Tirikatene RinoRINO TIRIKATENE (Labour—Te Tai Tonga): It is a pleasure to speak on the second reading of this bill the Agricultural Compounds and Veterinary Medicines Amendment Bill. That is quite a hefty title but this is a very important piece of legislation. For those who may not know what we are talking about here we are talking about the regulation of agricultural compounds. These are agricultural chemicals also known as pesticides veterinary medicines vertebrate toxic agents—for example pest control agents—and a range of other compounds used to manage plants and animals such as fertilisers and some other—Richard Prosser: SurfactantsRINO TIRIKATENE: Surfactants that is it. That is what we are talking about here.It was a pleasure coming in midstream on this bill on to the Primary Production Committee just to hear the submitters and to find out the rationale of what we were doing. This came down to a fine balance: ensuring that suppliers of these agricultural compounds were able to recoup the significant investment that they had put into in particular new and innovative products. Under the existing legislation there was a 5-year protection for new innovative products. The bill that was introduced extended that to 8 years. But following quite detailed examination by the committee it was felt that 10 years would be a more appropriate protection for the confidential information that accompanies these applications. As we know once the protections have expired it is open slather for any other competitor to create their own generic products based on the data that had been protected.So we are increasing that data protection period out to 10 years. It may seem like a significant period of time but in the context and as has been touched on by the Minister that extended period is a fair amount of time for the suppliers to recoup that investment. It also allows the suppliers a bit more flexibility to apply for new uses of those compounds and also to have the benefit of the extended time frame. At the end of the day it was a call that needed to be made but I think that the committee has come to a pragmatic outcome. We listened to the concerns of the industry. Giving it that extra period of protection seemed a very sound pragmatic move. I know it was not wholly supported. There are concerns I guess in terms of making sure that there is competition available more choice more competition for the consumer for our farm producers and for our horticultural industries right across the country. But at the end of the day I am comfortable with the extended period that we have included in the bill at its second reading.I know that Mr Prosser who I think is about to make his contribution wanted to extend the protection for 20 years 30 years or 50 years. I think he might be putting in place a Supplementary Order Paper to extend the time. But I think 10 years is a very good even-handed outcome that we have come to. Of course the bill does make the extension for innovative products and also the same applies to non-innovative products. Initially it was 3 years' protection—that has been extended to 5 years. Also for the applications on new use we have expanded the definition of new use" as it was considered a bit too narrow in the bill as it was initially introduced.We certainly hope that we will see the benefits from this legislation: that we will see more applications made to extend through more uses of existing products. And that also because of the confidence that companies will have they will be able to go through the process to register their compounds in the knowledge that they will have extended data protection. That will hopefully lead them to reinvest and to look into other various innovative products that they can come up with—because we need these products. At the end of the day they are vital to our economy and vital to our food production especially. They underpin our whole GDP and our whole standard of living that we have as a nation so it is very important that we do have access to world-class products agricultural compounds and veterinary medicines. The bill may seem full of jargon—in terms of the language of the bill—but practically it is very very important to the livelihood and indeed to the standard of living that we have as a nation.I do commend the Minister Christopher Finlayson for his second reading speech. He did sound like an absolute expert on the area—much like I do—the great farmer from Rongotai who has single-handedly boosted the Māori economy exponentially in his time as Minister for Treaty of Waitangi Negotiations. So I do acknowledge the Minister for his contribution there. I do look forward to seeing greater productivity greater innovation and the greater exports and foreign exchange earnings that can be achieved through this piece of legislation. I commend it to the House."