Carter DavidRt Hon DAVID CARTER (National): I have two brief questions to ask of the Minister in regard to clause 2 Commencement" in the National Animal Identification and Tracing Amendment Bill. My first question is—if we think about the wording of clause 2 the Act comes into force the day after the date at which it receives Royal assent. So let's assume the Governor-General's readily available tomorrow or perhaps over the weekend because there's obviously real urgency about this. This could become effective law by Monday or Tuesday next week—and the Minister nods his head and says that's about the timetable they want.My question in relation to commencement is: what communication will the Government or the Ministry for Primary Industries (MPI) undertake with the farmers of New Zealand to tell the farmers of New Zealand of this extraordinary power that has been given to an MPI officer? As we've heard through the search and surveillance legislation they will now have the ability to do a warrantless search. They'll be able to pick up anything off that farm without a warrant—effectively giving an MPI officer more powers than a police officer.So I want to know the programme the Government's embarked on in regards to communicating this message to New Zealand farmers. Because I know—I've got a farm situation; quite a long drive. I can see who's coming up my drive. And if it was a policeman I'd be worried. What have I done wrong? What farmers have to get to grips with is that it's not the policeman that might be coming up the drive; it might be an MPI officer who has more powers of seizure and confiscation than a police officer has. So it's a very legitimate question. Farmers are going to be shocked shocked to the core when they hear about the strength the Draconian nature of this legislation. I simply ask the Minister in light of such an immediate commencement date what communication process will he instigate to let farmers know?There is an alternative if he needs time: he could delay the commencement date. He could delay it a week to get a media programme organised. Because I'm sure he's rural proofed this legislation as it went through the Cabinet process—I'm sure he has. He says he rural proofs everything!Hon Nathan Guy: Good question.Rt Hon DAVID CARTER: Well I forgot to ask it when it was appropriate but I suspect it hasn't been rural proofed because we all know that's a load of rubbish.The second question I had is a very serious question. We are clearly going to have a lot more movements going through the National Animal Identification and Tracing (NAIT) system. That's clear from the answers given by the amendments that are being proposed and the answers given by the Minister. We had the opportunity to have the chair of NAIT before the Primary Production Committee this morning and I asked him about the structure of the NAIT database and he said "It is stressed." So it's stressed under the current load of movements that are put into the NAIT system. Can the Minister assure me that come Monday or Tuesday of next week when farmers are required to do substantially more entries into the NAIT system the computer system won't crash?We know it's under stress. We've heard that from the chair of the Operational Solutions for Primary Industries New Zealand (OSPRI) board this morning. If it's under stress already will it cope with this additional workload? Because I can tell that Minister he's going to be very very embarrassed having rushed this legislation through the House in urgency when he didn't need to do so if we now get it passed and it gets Royal assent in the next few days becoming law effective Monday or Tuesday; farmers then attempt to comply with the new law fearful of that MPI officer coming up the drive with more powers than a policeman—if the farmer then attempts to comply and all of a sudden the NAIT database crashes. So I do hope for the Minister's sake he's done his homework he's talked to OSPRI and he's assured that the system will cope with these changes."