O'Connor DamienParts 1 to 4 schedules 1 and 2 and clauses 1 and 2Hon DAMIEN O'CONNOR (Labour—West Coast - Tasman): Mr Chairman it may indeed be the last opportunity I have to speak in the House and I would just like to acknowledge both the friendship and I guess the commitment to Parliament of the Chairman. I would just like to say that.The farmers' friends have failed. The National Government is bringing into the House in its last dying days a piece of legislation that is so important it should have been passed at least 9 months ago and I do not know why the Government has not given it greater priority.This is a piece of legislation that comes off the back of a major catastrophe for the dairy industry and the food industry in this country. It was a massive mistake made by us that undermined our international reputation and that has cost us literally hundreds of millions of dollars in the international market place because Fonterra for a short time—thankfully a short time—was deemed to have sold offshore food that was dangerous and that could have been infected with botulism. As it turned out that was not the case thankfully but the inability for the systems that the National Government has overseen to properly test and clear that product meant that Fonterra rightly took a precautionary approach and alerted the international market place. But for a couple of weeks people thought that we were producing food that could have botulism in it and that was absolutely disastrous for our international reputation.There was an independent Government inquiry that went through and a report and recommendations that came from that and this piece of legislation is the result of that. I understand that we are debating all parts of it and so the debate is fairly wide ranging—I appreciate that—but clearly the Government has got a message from Crosby/Textor that it should do something to make some token commitment to its friends across the agricultural sector and to at least progress this legislation one more step.Unfortunately this Parliament having overseen this terrible situation and the inquiry and the recommendations has failed to deliver the progress that that independent Government inquiry recommended. [Interruption] Those people there the former Minister and the chair of the Primary Production Committee—which looked at this in a non-partisan way and made a few recommendations. But basically we supported the legislation going through as quickly as we could because we knew the importance of it and the Government sat on its hands and has not brought this legislation back to the House for at least 5 or 6 months. It is an outrage and any farmer and any food producer in this country should be outraged that the Government is not going to pass this legislation before this election.I can commit the incoming Labour Government to progressing this as quickly as possible because there was not too much political debate at all. I think the select committee looked at the legislation carefully asked the questions and made some minor adjustments to improve it but generally we all supported this going through as quickly as possible. But the Government did nothing. It has now waited for a new Minister to come in and I acknowledge his efforts. He may have lobbied hard or he may have been told by Crosby/Textor: You'd better do something here because we've got to look after our mates." Whatever the reason it has come back into Parliament on the second to last—no it is the last night of the parliamentary sittings of the 51st Parliament in this country.That is an outrage because it is not a little piece of legislation. There is a huge amount of effort that has gone into this as I say starting with the independent Government inquiry and a whole list of recommendations that have effectively been put through into this legislation and that the Labour Party is certainly prepared to endorse and support. But why has it come back in now? Why are we going to have just a token debate—with literally 18 minutes to go for discussion—when this should have been passed long ago?So I do not know what Fonterra the other dairy companies or the rest of the food industry are saying to the National Government but they should be outraged. It is an indication of the flippant approach that this Government has taken to food safety and to biosecurity from the time it came in. Remember this is the Government that came in in 2008 or 2009 and it chopped the biosecurity budget ignored food safety provisions and allowed botch-ups one after the other to occur to the point where we are no longer seen as the safest producer of food in the world. I have to say that this inquiry identified some of the problems that we have had in the system.So I am not going to speak for too much longer other than to say that the Labour Party will progress this legislation when we get into Government on 24 September or go into a coalition Government with our partners. I am sure that our prospective partners will endorse our position that this is an important piece of legislation which the National Government has sat on and not progressed for God knows what reason and has now brought it back in an almost—The CHAIRPERSON (Hon Chester Borrows): Order! I would just remind the ex-Minister who has been here for quite a long time that the Committee stage is about debating the submissions made before the select committee asking questions of the Minister or speaking to Supplementary Order Papers. He is doing a very good stump speech at the moment but it is not required within this debate. If tarted up it could look a little bit like a first second or third reading speech but it sure as eggs does not look like a Committee stage contribution.Hon DAMIEN O'CONNOR: I appreciate the advice from the Chair and it is probably the last bit he will be able to give me. Ha ha! But I will take it on board for the wisdom that it comes with.This piece of legislation as I say is significant. It amends the Animal Products Act the Food Act and the Wine Act—the last one of which will be of concern for all members in the House. The legislation does move to put in place a more robust and secure food safety regime. Can I put on the record that when the Labour-led Government progresses this legislation we will be working on having an independent food safety authority or equivalent as we will with a biosecurity agency equivalent—The CHAIRPERSON (Hon Chester Borrows): No you cannot really because that does not conform to this stage of this speech either.Hon DAMIEN O'CONNOR: —because we believe that the Government's oversight seen by the late reintroduction in Committee stages of this piece of legislation—that its lax approach will be changed.We will focus on this. We will progress this legislation and I am sorry to say that we will not have it passed before this Parliament lifts tomorrow."