Norman Russel William: Dairy Industry Restructuring (New Sunset Provisions) Amendment Bill — Second Reading 
Norman Russel William: Dairy Industry Restructuring (New Sunset Provisions) Amendment Bill — Second Reading 
[Volume:672;Page:18261] 
Dr RUSSEL NORMAN (Co-Leader—Green) 
: 
 We stand in the House today debating a bill that will require Fonterra to subsidise its foreign-owned competitors. That is the long and the short of it—that is what the Dairy Industry Restructuring (New Sunset Provisions) Amendment Bill does. Pretty much everyone is agreed that that is the effect of this bill. In fact it is worse than that. Originally when we set up the Dairy Industry Restructuring Act we put a set of goalposts beyond which point Fonterra would not have to continue to subsidise its foreign-owned competitors or its competitors and now we are moving the goalposts through this amendment bill. Fonterra was about to reach the point where it would not have to subsidise its competitors but now the Government has said that as Fonterra is about to reach that point we will move the goalposts so it will have to subsidise them for longer. 
It has been very interesting to listen to National members such as Shane Ardern who talked about being a Fonterra shareholder and to Labour members saying how this was a terrible thing yet do members know what they will do? They will vote for it. Both National and Labour will vote for this bill which requires Fonterra to continue to subsidise its foreign-owned competitors in New Zealand. Not only that National and Labour are moving the goalposts on Fonterra so that it will have to do it for longer than it would have otherwise. National and Labour members are standing up in this House with crocodile tears saying that this bill is a terrible thing but they will vote for it. Fonterra has its problems particularly in environmental issues I will give you that but it is a fantastically successful company. It is one of the few companies from New Zealand that can stand on the world stage and we will require it to subsidise its foreign-owned competitors in New Zealand. We must be stupid. What other Parliament in the world would vote for legislation that requires its biggest company to subsidise its competitors? 
If that was not ridiculous enough let us step back for a moment. At the moment we are looking at what is called “the global land grab” and Mr Burns referred to this to some degree as well. There is understandably a great desire around the world for high-quality land with access to water to produce food. In a world that is finite with a growing population the price of food can only go up and access to food is becoming increasingly important. Right now we have a whole bunch of foreign-owned companies coming in and buying up New Zealand land and agricultural companies. The competitors of Fonterra such as Open Country Dairy Synlait and New Zealand Dairies are overseas-owned. Synlait is the greatest example. It is owned by Bright Dairy and Food which is effectively owned by the Communist Party of China. That is whom we will have to subsidise through this particular bill. It is just ridiculous. There are also Open Country Dairy and New Zealand Dairies. Fonterra will have to compete with those companies because of course all around the world foreign-owned companies are buying up land and agricultural companies. They are buying up access to those resources. We have seen it recently with Agria buying into PGG Wrightson. That was one of the deals that happened just recently. In New Zealand we have seen a series of foreign takeovers of some of our primary producing sectors. We talked about the forestry sector which has been subject to a foreign takeover and now is no longer a very high producer for New Zealand and the wine industry has a similar problem. 
Right now the dairy industry is the target of foreign companies so should we not be standing alongside Fonterra when it is currently the target of foreign attack and saying we will support it because it is a really important company? Instead National and Labour will vote for legislation that requires Fonterra to subsidise its overseas-owned competitors. Those competitors do not lack access to milk; they have heaps of their own milk now. They have heaps of their own bulk milk supplies because they have been buying to acquire their own bulk milk supplies. What these companies are doing with the milk they are getting from Fonterra now is to use it in the shoulders of the season which is when production falls off because by using the milk from Fonterra during that period they can maximise production in their processing facilities. The foreign-owned competitors can maximise the production in their processing facilities and hence their efficiency by using Fonterra milk that this Parliament—the people in this room—will make Fonterra sell to its foreign-owned competitors so that those competitors can maximise the efficiency of their processing plants during the shoulders of the season. 
Thank goodness the Green Party is here because otherwise that would not be said. It would just be suppressed and swept under the carpet by National and Labour with their mad ideology about free trade and so forth if the Green Party was not here to point out the fact that National and Labour are making Fonterra subsidise their foreign-owned competitors. It must be difficult for Mr Ardern to go to Fonterra shareholder meetings because when people ask what he is doing he will say he is voting to make Fonterra subsidise its foreign-owned competitors when he is in Parliament this week. 
Shane Ardern 
: Read their submission. 
Dr RUSSEL NORMAN 
: When we look at the submissions which Mr Ardern talks about we look at the submission from Westland Cooperative Dairy. It states that it makes sense to have the dearer milk the bulk milk available for domestic producers and I agree with that. It does make sense to have that milk available in the domestic market because Fonterra obviously is such a big player. It does not totally dominate the domestic market as much as people think but it is a huge player. It makes sense to have the dearer milk available around the domestic market. However how can it make sense to force Fonterra to sell it to the overseas competitors who will then compete with Fonterra in overseas markets using milk that Fonterra has been forced to sell to them? How can it make any sense to force Fonterra to sell milk to the overseas-owned processors who then use that milk and process it to compete with Fonterra overseas? How does that make any sense for New Zealand? It does not make any sense for New Zealand. 
What we are seeing today is a Parliament—well National and Labour let us face it—that has lost its mind. National and Labour are weeping crocodile tears about how sad it all is but they will vote for this ridiculous bill. The Green Party will not be voting for this bill. We think Fonterra is a really important player in the New Zealand market. It is one of our most important companies. We do not think we should force it to subsidise its foreign-owned competitors hence facilitating the foreign ownership of the New Zealand dairy industry. The industry is facing an enormous challenge from overseas buyers who want to come in and buy it up and that is fair enough. Those buyers want to make money out of it. It provides access to food to land and to water. The land is very very valuable. There is a big grab going on to access land that can produce food and we are helping overseas buyers. We will help them by forcing Fonterra to subsidise its overseas competitors in New Zealand. It is an absurd situation and National and Labour should be ashamed of themselves for putting Parliament in this situation. The Green Party will be voting against this ridiculous law.