Clark DavidDr DAVID CLARK (Labour—Dunedin North): We are supporting this bill. We are very encouraged by the Government's commitment to encouraging collaboration across the agricultural sector in question here the horticulture sector. It is well known of course to all New Zealanders watching this debate that real benefits can come from industry members working together. Fonterra is the example that is put up time and again. On both sides of the House efforts have been made to encourage members of an industry to work together in order to achieve higher prices and higher-value goods for export and to achieve market penetration which can most easily be achieved by scale. I can think of a local example. When I was in an economic development agency in the South Island—Otago Forward it was called and it was a mechanism rather than an agency. It was an economic development mechanism that accessed Government funding for projects involving collaboration between different councils and different local territorial authorities—territorial local authorities I should say; TLA a three-letter acronym. In the example I am thinking of it was required that the different TLAs agreed a priority in order to access Government funding—the different TLAs agreed that there would be real merit in working on getting some Government funding and pulling the industry together to get a marketing strategy to sell apples at a premium.It was a simple proposition. It turned out that absolutely nothing needed to happen to the apples but they were able to be marketed as organic apples because a marketing strategy was put together market research was conducted and thereafter they achieved a 15 percent—I think it was—price surplus in markets. And that has happened ever since. It required collaboration within the industry to put forward the proposal and agreement about how the apples were going to be supplied into which markets and so forth and the result was a price premium on those products that would not otherwise have been achieved. The simple thing was that where the apples were being grown it was too cold for pests. The apples were not being sprayed because they did not need to be sprayed at all. They were being produced organically and now as a consequence of this collaboration they were also being marketed organically and were attracting a price premium.So when industry pulls together when it pools its resources it can achieve great things. We have seen this in New Zealand time and time again so facilitating that collaboration is something to be commended. In fact as a country we are far too dependent on far too few commodities and anything we can do across the agricultural sector—where we have natural advantages—and indeed across any sector to encourage collaboration to achieve higher value in our exports is to be praised.It is not often I can stand on this side of the House and speak so heartily in favour of a Government bill but I do so on this occasion and it does bring me pleasure. We like to be constructive on this side of the House despite the fact that we think that overall the Government has lost its way—that it is getting a little bit out of touch on many issues.The ASSISTANT SPEAKER (Hon Trevor Mallard): It'll happen more next year.Dr DAVID CLARK: But we hope—yes I expect it will happen more next year—that the Government will be congratulated as it adopts our policies in the run-in to the election. We will see. We will see. But I expect that it is nice on this occasion to be able to do it without yet being in the run-up to the election. Good on it for running with a good idea. They do not always get it wrong on that side of the House—more often than we would like but not always.This bill does have the primary purpose to promote the effective export marketing of horticultural products. There is not much not to like with that. In fact the industry itself of course has welcomed the progress of the bill. It is looking towards the opportunity. I hope that it does seize that opportunity. There are times apparently when legislation is put in place but because of internal competition factors or personalities that nettle is not seized. Of course we know plenty of other industries that could benefit from greater collaboration. In the sheep and lamb export sector we have got firms that have competed internally and have engaged in a race to the bottom when greater collaboration could have attracted price premiums offshore.It is a real struggle to get there and we would encourage the Government to consider further how it can assist industries to work together and how incentives can be set up to encourage existing market players in New Zealand to work together to achieve the best value for New Zealand as a whole. Within New Zealand it is a small market and where there is unfettered competition it will not necessarily yield the best results for us internationally. The Government has set the goal of growing exports as a proportion of GDP to 40 percent of our economy and we know for a fact that during the time of this Government exports started around the 30 percent mark and have actually dropped. They have dropped so sadly New Zealand is in a place where as a proportion of our total economy our exports have been dropping under this Government. I think that speaks to the overall lack of direction.I think that here the Government has stumbled upon a good idea. Its promise of course as Mr Parker asked about was to increase exports to 40 percent of GDP—Hon David Parker: And it's gone backwards.Dr DAVID CLARK: —and it has gone backwards. It has actually gone backwards and is now less than 30 percent. I think the member draws attention to a very important point because that was a reasonable goal to have I think. I think setting it at 40 percent was achievable when it was set if the Government had adopted the right strategies—if it had consistently adopted strategies that looked to extract the maximum value out of New Zealand produce and New Zealand industry for the betterment of the country.Hon David Parker: New export industries.Dr DAVID CLARK: But unfortunately it has neglected new export industries. It has failed to take advantage of our innovative industries here. I mean I think of another example the biofuels sales obligation brought in by the last Labour Government. I think the Hon David Parker was responsible for that one. It was a very forward-looking piece of legislation and the Government lost the opportunity.I will come back to the main purpose of the bill which of course is about progress overall and the effective marketing of products. But that progress could be broadened and that is the general point I was trying to make. We welcome it in this particular instance but marketing our products appropriately is something that should be broadened and should be done more widely to ensure the best value for New Zealand through collaboration.The regulatory impact statement is something that I have had a chance to have a quick look at. Some of the assumptions in the bill that have not been fully explored are drawn to attention in that document and the one that sticks in my mind is the fact that the Government has not really canvassed the industry at a deep level to understand how widely this will be implemented. The Government has had some discussions and I am encouraged by that. It has spoken with the industry and it has had positive feedback on this proposal. But it has not actually dug into the flexibility and efficiency as it will be applied. It has not actually dug in and done deeper market testing to see whether the industry will respond to the incentives set up and achieve the best possible outcomes—I think the industry will and I think it has taken a good punt.I do not want to be too critical of the Government here because it is moving in the right direction. I congratulate it. I just wish that it would take more of these sensible steps in the House—not like the previous bill we debated an eviscerated set of legislation that had been introduced to the House before it was ready before it had been consulted on. Here we have some legislation that has been consulted on that takes New Zealand forward that adds value to our exports and hopefully moves us closer to that 40 percent target. We have got to get back over the start line having gone backwards from 30 percent when this Government took office—30 percent of GDP being exports. Now we are below that and we have got to start moving up that ladder up the value chain.New Zealand deserves a prosperous future. New Zealanders deserve a prosperous future. We have got the imaginative business people we have got the entrepreneurs but they are being held back by a Government that too seldom supports the industries it purports to represent. Labour will support this bill. We do want this industry to get ahead. We want to see a more prosperous New Zealand. We want to see the efforts of our exporters rewarded appropriately and we want of course the benefits that go with that for all of our country. So without further ado I do recommend this bill be supported. I am happy to add my voice to that plea and look forward to the further progress of this bill through the House.