Faafoi KrisHon KRIS FAAFOI (Minister of Commerce and Consumer Affairs): Madam Deputy Speaker can I thank you for allowing me the opportunity to speak to the second reading of the Consumers' Right to Know (Country of Origin of Food) Bill. Before I respond to some of the comments from the chair of the Primary Production Committee can I ask for similar leniency that other members have had to note the significance of today the 125th anniversary of women's suffrage here in New Zealand. Other members have highlighted particular people of importance to them and I would like to highlight the importance of my predecessor the Hon Luamanuvao Dame Winnie Laban who I think is someone who people all around this House will understand paved the way in terms of Pacific women being represented in this House especially in ministerial roles. So on this special day for women I'd like to pay tribute to her a very important person in my political career too.Can I thank the Hon David Bennett for his contribution a quite enlightening contribution around the select committee process for this piece of legislation and also I thank him for his message around the duty of care with the discretion that section 27 of the Fair Trading Act allows the Minister of Commerce and Consumer Affairs now. To a degree there is a carte blanche ability for the Minister who holds this responsibility to add foods to the regime. I also want to thank the select committee for putting in clauses within this piece of legislation to specifically exclude foods as well. I think that is one of the things that the select committee has done which I think will be a bit of a safeguard. As the member will know—he's held a ministerial delegation with a fair bit of discretion in the past—I think a little bit of public scrutiny is also going to be one of the checks and balances to make sure that anyone who holds this responsibility doesn't go too far.What I would say—and I want to pay tribute to the Green Party Gareth Hughes and Steffan Browning—is that I think this is probably just the first step in a journey in terms of consumers getting more information about the provenance of their food. As a number of members have already mentioned and I'm sure will mention through the continuation of this debate in this reading it's becoming increasingly important for consumers not only to know the country in which their food has been produced but it is becoming a selling point for many of our primary industries now: a particular area in New Zealand where their food may be produced. I think that is useful not only for the information for New Zealand consumers but for us in telling New Zealand's story in terms of where our food has come from and exactly how that food has become produced and that it can add value. So I think in terms of this particular type of information it is also very important.Just also one other note that the chair of the select committee raised around costs. I guess I share—I'm not sure it was frustration—probably some scepticism about some of the figures that were put in front of the select committee so that those members on that committee could get a fair idea of where the costs would lie for food producers. Some figures which were kind of pretty primary were put in front of the select committee and I think they probably struggled to get a handle on exactly what the costs would be for producers.And as they were getting that information as members of the select committee I was getting that information too as the Minister responsible for the officials who were giving the select committee advice and I found it difficult to get a good handle on that. So I think that's probably another reason as to why the Minister who has these responsibilities should be very careful about how they go about exercising their duties here and being very careful about what that may mean to the entities who are producing the food.Can I just also come back and acknowledge the Green Party. As the chairman mentioned at the very outset I think of his speech this is an issue that the Green Party has pushed for some time. This bill was originally introduced in the previous Parliament under Steffan Browning and I'd like to commend Gareth Hughes for taking the bill and for his tenacity for making sure that it got through the select committee process. I did wonder if it was ever going to come out of the select committee with the to-ing and fro-ing that was going on within the select committee especially towards the end when there was the on-again off-again saga around bacon. And the Hon Nathan Guy is right: who doesn't like a bacon sandwich in the morning?Hon Nathan Guy: Plenty of pork!Hon KRIS FAAFOI: Ha ha! There was plenty of pork on that side of the House for the last nine years. So what I would say about that moving on to the substance of the bill is that I thank the chair for his concern for me as the Minister concerned by putting the cured pork products within the remit of the bill as it stands saving me the effort of putting it within a Supplementary Order Paper. I do know that there is continued debate about what is in and what is not in this piece of legislation but I understand that that may be dealt with at the committee of the whole House stage potentially with a Supplementary Order Paper but we shall see.I do note that across the Tasman Australia has put in a multi-ingredient mandatory country-of-origin labelling regime and while this bill as the chair said is only dealing with single-ingredient foods we will be monitoring the implementation of Australia's regime to see what we can learn from that experience. And we've said publicly that our aspiration is to get to that stage and as I mentioned earlier this is I think the first step towards New Zealand going to that multi-ingredient regime in the future.As the Minister responsible for including foods under the Fair Trading Act I'll be consulting further during the process of making regulations and this bill provides 18 months in order to make those regulations. During this time I'll be considering whether there is any need to include additional foods if it is important for consumers to know where certain types of food come from. I'll also be consulting with the food industry to make sure that the requirements of any regulations that may be coming into force are workable. I guess that goes to the caution that Mr Bennett did speak about I guess.In a pure sense there is the ability just to make the recommendations without any consultation at all but I think there is a responsibility—whether it be someone on this side of the House or the other side of the House—to make sure there is full consultation not just with those people who would like to see certain foods or ingredients included within the regime. Also I guess with so much uncertainty around the costs—and I think hopefully over time we'll get more of an idea of exactly where those costs might lie—for the consultation to get to the point where the regulations might be needed will be very important.As I said also this bill will allow the Minister of Commerce and Consumer Affairs to exempt certain foods from the scope of the foods covered if it were to be unduly onerous or if it would not help consumers to make informed decisions.I don't think I need to take much more time of the House but can I again just congratulate Gareth Hughes for his shepherding of this piece of legislation through the House. I am hoping that the committee of the whole House stage of this bill doesn't take as long as the select committee stage of the bill because it did take some time but again I would hope that any issues that might not have been able to be dealt with at the select committee—bacon not being one of them—might be able to be dealt with at the committee of the whole House stage. So we commend this bill to the House.