Moroney Sue: Dairy Industry Restructuring (New Sunset Provisions) Amendment Bill — First Reading 
Moroney Sue: Dairy Industry Restructuring (New Sunset Provisions) Amendment Bill — First Reading 
[Volume:667;Page:14514] 
SUE MORONEY (Labour) 
: 
 It is indeed a great pleasure to take a call on the first reading of the Dairy Industry Restructuring (New Sunset Provisions) Amendment Bill. Of course in reality this is not the first time this legislation has been before the House; this bill simply extends very good legislation that was initially brought before this House by a Labour Government. 
Just following on from the last speech made by Sandra Goudie I note that the sector the member was referring to is actually deeply disappointed in the current Government. That sector has worked out—and Federated Farmers has worked out—that this Government does not have a plan. This bill demonstrates that the Government has simply picked up what the previous Labour Government had put in place and is extending those provisions. That is simply what this bill does. The Government picked up what Labour did and decided to do it for a bit longer. I think that demonstrates once again that this Government really does not have any fresh ideas. It does not have a clue about what to do for this sector. 
I was surprised that the previous speaker chose to speak about research and development investment in this sector because that is an area where this Government has performed woefully. One of the first things National did upon taking office was to cancel the Fast Forward Fund. The Fast Forward Fund was brought in by Labour. The dairy industry in particular thoroughly endorsed it because it knew that having large amounts of funding guaranteed going forward for 10 or 15 years was the way of the future. That fund was going to do something comprehensive and yes for the future—not just the here and now which this Government likes to focus on fiddling around with tax swaps and those types of short-term measures. The Fast Forward Fund was actually going to deliver something tangible in terms of research going forward for that sector. 
The dairy sector is the backbone of New Zealand but it can be so much better. It is my belief that the dairy industry sector will really excel—it does pretty well now but it will really excel. Our place in the sun is to produce niche products. That is our place in the sun. We are a food producer and we will do best when we are smart and are ahead of the pack. That is why the Fast Forward Fund was so important. It was going to deliver this country and that industry the ability to be smart and to be ahead of the pack. 
We will not win by producing just more and more volume. Our competitors in the markets that are opening up worldwide for the products the New Zealand dairy industry produces are so much larger and so much closer to those markets and they can produce products much more cheaply. We will not win the race by trying to produce more and more volume more and more cheaply. We will win because we are smarter we have niche products we market them well and we are at the top of the pack not at the bottom of the pack. We will not be going for the low-value high-volume product but the very niche market. 
I do not want to give the impression that Labour is not supporting this bill because of course it is; it is our own piece of work. This Government has run out of ideas and the only thing it can bring forward now is to just extend legislation that the previous Labour Government put in place. 
The bill seeks to extend the period of time that Fonterra must provide fixed-price dairy solids to other dairy processors in order to foster competition in the domestic industry. I will focus on that element for a little bit in this first reading. It is quite interesting to think about fostering competition when we look at the players in the industry. Of course we have Fonterra but we have other competitors such as Open Country Cheese. One of the things I ask the Government to consider is whether it would regulate on that basis so that Fonterra has to have certain obligations towards other players. Is it prepared also to regulate to ensure that competitors like Open Country Cheese have to pay the same wages as Fonterra does for processing milk solids? 
If our memories are not too short I think that we can all remember that about this time last year a major dispute happened in the Waikato in Waharoa. It is a wee community that I happen to know pretty well. It is where my mother was born and raised. In fact the dispute happened right next door to her family farm. That dispute was over the workers of Open Country Cheese—a processor that will benefit from this legislation—being paid significantly less than workers processing milk for Fonterra. I do not think that is fair and I would like the Government to have a good think about this while it considers this bill. 
Why do we not look at having the same wages set within industries? With this bill we are regulating to say that Fonterra must do things to foster competition but on one side of the equation that is a little bit unfair. Fonterra has a collective employment agreement that it negotiated in good faith with the Dairy Workers Union. That collective agreement requires Fonterra to pay decent wages to the people who work in its factories. But Open Country Cheese does not have to pay those same wages. Fonterra has to give Open Country Cheese the dairy solids at a fixed price but can we fix the price for wages in the factories where they will be processed? That is a question that I would really like to hear a Government MP respond to. 
If we are going to have this legislation there is other legislation that needs to be considered also in order to make it fair right across the board so that the same processing costs exist in terms of labour costs. Not only is that fair but also it is good for improving wages but the Government seems to have no clue about that. As we have seen recently wages in this country have been stagnating if not going backwards. It would be good to see some regulations in the dairy processing industry that make it fair and lift wages across the board. I think that would be a really fine thing to see. 
The other issue that this bill causes us to think about is the issue of overseas investment. As we know some of Fonterra’s competitors are owned by foreign interests. Fonterra is a very good example of a cooperative. It is owned by New Zealanders and it competes against companies some of which are owned by foreign investors. That causes me to think about what the Government is doing in reviewing overseas investment which is one of the things it has done recently. But that is not even a half-hearted effort to protect New Zealand against increasing foreign ownership of land. 
Foreigners with access to cheaper capital find the prospect of tax-free capital gains from buying New Zealand land very very attractive but there is no benefit to New Zealand in that. Labour’s position on that issue will be much clearer and stronger. This review makes it even more apparent that Labour is the only party that can be trusted to keep New Zealand in Kiwi hands. 
Hon Maurice Williamson 
: Did Labour allow the sale of land to foreigners? 
SUE MORONEY 
: Maurice Williamson has something to say about this but at question time today the only thing he could tell the House was that he had denied zero land purchases by overseas investors. In fact the Government has been just tinkering around the edges and what it has done does not make any difference. 
National has polled itself to a standstill on that issue. It knows that it is unpopular to sell more land but it has no idea what to do about it. It started off by saying that the review would liberalise overseas investment in New Zealand land. Then the Minister of Finance Bill English said the strategic asset test was a nonsense that it was too confusing and too difficult. So what did the Government do? It kept the same strategic asset test and it added some more confusion to it. That has resulted in the Minister for Land Information Maurice Williamson approving all of the purchases that have come before him. He has not denied approval for any of them because the Government has done nothing real to protect New Zealand’s investment in that regard. 
I conclude by reiterating that Labour is supporting this bill. Why would we not; it was our approach in the first place. This Government has run out of ideas and this bill is an example of that. The only thing that the Government can think to do for dairy industry restructuring is simply extend the time frame of very good legislation that Labour put in place in the first instance. Thank you.