Roy Eric: Meat Board Amendment Bill — Third Reading 
Roy Eric: Meat Board Amendment Bill — Third Reading 
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ERIC ROY (National—Invercargill) 
: 
 I am happy to pick up the cause again with an explanation of the third reading of the Meat Board Amendment Bill. Members who were here on Thursday evening will recall that the issue regarding this bill was to make some clarification over the management of quota. In the two minutes I used last Thursday evening I outlined the importance of quota and the importance of access into the European Union where this quota applies and the fact that New Zealand is the largest player in that market is a great benefit to the economy of New Zealand and to the economic welfare of those people who produce lambs. That is certainly the case. 
I also pointed out that the management of this quota is a significant issue in that it needs to be protected by legislation and this is what we are doing. In the quota rents the value of that quota must come back to New Zealand. It is managed by the meat industry and the main beneficiary is the New Zealand economy through the New Zealand farmer. Some issues needed clarification: the issues around new entrants into the market and their opportunities. That is the sort of area we covered on Thursday night. 
I wish to make one or two other comments that I think are quite salient at this time. The issues that surround the meat industry are not totally contained in quota management. There are some other things and I alert Government members to a significant number of other issues. It is probably appropriate that we are debating this at the recommencement of a new cycle in the farming area and I ask the House to consider the plight of many of those sheep farmers throughout New Zealand—on the east coast of New Zealand in southern New Zealand and in significant areas of Canterbury—who have had a very inclement winter to get through and are now very busy in the lambing cycle. Those farmers out there encouraging every single animal they have to survive need to know that this House is serious about their viability. It is in that regard that I wish to make a few comments. 
There are a number of challenges for our farmers today and they actually have the ability to meet the on-farm challenges not just the inclement weather but they are constantly dealing with the presentation of new diseases such as  
salmonella brandenburg 
 the application of new technology and new cultivars. There are some exciting things happening out there: I believe gene mapping will give an opportunity for another growth spurt in the productive curve of what has happened in the sheep industry. Certainly in terms of the pastoral production in New Zealand the sheep industry has made huge strides in the last decade or so with significant increases in lambing percentage in carcass weights and in the yield quality of lambs. There is the challenge of meeting what the market actually wants. It would seem that that is a variable and changing market requirement that has to be met as well. There are other problems like drench resistance. Farmers accept the challenge of all of those things. 
But there are things in the Government’s corner and I would not like this Government to think it has fixed up the Meat Board Act—done the clarification so it is all tidy—and it can turn round and go away. That is simply not the case. The burdens that the Government must deal with are real and they need urgent attention. There is the cost of compliance. There are issues surrounding just what has to happen in the compliance of every single facet from the day the lambs are born until they are free on board on a ship getting to the markets wherever they be—and today we are talking about quota markets in the European Union. There are significant increases and this Government through its generosity of ruling some new very prescriptive generous requirements in the Holidays Act has cost every farmer in New Zealand $1 a lamb. 
Hon David Carter 
: Accident compensation is another one. 
ERIC ROY 
: Accident compensation is another one. The cost of compliance is simply huge. But there are other things that this Government needs to wake up its ideas about as well. 
The first point I raise is the issue of biosecurity. Out there farmers are constantly fighting all the inclement weather. They should not need to worry about whether they will have bees to pollinate their clover because the varroa bee mite has now spread into the South Island and the lack of action over that. They should not need to worry about the fact that clover weevil has become endemic throughout New Zealand and has now settled itself in the South Island as well. There are a number of risks that just make farmers ask whether biosecurity matters are being managed. No they are not. The real concern is if we get something very very serious as an incursion like foot-and-mouth. We have not got any confidence at all in the fact that these other things have just been allowed to happen. There has not been a process of clear and crisp decision-making. There has not been any action to eradicate. So if we got something serious the farmers out there are asking questions about what would happen. 
The second point in the Government’s court that it needs to step up its activity about is trade access. I for one was hugely disappointed that the Doha round fell over. I am not blaming that on this Government but I am saying it has a responsibility to pick up the issue and not let it die just because that round has fallen over. We need access. We need the countries that are producing competing product in the sheepmeat area to be on a level playing field. The kinds of subsidies support and non-tariff barriers that exist all around the world need to be dealt with. I just say to the Government that it must continue with a great deal of energy to fight the tariff barriers and difficulties we have in the trade round. 
Another point that needs to be dealt with is for the Government to take seriously farming as a vocation. There are shortages of labour and shortages of practical and technical skills across all sectors in the pastoral industry. Our immigration system is based on points and we cannot even get immigrants into the sector because they simply do not get the points necessary to do the very valuable practical work. The Government needs to address that area as well. 
I conclude with these remarks. The Labour Government of the 1980s advised farmers to get out of sheep farming and grow something more profitable on their farms. We need to acknowledge that farmers stuck to their knitting. They changed their operation—they produced a product that has lifted itself in prestige quality and price. They have done their bit. They require this Government to step up to the mark and do its bit across the areas I have mentioned. This bill is not the completion of what needs to be done to make the meat industry a more viable and more productive sector of the New Zealand economy. The meat industry is one of the significant contributors to our foreign exchange but it can be bigger and it will be bigger if we play our part in creating the landscape off the farm that allows those farmers to produce the products that the world demands.