Turia Tariana: Dairy Industry Restructuring Amendment Bill (No 2) — Second Reading In Committee Third Reading 
Turia Tariana: Dairy Industry Restructuring Amendment Bill (No 2) — Second Reading In Committee Third Reading 
[Volume:644;Page:13763] 
TARIANA TURIA (Co-Leader—Maori Party) 
: 
 It is good to be able to speak to legislation on which—an unusual occurrence—we generally all agree. That is pretty good actually. When Samuel Marsden arrived in the Bay of Islands in 1814 with two cattle and a bull he probably had no idea that less than two centuries later the dairy sector would constitute New Zealand’s biggest industry injecting some $8 billion into the economy and constituting some 20 percent of all our exports. As the good reverend set about training Maori in British farming and gardening techniques believing that those would pave the way to the adoption of Christianity he would have been amazed at the dividends that such skills would pay off in 2007 for the Maori dairy sector now owns over 100000000 dairy shares and Maori also represent over 15 percent of all sheep and beef interests in Aotearoa. That is the context in which the Dairy Industry Restructuring Amendment Bill (No 2) is being read. 
The bill allows the Fonterra Cooperative Group to have the right to keep exporting to designated markets and also allows for other dairy processors to become eligible to hold export licences. The bill consolidates the position of New Zealand in the global marketplace once more after the expiry date of the dairy quota markets established under the Dairy Industry Restructuring Act 2001. This opportunity to again secure a welcome mat in external markets is a move that the submitters and the Primary Production Committee endorsed and it is a move that we in the Maori Party also fully embrace. 
We see that the allocation of export rights to dairy quota markets to a wider group than Fonterra is consistent with kotahitanga the principle of unity and purpose of direction. Allowing for greater participation and certainty in the dairy industry is a more inclusive approach which should bring with it a wider support base amongst the industry. Public feedback supports that claim. The submission from the Tatua Cooperative Dairy Co. Ltd which is based in Tatuanui outside Morrinsville supported the bill as finally enacting the goals of the Dairy Industry Restructuring Act: to maximise economic benefits for our country arising from tariff quotas as maintained by foreign Governments. 
In that regard we know that Maori dairy farmers are ready and willing to take on the world. They want to be poised to benefit from the widened eligibility for export rights that will be put in place by this legislation. Just how ready they are is able to be gauged from a project that is currently collecting physical financial and environmental data from 45 properties in the Tai Tokerau Te Arawa Taranaki and Ikaroa Rawhiti regions. I am pleased to share with the House that the Maori dairy farmers of New Zealand have a project supported by the Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry that benchmarks Maori dairy farm physical financial and environmental performance. The data will be collected for three seasons to balance the effects of climate from across the four North Island regions. The farms will be benchmarked for their physical and financial performance as well as receiving overseer assessments for environmental sustainability. The farms reflect varying ownership structures from sharemilker to owner-operated to Maori incorporation - owned and governed farms. 
We are hopeful that through that project Maori farming authorities—incorporations and trusts—will be able to realise the benefit of meaningful management and monitoring information in order to support their future progress and development. The Maori Party welcomes the advancing of projects such as that one as they will lead to a strong platform from which to enter designated dairy markets that operate country-specific tariff quotas for New Zealand products. 
The bill will also provide future certainty to the industry and given that the Livestock Improvement Corporation advises us the New Zealand dairy industry enjoyed in 2006-07 its most productive season on record such certainty is clearly a bonus. Just to put some context around all of this I tell members that we are talking about 11630 dairy herds and a population of 3917000 cows which is an increase of 84000 just in the least year. 
But we do note that the changes will not be without controversy particularly associated with Fonterra. It appears that Fonterra strongly opposes removing export restrictions for Japan in the cheese market and for those parts of the United States designated markets without provision for designated imports. It believes that removing the restriction risks a significant loss of value to the New Zealand dairy industry and economy over time. 
Meanwhile other players such as the Tatua Cooperative Dairy Co. have a completely opposite view to that of Fonterra suggesting that the key thrust behind the Dairy Industry Restructuring Act of maximising the economic benefits for New Zealand arising from tariff quotas will be better achieved by the removal of export restrictions thereby allowing other companies to expand and increase their performance. In such a view the removal of export restrictions for cheese exports to Japan is therefore desirable. 
We know that Fonterra held a round of five meetings with all of its Maori shareholders in the last week of November so we are hopeful that if Maori had a view about the maintenance of tariff quotas it would have been raised in those hui. We are all awaiting too the results of those hui as we are keen to hear from whanau their thoughts on the selling-off of Fonterra shares to the overseas market. 
The Maori Party has always believed that farmers must keep control of the dairy industry and as such the proposal to sell off interests to external markets leaves us with considerable room for concern. It is the farmers who own the shares now and who have put their hard work into the production of milk and the tilling of the land who require our support. We would be concerned if overseas investors took control over an industry that is so crucial to the future prosperity of this country. So although we support the general intentions of this bill to open up the market which will allow for greater participation and certainty in the dairy industry we are if you like alert to the possibility of the inevitable issues around control that come when overseas investors raise interest in our land. Na reira tena koutou.