Stewart Barbara: Standards Amendment Bill Testing Laboratory Registration Amendment Bill — Third Readings 
Stewart Barbara: Standards Amendment Bill Testing Laboratory Registration Amendment Bill — Third Readings 
[Volume:634;Page:5530] 
BARBARA STEWART (NZ First) 
: 
 I rise on behalf of New Zealand First to take a call in this debate. New Zealand First supports the third reading of this legislation. It is important to all of those who are involved in industry—the export industry and New Zealand’s domestic industry—so that they can manufacture goods and products and provide services to an internationally recognised standard. It is absolutely essential in today’s world to be able to ensure that customers can have complete confidence in the product they are purchasing. That confidence can be achieved by ensuring the product has been manufactured according to the specified audited standards of an international certification body. It is always an external auditing body that ensures those standards are being met by inspecting the documentation the procedures and the processes that are an integral part of the product. 
The standards and conformance infrastructure that exists supports New Zealand’s trade health and safety and environmental objectives. It is absolutely essential to ensure that international and domestic confidence are maintained in the infrastructure that exists in New Zealand by aligning the functions of the Standards Council and the Testing Laboratory Registration Council with international norms and practices. This legislation reflects that New Zealand will have a joint accreditation system with Australia—the Joint Accreditation System of Australia and New Zealand—to register the certification bodies. International practice requires that there is only one registering certification body. We must ensure that certification is consistent. 
We have to emphasise here that product registration is definitely not compulsory for products that are exported. It is a business cost that a person or a business picks up and decides to do. It is not mandatory. Rather certification shows a business’s customers that it is very serious about product or service quality consistency and manufacturing practices. It shows that the business has the practices and the procedures in place to produce a consistently good-quality product every time. It enables the manufacturer to trace the product from the initial raw ingredients right through to the consumer—from the farm gate to the plate. When a business is able to carry out this type of analysis it is very evident that very detailed systems have to be in place. Of course we have to have the required manuals to follow in this instance. 
We know that costs are a very necessary part of this regime and they are usually built into the product cost. Costs themselves depend on the size of the business because auditing in itself takes time. It is a very laborious job and one that definitely needs a lot of patience and takes time. We believe that this procedure has rapidly become absolutely essential in today’s world. Overseas customers in particular expect that accreditation and the processes to be in place. We must remind the previous speaker Sandra Goudie that doing business overseas has definitely changed over the last few decades. The old adage of “Near enough is good enough” does not stack up any more. Internationally recognised and accredited products are a part of the new way of operating. New Zealand has to keep pace with the rest of the world if we want to compete on a level footing for export markets. This legislation brings us up to speed. 
There is one issue of concern to New Zealand First and that is the point that was expressed in National’s minority report which is attached to the legislation. New Zealand First has always resisted provisions and objectives to promote items that are not directly quantifiable. That type of provision is difficult if not impossible to implement and then audit against. 
New Zealand First supports this legislation. It is a very good first step. We need to continue working in this very important area into the future. Our overseas customers increasingly require that. New Zealand First supports the legislation.