Woolerton R Doug: Dairy Industry Restructuring Amendment Bill (No 2) — Second Reading In Committee Third Reading 
Woolerton R Doug: Dairy Industry Restructuring Amendment Bill (No 2) — Second Reading In Committee Third Reading 
[Volume:644;Page:13748] 
R DOUG WOOLERTON (NZ First) 
: 
 Thank you— 
Hon David Carter 
: Oh here we go—the Labour leftie. 
R DOUG WOOLERTON 
: In reply to David Carter I say we will pay it back on our own terms and when we think it is appropriate—with the appropriate hype and all the rest of it as members would expect. So I tell those members they will not miss it when we do it— 
Colin King 
: Go home and have a look at the news. 
R DOUG WOOLERTON 
: —and they should keep an eye on the news and they will get there. 
I think that it is right to say that New Zealand First supports this Dairy Industry Restructuring Amendment Bill (No 2). I was listening to the previous speaker Nathan Guy and I just want to run over the things that have made the New Zealand dairy industry great. 
Hon David Carter 
: A lot of people want to run over you. 
R DOUG WOOLERTON 
: I know that a lot of people want to run over me and I know the reasons they want to. But I will talk about what made the New Zealand dairy industry great and why we in New Zealand First have concerns about it. A lot of it is encompassed in this bill but not in the detail. This bill allows the transfer of quota that was shifted from the New Zealand Dairy Board to Fonterra and that will now go further out to other dairy companies. I will give a couple of illustrations of that. 
The New Zealand dairy industry has done well because we have ensured that it stayed in the ownership of New Zealand farmers and in the ownership of New Zealand and we have made no bones about the fact that we would protect that industry in any way shape or form that we could. It has been a longstanding joke that if the Dairy Board of the day got into trouble it would come to this Parliament talk to the Prime Minister and the Minister of Agriculture and ensure that laws were put in place to guard the dairy industry. Now we are seeing proposals to split up the dairy industry and to open it up to overseas owners and wider ownership. 
People do not remember and many people do not understand that it is the quotas we hold and the quotas that have allowed us to get into markets—mainly in Europe—that have provided the cream on top of the cake for the dairy industry. Those quotas were held and jealously guarded by the Dairy Board and by Fonterra. Now they are going wider and I hope that the companies that pick them up respect that and guard them as jealously and as carefully as has been done in the past. 
Dairy farmers traditionally have understood something that beef farmers sheep farmers and wool farmers in New Zealand have not understood. They have understood the value of vertical integration. Individual farmers have understood that they could not market their products themselves and they could not turn milk into cheese themselves. So they hired “suits” or in the early days white-coated people dairy factory managers to do those things while the sheep beef and wool industries allowed overseas interests to dominate the market. They became price-takers and the Vesteys Hellabys and all the rest of them clipped the ticket on everything. So that made those industries that allowed overseas companies to dominate the marketing of their products weaker than the dairy industry. 
The dairy industry kept our marketing in-house we kept it in New Zealand and we make no bones about it. That has been the strength of the dairy industry. Dairy farmers have always understood that they had to hire marketers they had to market manufacturing people and they had to market their products in other countries while retaining ownership retaining control and making sure the returns thereof came back to this country. 
A couple of smaller dairy factories are starting up around the country as we speak. One is called New Zealand Dairies Ltd in Studholme not far from Timaru but we are seeing in those companies a lack of capital. We are seeing them go to the people they are selling to. In this case it is a bunch of Russians. I do not mean a bunch of Russians in that they are not honest; I mean— 
Hon David Carter 
: Xenophobia! 
R DOUG WOOLERTON 
: No no. This is a fact and these people have put money into this company and now want to control it. I say to Mr Carter and to this House that xenophobia is what has made the dairy industry great. The dairy industry did not follow the stupid naive market views that were followed by the meat industry which is now giving profits to everybody except farmers; or the wool industry that is now on its knees giving profits to everybody except farmers; or the sheepmeat industry which is now giving profits to everybody except farmers. That is what— 
Colin King 
: That is rubbish. 
R DOUG WOOLERTON 
: Oh no—it is not rubbish because the dairy industry that once was the poor cousin of agriculture now dominates agriculture and is earning in excess of 20 percent of our export earnings—because of xenophobia. We decided we would keep this industry within this country and we could control it and we should still be doing that. We should not allow other countries or other people to come in and take the profits away from our farmers. We have the ability in this country to provide the money we need for this industry. 
Hon Member 
: Come on Stalin! 
R DOUG WOOLERTON 
: This is not about Stalin. I would just like people who are listening to know that the National members are laughing and mocking in a way that seems quite sad to me because I grew up in a National Party that took the ownership of the dairy industry seriously. It believed that the ownership of the dairy industry should be in the hands of New Zealand farmers. That was the National Party I grew up in and now National members mock me for making this speech to say that this industry should be New Zealand - owned. I am not saying that Fonterra should have a total stranglehold on the industry— 
Eric Roy 
: You just did. 
R DOUG WOOLERTON 
: —but I am saying there should be legislation ensuring that whoever starts up dairy farming in this country is a New Zealand company with New Zealand ownership. I hear Mr Eric Roy who now comes to this Parliament to earn the substantial part of his living. Mr Roy owns a big sheep farm down out of Gore but it does not make enough money for him so he has to come to this Parliament as an MP to supplement his income and now he sits here and mocks me when I am trying to protect the dairy industry. Instead of flitting around the world why did he not involve himself in his industry and protect it while the dairy people were protecting theirs? 
Eric Roy 
: I’ll put my record up against yours any day. 
R DOUG WOOLERTON 
: Well the member can put his record up against mine. I would like to see that actually because my record on dairy company directorship is a damn sight better than Mr Eric Roy’s record on his pitiful sheep-farming career. I tell members that if they look at the returns going to sheep farmers and at the returns going to dairy farmers then therein lies the story. There is no need to look further. But because of a philosophical belief in unfettered markets Mr Eric Roy is happy to see the dairy industry go to whoever is the highest bidder. We in New Zealand First are not. 
Hon David Carter 
: Oh rubbish! 
R DOUG WOOLERTON 
: Mr Carter can say “rubbish” and we will hear his contribution but Mr Carter is happy for other people beyond these shores to involve themselves in the New Zealand dairy industry. We in New Zealand First are not. 
Bill read a second time.