Allan KiritapuKIRITAPU ALLAN (Labour): Tēnā koe Madam Assistant Speaker. It's an absolute privilege and an honour to rise and stand in the House tonight to speak on this bill. It would be remiss if we didn't truly honour the whakapapa of this bill—those stewards that have over many many years advocated on behalf of consumers and on behalf of New Zealand produce for New Zealand's story to be told so I pay my respects to and honour Sue Kedgley who I think originally introduced this bill in 2007. It didn't get past the first post at that time but then it was picked up again by the Green Party member Steffan Browning. Steffan Browning in the 51st Parliament got it a fair way along. It was intended as a stand-alone bill and then it was picked up by my good friend and fellow East Coastian—it must be where all good things are from eh Gareth but the member—ASSISTANT SPEAKER (Poto Williams): Order! Order!KIRITAPU ALLAN: —Gareth Hughes the honourable member Gareth Hughes from the mighty East Coast Tai Rāwhiti.But to see the passion and the enthusiasm with which you picked up that task—and it wasn't an easy task which you were required to do. Some say it might have been a little bit like herding cats to get to the end point. But I do want to acknowledge just the way that you respectively worked with all the various considerations and constituencies across this House to get this bill to land where it has. I want to also too acknowledge the advocacy of those in various industries: Eric Roy New Zealand Pork. You know it was at quite a late stage when cured meats came into the final product of this bill and as we know—actually I didn't know at the time until it was from strong advocacy from the likes of Eric and those within the industry that informed me that over 80 per cent of cured meats in New Zealand are imported. Now I don't know if a whole heap of folk really know that. I know I personally didn't myself. So thank you for your advocacy on behalf of your industry to ensure that New Zealanders as consumers have the ability to identify and know where our good old Kiwi pork comes from.One of the challenges too which we had substantive debate on over the course of this bill as it progressed through the various stages is that in New Zealand we have a very high expectation of our farmers and our agricultural sector with regards to our animal welfare standards and we know that that contributes to Brand New Zealand" and the way that we are portrayed and perceived around the world. Now when those standards aren't required by competing countries and you're a New Zealand producer trying to produce a premium product but the consumer doesn't know that there are those competing tensions and wonders why there's one product that's a whole heap cheaper than the other it's this bill that plays a significant role in ensuring that our farmers in New Zealand can maintain their competitive advantage at a domestic level. So to those within the industry I commend you. I also too want to acknowledge the likes of Mike Chapman from HortNZ. They too have been very vocal advocates on behalf of the horticultural industry. That's particularly for fruit and vegetables but fruit and vegetables that are consumed that do have competitive tensions with imported produce. Again they contributed very effectively over the passage of this bill as it has been through its various heads. I do want to acknowledge the comments of the Hon Nathan Guy—the bill did require a little bit of panel beating as I think he called it. Just to all the members on the Primary Production Committee over the period of that panel beating but in particular to the officials who really came on board and effectively had to pull a bill out completely amend it and to the officials in the Hon Kris Faafoi's office as well where it was brought under the fair trading scheme—I really just want to acknowledge the collaborative efforts of those various officials.When we turn to the substance of the bill for the Labour Party it's been our position for some time. It's been interesting talking to various constituents who have advocated for country-of-origin labelling for many years and talking to some of my senior colleagues over the course of this bill as it's progressed through the House understanding again the whakapapa why things progressed and others didn't at a particular time. I guess we have to acknowledge the competing interests across industry within the primary industries. I don't know if there's universal consensus for this type of labelling but I do know that for some of the smaller industries where there is extreme competition with imported produce against domestic produce this will have a very significant effect.I want to pick up too on the comments made probably across the House but in particular made well by the member Gareth Hughes that yes cucumbers are in but pickles are out and we had to draw the line at some point. I want to acknowledge for example frozen vegetables. I remember quite an interesting discussion in a select committee one day and I don't think I'd ever really turned my mind to the life length of frozen broccoli and the impact that it would have if we had a universal commencement date for all produce that this bill intended to collect. If you think about it if you're a supermarket and you've got a whole lot of well frozen broccoli or peas it's going to take some time for that produce to sell. So there was I guess some sound reasoning as to why we extended out the time frames for the commencement date for frozen vegetables for example to come into the Act and that's around about—I think it's 18 months off the top of my head.We placed a significant emphasis or recommended replacing—[Bell rung] Oh there we go. No I'm good. I thought I was getting sat down already. I was just getting into it. Sorry where was I? When we were going through our discussions in the select committee I guess one of the extant issues for us to really work through—and I acknowledge again the advocacy of the various industry and the lobbyists that have discussed this point with us at some length—for this bill to have full effect there obviously needs to be the design of the regulatory system that goes around and supports giving effect to the substance of this bill.The consumer information standard that would be created through the regulation is going to require the country or place of origin of a regulated food to be disclosed by referring to where it was grown caught or raised rather than simply where it was packaged or processed. I think that that was a substantive point of discussion over the period of time. The regulations are also going to require that the commencement date be six months after the date of its notification—that's for the fresh foods—and 18 months after for the frozen foods.Now the definition for regulated foods—that caused a lot of discussion. I won't cover that off again; I think Gareth did that pretty well. But I think a really big concern for a lot of people was making sure that we could remain consistent with our international trade obligations. So the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade did advise us that this bill could be implemented without breaching any of our international trade obligations and right now given the current trading environment that we're operating in and given the fact that we have things like the Comprehensive and Progressive Trans-Pacific Partnership agreement which will have immeasurable impact—anyway it's been a pretty interesting journey—ASSISTANT SPEAKER (Poto Williams): I apologise to the member but your time has expired."