SpeechFORESTS (LEGAL HARVEST ASSURANCE) AMENDMENT BILLSecond ReadingHon STUART NASH (Minister of Forestry): I present a legislative statement on the Forests (Legal Harvest Assurance) Amendment Bill.ASSISTANT SPEAKER (Hon Jenny Salesa): That legislative statement is published under the authority of the House and can be found on the Parliament website.Hon STUART NASH: I move That the Forests (Legal Harvest Assurance) Amendment Bill be now read a second time.The question of how New Zealand responds to the issue of illegally harvested timber has been debated in this House for the last 10 years and it's good to see this being progressed. It has been the culmination of a lot of work by many groups of people and I am grateful to them. I particularly acknowledge the members of the Primary Production Committee and the chair Jo Luxton who were steadfast and diligent in their approach to scrutinising this bill to ensure its robustness. I thank the individuals and groups that made written submissions and those that appeared in person before the select committee. Finally I thank the Parliamentary Counsel Office and the Ministry for Primary Industries officials that contributed to this bill.Under this bill New Zealand is committing to trading only in legally harvested timber. The introduction of a legal harvest assurance system for timber products is a tangible step New Zealand can take to support the international efforts to curb the trade in illegally harvested timber products and at the same time it provides importers and our domestic processors and exporters with a Government assurance framework to support their businesses that will demonstrate that they have completed due diligence on the legal harvest of the timber products that they are trading.The bill is also important because New Zealand exporters need to demonstrate timber legality in an increasing number of export markets. This bill will bring us in line with several of our trading partners in APEC economies including Australia the United States Indonesia the Republic of Korea Japan Vietnam and China who have implemented or are developing their own legislation to prevent the import export or shipment of illegally harvested timber. We export nearly 85 percent of our timber products to these countries and with this bill we can continue to do so with integrity.Twenty-two written submissions were received on the bill from individuals environmental non-governmental organisations industry associations and forestry companies. Eight submitters presented their views in person. Most submitters supported the bill's intent to assist in preventing the global trade in illegally harvested timber while increasing the certainty of continued market access for New Zealand timber products.Some concerns were raised through the submission process and I believe officials did a great job of taking these on board. A total of 35 changes were recommended by officials and all were accepted by the select committee. Some of these were minor technical changes but there were also some more substantive changes that I believe will strengthen and improve the bill. For example there is now an improved alignment between this bill and the Forests (Regulation of Log Traders and Forestry Advisers) Amendment Bill. In 2020 under my predecessor the Hon Shane Jones the Forests Act was amended to introduce a new professional registration system for forestry advisers and log traders. As log traders will also need to register for legal harvest this bill has improvements to better align the legal harvest system with the registration system being implemented for log traders. The purpose of the 2020 amendment Act was to ensure forest owners received better advice and there was more transparency in the market. The bill complements the amendment Act by strengthening the resilience of supply chain and the reputation of the New Zealand forest industry.Through the select committee process several technical changes and several policy changes were recommended to help ensure the new regulatory systems work well together and to reduce regulatory burden and compliance costs for regulated parties. We recognise that not all submitters were happy with the bill and that the environmental NGOs thought the scope and approach of the bill were too narrow—especially in comparison to the new deforestation regulations for the European Union. Regulation for sustainability is an emerging issue internationally and it is broader than forestry products and the scope of this bill. Officials are working on these matters in order to best address these wider issues for New Zealand.This bill will create a system that will shut the door on illegally harvested timber products and will show the global community that New Zealand is committed to eradicating this problem. Our primary processors importers and exporters will need to use their due-diligence systems to assess and reduce the risk of dealing with illegally harvested timber. They need to use information provided by the grower or person they bought the timber from to assess whether it has been illegally harvested. This due-diligence system may be streamlined through using an approved template or by being a member of an existing private forest certification scheme such as the Forest Stewardship Council or the Programme for the Endorsement of Forest Certification. This is intended to alleviate the burden of a new regulatory system and at the same time maintain the integrity of our New Zealand Government assurance. It is important for New Zealand's reputation and economy and the New Zealand forestry and wood-processing sector for this bill to maintain momentum and keep progressing through the House this term. As I've previously said it is great to see this bill get to this stage and in this form and I look forward to debating the bill in more detail during the committee of the whole House. I commend the bill to the House.ASSISTANT SPEAKER (Hon Jenny Salesa): The question is that the motion be agreed to.