McAnulty KieranKIERAN McANULTY (Labour): I am delighted to speak on this bill and to stand and speak not only on the bill but in support of the bill. This is an important bill and I say to the member who put it forward well done sir. Good on you for taking the initiative and putting this issue—which is important to rural communities—in front of this House. I reassure you don't listen to those in your caucus that may ridicule you. The Labour Party has your back comrade. We are right behind you on this issue. It is vitally important that this House sends a message to rural communities that the issues that are important to them are important to us and so this bill tweaks the Sentencing Act 2002 to make livestock rustling or the theft of livestock an aggravating factor at the point of sentencing for the crime. The bill is indeed a short one. But as my old man said to me once a short one is a good one and the issue here is large. I'm proud to be part of a party that takes a big-picture view of the issues facing a vital industry which is our agriculture industry. We support this amendment to the Sentencing Act but I would also note the Labour Party's commitment to the big-picture elements of addressing the crime itself and giving a lot of attention to the well-being of the industry generally by focusing on it in a different way. The rural communities in New Zealand are under strain—I touched on this in an earlier speech today—but they are deserving of focus and of our energy in the House. The bill is aimed at deterring people from engaging in livestock rustling by identifying it as an aggravating factor in sentencing and I imagine that it is that particular factor that might garner and attract particular attention in select committee. I welcome that because it is indeed an opportunity for members in this House to gain further insight into why this should be considered an aggravating factor. Now section 9(1) of the Sentencing Act 2002 provides generally that In sentencing or otherwise dealing with an offender the court must take into account the following aggravating factors to the extent that they are applicable in the case:" and it goes on to list quite a few but there are a couple that would be particularly applicable to the theft of livestock. Mr McKelvie touched on the impacts of livestock rustling. It might be easy to ridicule this on first sight but livestock is the lifeblood of a farm. Indeed if it were not for livestock there would be no industry. It is an asset to that industry and it should be treated as seriously as any other core asset to any other business. Labour supports the bill and strongly supports the underlying goal of deterring livestock rustling but it is important that we also take this opportunity to identify the underlying causes of any increase in this particular crime. The questions we propose at select committee must be asked as to why has livestock rustling increased over the last few years what are the driving causes behind it and what has caused this issue to come here in the first place. We are committed to asking these questions for this is a Government that is committed to rural communities. Indeed we are a Government that reinstated the Minister for Rural Communities. Be it rural health or rural infrastructure any issue that might be a national issue has a particular and different lens when looking through it from a rural perspective. Hon David Bennett: Who's that Minister? KIERAN McANULTY: He's—you're a big fan. You talked about him earlier today. This Government by supporting this bill is demonstrating that it does not matter which corner an idea comes from. It shouldn't matter whose idea it is. If it's a goodie we should get behind it. As it happens the bloke that came up with this idea just so happens to be a top bloke and I am very proud to stand here and put forward the Government's perspective in supporting you. You might not be very quick around the cricket field Mr McKelvie but if the cricket ball comes straight to you I have confidence that you can stop it. I have only one example to go by and that was when you dealt to the diplomats when we played them a couple of weeks ago. But I do acknowledge you for bringing this forward. I want to provide a couple of examples to give members here that might not be familiar with the concept of livestock rustling just a further insight into this. There is a concern that this is becoming more prevalent. It does affect both commercial and small farms and so we acknowledge the component within this bill that says it is not just commercial livestock but also smallholders' livestock as well. It is not just rural electorates that suffer this. In fact it was the Minister of Finance—the MP for Wellington Central—who was the most recent Labour MP to deal with a situation of livestock rustling. There was once a cow stolen from Mākara Beach and Grant Robertson went out and sorted that out. The case is still open however and he has asked me to put forward to the nation that if anybody has any information they are to contact his office directly. If this bill had been in place then then whoever committed that crime would be liable regardless of the number of livestock on a farm. Just last year there was an extreme example of 1400 lambs taken from one property in Whanganui. A survey of 1000 farms conducted recently demonstrated that 26 percent of those respondents had dealt with some issue of livestock rustling at some point. Hon Ruth Dyson: 26 percent? KIERAN McANULTY: 26 percent. There are also reports that say that up to 60 percent of those livestock rustling cases go under-reported. The question I pose here is that given the nature and the importance of this and how much emphasis our rural communities and our primary industries place on this matter why would 60 percent of cases go under-reported? Is it because our police up until recently have been underfunded? That's a question I think we should explore. Is it the case that many rural communities do no longer have a police presence within a 45-minute to an hour's drive? The underestimated impact of this goes beyond the particular farmer or the particular livestock owner. It's also about our economy and our brand as a nation. Given that it's estimated that $120 million per year is the impact on our farming community and given that just on 1 February last year the Guardian produced stories about "Backyard butchers and vigilante farmers: stock rustling on the rise in New Zealand" talking about the illegal meat industry what impact is this having on our brand as a "clean green" world-class producer? Can we take the risk that with these stories going overseas—how will this affect consumer confidence in our products? It's important that we do take this issue seriously because if consumers cannot have confidence that the New Zealand meat they are eating has gone through the proper processes in a safe and legal manner the impact on our economy is potentially significantly higher than the $120 million quoted in the Federated Farmers research that I touched on earlier. I think we should also consider poverty as a driver. We all know that poverty can be a driver of crime in general but given the nature of this crime and that livestock is obviously a food source we cannot dismiss the impact of the situation that many in our communities find themselves in—the impoverished position that they find themselves in which breeds desperation. If we're going to be looking at this issue we also need to be touching on the drivers of this issue. In conclusion the Labour Party is comfortable that the importance of the safety and well-being of this community of farmers and the importance that their livestock hold within the primary industries warrants an amendment to the Sentencing Act to recognise that this type of offending is damaging in many different ways. We look forward to hearing more about the issue of livestock rustling as this bill progresses through the House. I congratulate Ian McKelvie for putting it forward. The Labour Party supports you in this measure sir. Thank you."