Guy NathanHon NATHAN GUY (National—Ōtaki): Thanks very much for the opportunity to take a call on this very important bill this afternoon. It's great to follow the Associate Minister of Agriculture Meka Whaitiri. Can I thank her for her honesty this week when she was answering questions yesterday on behalf of the Minister of Agriculture where she said that $9.3 million had been given to biosecurity for the Mycoplasma bovis response. What's really telling when that Minister responded on behalf of Damien O'Connor and we went back and checked is that that money was appropriated by the previous National Government. So there's more stories to unfold there when we get into the detail and the weeds about whether that funding for Mycoplasma bovis actually was new funding.Now coming specifically to this bill that we are discussing and debating this afternoon this is a good bill. It's taken a long period of time to get to where it is today and I acknowledge everyone that submitted: that was the big end of industry in New Zealand and a lot of small niche producers as well. This bill and the regulations that follow actually combine a huge amount of work that underpins a lot of investment and us as a producing nation of food. We have a very proud track record as a producer of safe food but it was tested in 2013 with the whey protein concentrate when indeed there was the precautionary recall that Fonterra did on some of its products. When that was all unpicked and worked its way through over a period of time it was indeed a false alarm by Fonterra but as a result of that event there followed these recommendations and this bill that we are now debating. There's been a huge amount of consultation that's gone on since then and there was a big test for Fonterra and for our food producers in New Zealand.Then what followed was the criminal blackmail of food products in New Zealand where a letter was sent from an individual to Theo Spierings the chief executive of Fonterra and to the chief executive of Federated Farmers. Then what followed from that was a massive response where the Ministry for Primary Industries (MPI) as the lead agency worked across the whole of Government in what could have been a disaster for our food exporting companies in New Zealand—particularly the dairy industry—because the intent of the individual was real. I applaud MPI and what they did in getting on top of a significant event working very closely with the New Zealand Police. Ultimately they found the individual and that was literally like trying to find a needle in a haystack.The reason I raise that is because it's really important—when we hear from Government speakers this afternoon. Because of Labour's rhetoric around food safety and biosecurity and wanting to smash MPI apart there's so much disappointment now in industry because had the New Zealand Food Safety Authority been standing on its own and not embedded into a wider ministry like the Ministry for Primary Industries there's no way that they could have stood up the response that they stood up to deal with that Operation Concord.So now we have the Government who have decided—and there's been a huge amount of pushback by industry and importantly by officials saying—that MPI would be worse off if they decided to set up separate entities for food safety biosecurity and the like. The importance of this is because MPI is considered a competent authority for both and when you break that down—like Labour wanted to do—into separate entities that becomes very difficult for MPI as the competent authority and export markets.So what happened—and I've read the Cabinet paper in some detail—was Damien O'Connor got rolled by officials and the Department of the Prime Minister and Cabinet and also by his colleagues when they realised that the cost was going to be over a hundred million bucks to smash MPI apart. So now MPI is in a position of trying to save the Minister's face so they have come up with a bit of a rebranding exercise—putting stickers on doors to try and create something within MPI so that there is seen to be some form of separation. But the reality is that's costing $17 million of research and development that is being robbed from the primary sector. The reason I raise that in this debate is because it all comes back to one primary objective and that is that MPI is the competent authority and oversees food safety and biosecurity and the like and to smash it apart is just plainly dumb. So the reason I say that is because they've now realised—they; not you but they the Government has realised—it's really important to keep MPI together. And yes there's been a rebranding exercise and food safety will carry on and it will be better and stronger by being a part of the whole of MPI.So in summary this is a good bill. It's very important for our food producers up and down the country—and of course we export about $25 billion a year generated from food products. So this bill is really important and on this side of the House we are pleased to have been involved with it and we do support it.