hope nobody tells him to do anything else that affects the New Zealand economy. I would not be holding that up as a proud moment if I were him or if I were a member of the National Party because nobody who aspires to be the leader of this country should at any time in their history have adversely affected the New Zealand economy. 
More especially I will address the issue of the proposed listing of Fonterra the New Zealand dairy company that is doing particularly well at the present time. It is doing well in spite of the fact that the meat industry is not doing too well—the sheep and wool industries. The reason Fonterra is doing well is in large part because it is organised. It has a cooperative structure it has a single marketing focus and has worked hard on that and it has been prepared to share the benefits and costs over many years. Farmers have invested heavily into Fonterra and heavily into its marketing. Sadly I did not hear the Prime Minister or the Leader of the Opposition speak about that either. 
When I have spoken about this issue before I have had some people—some unbelievers—ask me what it has to do with me. There are lots of reasons actually but there are two in the main. Firstly if the structure of that company is to be changed it needs an Act to be passed in this Parliament to do so. That is the first reason. 
Secondly I want to talk about something farmers know about but a lot of other people do not. To progress this issue Fonterra needs several votes and it needs to attain 75 percent approval on each one. What is not understood by people outside farming is that a vote in Fonterra is based on a kilogram produced; it is not a vote by 75 percent of 11000 farmers. I am concerned that we will have a few farmers with huge herds who individually own 10000 15000 or 20000 cows—most of whom are sitting on their backside in the cities and are called in my old-fashioned terms “Queen Street farmers”—deciding this vote. I want to make sure that the average family farm has an opportunity to have its say. It would be a travesty if this vote which would lead to the loss of the company was decided by people who are not actively involved in the industry as are those on family farms. I will talk more about this issue this year but I will cede to my colleague Ron Mark at this point.