Grigg NicolaNICOLA GRIGG (National—Selwyn): Madam Speaker I've heard two extraordinary things in the House this evening. One was the Greens' tear-down of New Zealand's largest and most successful company and the other was that Labour supports farmers. Ha ha! I'm still laughing about that! But God loves a trier as they say. Look all jokes aside we're actually here this evening on some quite important business. We're here to amend the legislation that's governing the biggest business that New Zealand has ever produced and that's the Fonterra Cooperative. It has in its 20 years gone on to become the sixth-largest producer of dairy product in the world and it really is a New Zealand success story. So it really shouldn't be taken lightly. And I know I shouldn't be surprised but I am still quite stunned at the Green Party's apparent antagonism towards a dairy company that at the end of the day produces protein for hungry nations. Chris Bishop: Why are you shocked?NICOLA GRIGG: Well Chris Bishop I'm still new I'm still easily shocked and I'm still wet behind the ears.Anyway look in acknowledging that the decision to restructure has been made by the farmer shareholders the National Party is comfortable with the decision to reduce minimum shareholding and we do continue and will continue our support of the bill through the House as we did during the select committee process. And much has already been said of the collegial environment in which we on the Primary Production Committee work. The proposed changes that we've supported primarily are to give Fonterra the opportunity to free up capital and for its shareholders to have that capital to invest in the future of their business of their operations. We did hear a number of shareholders first-time farmers young couples—those kinds of examples of people who are really going to take advantage of having this extra cash this extra capital to be able to reinvest in their business. However it's at this juncture that it would be remiss of me as the member of Parliament for Selwyn to not make a few comments on behalf of the local suppliers in my electorate who supply to other companies. Because we've certainly heard concerns particularly from the likes of Synlait and Westland that they have about the implementation eventually of this amendment. Now to be clear the last thing anyone here wants to see is any competition being squeezed out of the market. We in the National Party very proudly support capitalism as I've said in this House before we support competition we want to see businesses growing and doing well. And we do however in Selwyn have to acknowledge the fact that it is probably one of the very few areas in New Zealand where Fonterra doesn't have a near complete monopoly on the milk trade. As has been acknowledged by a number of speakers this evening there are risks in this amendment bill. And if those are not properly managed these amendments will risk companies like Synlait and Westland in their ability to pay competitive prices to the likes of Selwyn-based farmers. We should also note that Fonterra's competitors like those I've mentioned and also Open Country Dairy who came and presented at the select committee don't require their suppliers to purchase shares to provide milk. So therein lies quite a difference.In its considerations the select committee did really test the officials on ensuring that there is a robust system in place of independent oversight. And that's the really critical part to all of this. I think there has to be independent oversight on that milk price panel and the select committee noted that Fonterra made quite strident lobbying towards wishing to remain in a position of influence on that milk price panel. However we as a committee have chosen the middle ground and we believe that the changes that have come back in our report back to the House should mitigate the worst of the risks of any possible monopolistic behaviour on behalf of Fonterra. Other changes that we did also introduce were that the chair of the milk price panel has to be fully independent of Fonterra and that the day-to-day administration of the base milk price calculation has to be provided by an external—and periodically replaced—party. So just to wrap up there are risks to this bill. The National Party has been extremely cognisant of the fact that we do want to support competitors. By the same token we do absolutely want to support New Zealand's biggest company and our greater success story. And more specifically might I say we want to support the farmers and shareholders that provide milk to all kinds of dairy companies in New Zealand. So with that we look forward to the committee of the whole House. We will continue to support this bill and may I commend it to the House.