Guy Nathan: Animal Welfare Amendment Bill — In CommitteeText is incorporated into the Bound VolumeGuy Nathan: Animal Welfare Amendment Bill — In Committee[Sitting date: 31 March 2015. Volume:704;Page:2750. Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume.]Hon NATHAN GUY (Minister for Primary Industries): It is good to make a contribution to this very important bill. We have had a very good discussion around the Committee this afternoon. It is interesting to hear some of the comments that have been made this afternoon by all of the parties represented in the New Zealand Parliament. They are broadly supportive of the direction of amending the Animal Welfare Act 1999 and bringing it up into modern times.It is interesting that some of the comments have been that the Ministry for Primary Industries is not doing enough or the Minister is not doing enough. I would refute that very very strongly. The reason why I can say that is that we have done a lot and this bill shows that we are prepared to do even more when dealing with animal welfare issues and making sure that we have modern regulations. We have still got all of that discussion to be had because once this bill is through the Parliament we will work on the regulations which are basically going to give the teeth to implement the primary legislation that we are indeed debating this afternoon.I will give you a few examples to show that the Government does care about animal welfare. In 2010 we introduced the new offence of reckless ill-treatment which means the imprisonment term has gone from 3 years to 5 years. That has been broadened out. Fines have increased from $50000 to $100000 for individuals and from $250000 as it was then to $500000 for bodies corporate. Also last year we introduced a ban on blunt force trauma killing of bobby calves. We all know that that is unacceptable as a routine practice so that changed. The National Animal Welfare Advisory Committee went out and consulted and brought advice back to me and that change has been implemented. Also last year we banned shark finning and that needs to be acknowledged because it is an offence under the Animal Welfare Act. That has been toughened up as well. We have got more compliance officers working on animal welfare. If people have concerns then they should ring the Ministry for Primary Industries to get it to investigate. The ministry does investigate and indeed it does bring prosecutions to bear.There is an important point that I think we should not lose in the debate this afternoon. Just a few months ago in November 2014 the global charity World Animal Protection ranked New Zealand as first equal out of 50 countries around the world for our animal welfare regulatory system alongside the UK alongside Austria and alongside Switzerland. Is it not fantastic that we have an endorsement from a global charity that has looked at 50 countries around the world and ranks New Zealand first equal? I think we should all be very very proud of that fact. There has been a bit of discussion this evening about Trevor Mallard’s Supplementary Order Paper 48 and the 7-year transition. The Government cannot support Supplementary Order Paper 48 because we are of the view that industry needs that 10-year transition period—Dr Megan Woods: Industry are more nimble than that.Hon NATHAN GUY: Well I am very happy to have the debate but let us talk about egg producers as an example. They are currently transitioning away from battery cages. I think we would all acknowledge that. They have started doing that. Industry is making good progress. Of course this came from the fact that the National Animal Welfare Advisory Committee went out and consulted looked at all of the science and produced the evidence for the Government to make the change. We should be aware of the fact that eggs are one of the cheapest sources of protein for Kiwi families. They are an extremely reliable and important food source for low and middle income families and many others actually in New Zealand as well.If you go too hard and too fast on this transition period then you need to be aware of the changes that industries need to make. Egg producers for example have got to change. They have got to change from battery cages to colony cages. They need to first of all go and purchase some land because we are talking about a new building in a lot of cases. They need to then go out and raise the capital. They then need to go to the local authority and get a consent. More than likely that is a publicly notified consent process. So let us bring some practical realities into this debate about this transition period.The other important thing is that currently I do not think there is any egg importation because of biosecurity conditions here in New Zealand. So if you close down an industry and move too quickly on the transition period you will see a huge spike in the price of eggs and I do not think anyone would want that. That is why we need to be very practical on this transition period.