O'Connor DamienDAIRY INDUSTRY RESTRUCTURING AMENDMENT BILL (NO 2)Third ReadingHon DAMIEN O'CONNOR (Minister of Agriculture): I move That the Dairy Industry Restructuring Amendment Bill (No 2) be now read a third time.Thank you Mr Speaker. Indeed it's an honour and a responsibility I suggest to stand for the third reading of the Dairy Industry Restructuring Amendment Bill (No 2). This bill has been introduced to the House reasonably recently—a couple of days ago in fact—and has passed through most of its stages under urgency because this Government has needed to pass legislation to ensure that the structure and the stability of the current dairy industry continues on beyond 31 May of this year. There was in the original legislation setting up Fonterra a trigger point that when more than 20 percent of the milk supply in the South Island or North Island was exceeded—that is in the hands of others than Fonterra—then a review was deemed necessary and without change in fact the structure of Fonterra and the legislation around it would then lapse.The Government is passing this piece of legislation to ensure that the legislation as it is at the moment remains in place. The previous Government in the review that it conducted after 2015 when the trigger point was met came up with a review outcome and a change of legislation. Unfortunately it sat on that for some time and this incoming Government deemed that there was insufficient time to bring that piece of legislation into the House have it considered properly through a select committee process and be passed by the end of May. So we decided to pass this short piece of legislation—a technical amendment effectively to the primary Dairy Industry Restructuring Act (DIRA) legislation—which says those trigger provisions would not be triggered that the legislation will continue. But we committed to consider the issues raised in the review and as to the attempt by the previous Government to have them in legislation we said that we would look at these substantive issues through the review that will be undertaken over the next 12 months.The dairy industry is New Zealand's largest single export earner. It generated $14.6 billion in export revenue for the year ended June 2017 and that is expected to increase to $16.8 billion—a huge amount of money for any exporting sector—to the end of June 2018. Over 50000 people are employed in the dairy industry. It's arguably one of the single biggest contributors to rural and provincial New Zealand supplemented by the tourism industry which to some extent relies on I guess the reputation of our dairy industry. This Government is aware of challenges facing the dairy industry. They are numerous from artificial milk and the growth of competitors in the export market to environmental pressures and indeed a challenge to the social licence for the dairy industry where an increasing number of people are saying that maybe they've got too big too quickly.I think that there's a very sensible approach to the dairy industry. When you ask people to submit on it they will do so I'm sure over the next few months and it will enable us to come up with changes that will be needed I think to bring Fonterra and its legislation into the new world. It's almost 17 years on since the passage of the legislation and I think we have a responsibility to look carefully at the dairy industry to look carefully at the legislation governing Fonterra and to look carefully at the future for the dairy industry. Our country will rely on it for a long time to come.I acknowledge the support of all parties in the House that are supporting this through the House. There have been some legitimate questions raised by members on both sides of the House and those—Hon Chris Hipkins: And answered.Hon DAMIEN O'CONNOR: —absolutely—questions will be addressed through the review process that will be conducted by the Government. So I just want to assure the House and the people of New Zealand and the dairy industry that the relatively quick passage of this legislation which is just a technical roll-over does in no way undermine this Government's commitment to support the dairy industry and to support Fonterra in a form that will carry it and its farmers into the future and indeed to protect our environment and protect New Zealand and our communities. Thank you.