Borrows Chester: Veterinarians Bill — Second Reading In Committee Third Reading 
Borrows Chester: Veterinarians Bill — Second Reading In Committee Third Reading 
[Volume:628;Page:933] 
CHESTER BORROWS (National—Whanganui) 
: 
 I rise to speak to new Part 3A “Conditions of practice and appeals” specifically. I was very interested to hear the comments made by Sue Kedgley earlier on and although I believe that Ms Rich may have been a bit hard on Sue Kedgley I found what Sue Kedgley had to say about battery hens incredibly interesting. I know a bit about battery hens because I have rescued a few in my time. I have kept hens for years and I know all the benefits of looking after them. In that time I have done a bit of research on battery hens. Although people may think it was inappropriate that I was looking to rescue battery hens from their little cages it is disgusting to go to visit those places where they are lined up in their little cells. As they peep out between the little bars they are stacked up three-high on top of piles of excrement which absolutely stinks to high heaven. They get their little bit of shot of water that they can nibble at and they have their beaks clipped to stop them pecking at the others and their feathers are ripped out by those they are sharing the cage with. They have their little allocation of food. The light is manipulated so they think it is daytime when it is actually night-time. That is their lot. 
A battery hen can crank out 270 eggs a year or about one every 26 hours if it is kept in that manipulated state. So I took it upon myself—as someone who wanted to have his little slice of the good life on his quarter acre—to go and buy some of those hens. They were cheap—no pun intended. They were only $1.50 each and I got six of them to take home. Some of them were so knackered that they just sat on the ground. They could not even stand because they had been kept in those squalid conditions for so long. But after a little while they started to dig around in the wood shavings that I had prepared for them they had food they could help themselves to and they were given clean water. As a result of reading an exquisite tome called  
The New Complete Book of Self-Sufficiency 
 by John Seymour I introduced a rooster. All those hens discovered a whole new pastime in the hen house. [ 
Interruption 
] That member did his apprenticeship for this House by sharpening pencils for MPs. Some of us have knocked around for quite a while and we know a bit about hens and chickens. We know the difference anyway. 
What happened was that those chickens once they were allowed to scratch around in the dirt have a bit of a dust-bath to keep the mites away and have a bit of fun with the old rooster—which I am sure Mr Hughes knows all about coming from Horowhenua—they found that they did not lay quite as many eggs but they had a helluva lot more fun. 
It struck me while I was listening to Ms Kedgley that it is very much like those people who vote Green and Labour. They never knew what they were missing when they were stuck in their little cage. They never knew because their environment was so totally controlled. They had their little squirt of water their little shot of pellets their little shot of whatever it is up the jacksie like Ms Kedgley was talking about and they laid to their full potential. They never knew what life held for them until they came to live in my little hen house. When they were given a bit of freedom some wood shavings to scratch around in and the old rooster now and then they knew what life was really about. 
So those voters who have their environment manipulated who get a little squirt every now and then who have their lights turned on so they think that it is daytime when it is really night-time trot off to the polling booth and cast their vote in the direction of Labour and the Greens. They are just like those battery hens. But those rescued battery hens—a little bit like myself—have come over to the right side. They have scratched around in the dust. They know a little bit about what life is like and they know a little bit about roosters. They know how much fun the old battery hen can have with a rooster. I tell the members that if those rescued battery hens could vote they would be voting National. 
I am worried about some of the practices that this council is going to be able to dictate.