O'Connor DamienHon DAMIEN O'CONNOR (Minister of Agriculture): Thank you Madam Deputy Speaker. Indeed it is an honour and a pleasure to speak—and I think I may be the last speaker—on the Consumers' Right to Know (Country of Origin of Food) Bill. Good things take time and I can go back some years in this place and recall I guess early discussions. I'd like to acknowledge Steffan Browning and I know Sue Kedgley is up there in the gallery and there are a few new converts to this with Eric Roy being one of them given he's on the New Zealand Pork board now. He too sees the wisdom of this. Some have seen it for a long time. But it's kind of typical really we do all the hard work—us old blokes and lasses—and some young whippersnapper comes along and claims all the credit for it. So I guess in acknowledging the member Gareth Hughes here look he's done a great job. Some of it's about timing and it's about having a bit of luck but he's followed through on what has been started a long time ago. The question is you know as a food-producing nation why didn't we have this in place a long time ago? I can only speak for the good old days and that's the last time we were in Government and this issue did come up. Sue Kedgley was one of the MPs and I guess that at that time the proposal was bound in with a lot of other initiatives from the Green Party that in the view of the coalition partner the Labour Party it was kind of one step too far considering the trade implications in it. So unfortunately the country-of-origin labelling part of it got parked. I've always personally been a staunch advocate for it and indeed it's been Labour Party policy for at least the last three elections but as I say good things take time. Can I say the fact that 55 other countries have this in place or a similar system does say that we're a bit slow in getting around to it. We talked about geographical indicators and in fact we passed a piece of legislation in this House that actually protects the right of winegrowers to say where their wine comes from—not just its country but actually the region of a country. So we've accepted the wisdom and the value of that for wine. Provenance" is a word that's kicked around a lot so other regions in the world—and Europe in particular—that have traded on this have appreciated that consumers want to know not only the country but the region that food comes from. I think that as we move forward to having more value and not just volume from everything we do in the primary sector we're starting to appreciate and look for the potential for provenance to deliver better value for the farmers for the growers for the horticulturist and indeed for the consumers because people want to know that the food that they are consuming is good for them has been produced in an ethical way and indeed comes from a country that is proud to produce safe food—that is indeed New Zealand. I guess we could say that the member has also brought home the bacon to some extent and obviously there were some contentious issues that came up through this bill. I personally would have rather had a bill with a wider scope and as Minister for Food Safety that was one of the discussions we had with the Green Party and with members of the select committee but it was too hard. There are technical issues—I appreciate that—so in the end we've arrived at what I think is a fair balance to get a country-of-origin labelling system in place that we can build on as we learn and start to appreciate more as I say the issues of provenance. I've got a dream that Golden Bay in the top of my electorate which is a geographically isolated area except for a good road in and out and wonderful sea links and is an area proud of its produce—if it gets on board and it gets some support from Fonterra it will develop a provenance brand around Golden Bay that looks at seafood that looks at dairy products and that looks at meat products and horticulture. They will start to build value from everything that they do. Can I say that in terms of the definition of "country of origin"—and it's probably been referred to by previous speakers—it's that it's the country in which the food was grown harvested or raised but not where it was packaged manufactured or processed. So it is as I said at an early stage of consumers' right to know. Can I say regarding the questions of whether it is packaged manufactured or processed that those things are becoming more important and the international food trade. Can I put on the record that in the area of mānuka honey where we as a Government established a standard that says "This is scientifically proven mānuka honey." and monofloral and multifloral—there are issues around that. But we're proud to have established something that is getting for us in the market place some really really crazy—I'd almost say—prices for 500 grams of mānuka honey because there are some medicinal properties connected with that. I know that if it is used on open wounds it can clear those up sometimes when other normal conventional medicines won't do it—the point being that we have a really valuable product. But there's an issue around the credibility of that in some markets and so there's Miere which is a group of Māori honey producers and the bee-keepers and a number of others who have made an application for a trade mark application that would protect their right to claim the term "mānuka" in the market place and can I say that we support that as a Government. Nuk Korako: Really? Hon DAMIEN O'CONNOR: We do. They've come to us for some money. But can I say that I've been somewhat cautious because we do and I think we should go to the courts to ensure that we have a trade mark to protect "mānuka" but as long as there are people exporting mānuka honey in either big drums or in lesser containers that ends up not being pure mānuka honey then our country's reputation is at risk. So I put on the record that we will support that application if the honey industry get their act together and bring some self-discipline off the back of a standard established by the Ministry for Primary Industries and an export process and packaging process that should ensure that what is on the label or what is in the jar is true to label. So I'm happy to say that off the back of the initiative passed in this House tonight to identify country-of-origin labelling it gives us value as a country and enables consumers to know where their food comes from. But in exporting products from our country—particularly if a trade mark is established—we need to know that what we export is absolutely true to label and has integrity in every part of the production system behind that. So I look forward to us making progress on that. Can I say that the wine industry too is a very proud wine industry. Producing Marlborough sauvignon blanc is I guess clearly the best international brand that we have but a third of that is exported in bulk and bottled offshore and for the most part it is true to label. It's "Marlborough sauvignon blanc" when it's sold in the shops around the UK and EU and in other markets but there is a lesser if not a complete inability to actually guarantee that what goes in a bottle is what has left our shores. So the packaging manufacturing and processing of food from New Zealand is arguably just as important—particularly in the export markets—as the production of this and the growing of it. The reality is that when we have food that is of value then people want to copy that and use our labels or use our reputation to sell their own food. Can I say that there's another issue here which was discussed I'm sure by the select committee and that is what types of food businesses will be required to label. At this point the supermarkets when they sell fruit and the single-ingredient products covered by the legislation will be but restaurants will not be required to. What I'd say to you is that it should be New Zealand's long-term objective to have restaurants proudly displaying the food that they are selling and its country of origin because in that way the effort that New Zealand farmers and horticulturalists put into growing the finest-quality food—and if it's purchased by a restaurant to sell on to customers then they should be proud of saying "We bought this from the best country in the world." So again that is another evolution I think that will come from this very very good piece of legislation. Can I say that this is a wonderful piece of legislation. It's taken a long time to get here but this will support the efforts of New Zealand producers—get them more value—because people will want to buy from the country that produces the finest food in the world. Bill read a third time."