Tanczos Nandor: Dairy Industry Restructuring Amendment Bill (No 2) — Second Reading In Committee Third Reading 
Tanczos Nandor: Dairy Industry Restructuring Amendment Bill (No 2) — Second Reading In Committee Third Reading 
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NANDOR TANCZOS (Green) 
: 
 I will begin by indicating that the Green Party is supporting this bill through its third reading as I think all other parties in the House are. I simply say that this is a sensible bill. As has been said it continues the process of dairy industry restructuring that has been going on for some time. It opens access and increases flexibility and we support it for all those reasons. 
I think Mr Hide was right in saying that innovation tends to come from smaller operators who come up with those innovations—before of course they are munched by the big operators who have the economic might in the marketplace. That is why the Green Party says that we are pro-business but we are anti-corporatism. In particular we are against corporate welfarism which is something we continue to see with the environmental subsidy going to a number of big businesses. 
I also wish to make just a brief comment on the issue of the context of the broader Fonterra restructuring which Mr Woolerton has spoken about very eloquently. The Green Party has also expressed concerns around the proposals. We see this as an inexorable process towards the overseas control of Fonterra and the end of the interests of New Zealand dairy farmers being at the heart of the company. We are aware that there are a number of safety mechanisms within the proposals but we see them as delaying rather than stopping that process so we do have concerns about those things. 
A lot has been said about the bill itself and the access to those markets and I think there has been a good discussion. I thought it would be useful to take a slightly broader view because there is always great interest in the dairy industry across the nation and in Parliament. As I think Eric Roy in particular said what affects the dairy industry affects the New Zealand economy as a whole. So there is always broad interest in these things. 
I was interested in the dispute between Mr David Carter and Mr Woolerton in relation to the role of John Luxton and Wyatt Creech whom Mr Woolerton alleged were setting up a cheese factory while preparing this legislation. Mr Carter made comments in reply but I was not here when they were here so I do not know about the ins and outs of that matter. But I do note something quite interesting in  
Speakers’ Rulings 
. Speaker’s ruling 71/2 talks about declaring financial interests. It states: “A farmer member does not have a financial interest in a bill to provide for the payment for and marketing of dairy produce.” I thought that was quite interesting when I came across it because it kind of indicates another standard for farmers in the  
Speakers’ Rulings 
 of the House itself. It is interesting because it seems to be the same across a number of issues in relation to farmers. 
There have been big payouts to farmers recently and there are flows to the economy from that. Of course the payouts to farmers flow to the economy for good and for bad. In the past there have been a number of calls for land use diversification because when those payouts go down the whole economy is vulnerable. By increasing land use diversification we increase the resilience of the New Zealand economy. That has happened at times when there have been lulls in those prices. A booming wine industry is one example of a focus on diversification and on other ways of producing value from our land. For example there has been the increase in forestry although that has been moving backwards in recent times. There is a concern that the big payouts are reversing that trend and moving towards a conversion of large amounts of land into dairying and there is a kind of monoculture spreading across the New Zealand landscape. I think someone described it as a geological shift in land use. 
It is also interesting that much conversion is not on the basis of the payout per se but on the capital gain to be made from the conversion. This is particularly so as access to water becomes more of an issue. Of course there is increasing tension in this country and around the world in terms of access to clean water and that will be an increasing issue for the rest of this century. 
There has been massive expansion and intensification of dairy farming sometimes in areas that are entirely inappropriate for dairy farming and this is something that the Green Party is seriously worried about. I note the comments made by Environment Waikato’s Dr Peter Singleton who said that the issues of dairying and water quality are urgent and critical and that the only hope is through regulation. That comment was made in the context of Federated Farmers running a massive campaign to gut the Resource Management Act—side by side with the National Party I might add—and to remove all environmental restrictions on farming activity. This is of enormous concern. In fact Charlie Pederson said that Federated Farmers could not accept any constraint on the continued growth of dairy farming. I have to wonder whether he is including the laws of physics in that because the reality is that we are starting to hit the environmental constraints and no business can continue to expand indefinitely exponentially when confronted with environmental limits. 
Let us be clear that the Green Party does want what is best for New Zealand farmers. We recognise the enormous economic importance of farming and we recognise the communities that are built around farming as well. We have opposed vigorously the closing of rural services—for example schools—because we see the importance of those things. But we also continue to assert environmental accountability from farmers as we would from any other business. We recognise that the environment was not a big issue in the past. Many farming practices were developed at a time when environmental accountability was not really a matter of debate. No one was talking about it. 
We also recognise that there is a natural stewardship in farmers. Farmers live on the land; they are obviously concerned with the sustainability of their farming operations particularly family farmers people who may have got their farms from their ancestors and who want to pass them on to their descendants. In that context we also note the increasing extent of corporate farming where those social and family constraints are not as apparent. Of course that is not always true and being a family farmer does not necessarily mean one is a sustainable farmer but I think there is an intrinsic interest among family farmers to look at questions of sustainability. That influence is now perhaps becoming less important in the farming sector. 
We acknowledge that there has been a huge amount of progress in the farming sector. We have seen the growth in for example nutrient budgeting which is an important mechanism for increasing sustainability and reducing environmental impact at the same time as increasing profitability in farming. We are seeing increasing riparian protection and effluent management has become a lot better but we have to acknowledge that many farmers are still not participating. We are saying that farmers’ representative organisations like Federated Farmers should be spending their energy supporting the change leaders in these areas rather than continually defending the laggards. 
The reality is that even with best-practice farming simply as a result of the massive intensification and expansion of dairy farming we will see a decline in water quality in this country. The point is that this is a challenge for all New Zealanders not just farmers. We need to move beyond the rural-urban divide and we need to move beyond seeing this as a farmer versus a greenie thing and actually start to work together. I know that some farmers feel like they are getting the bash from environmentalists all the time but we need to work together on these huge challenges. 
Sitting suspended from 1 p.m. to 2 p.m. 
NANDOR TANCZOS 
: In confronting the environmental challenges before farmers we have to move beyond the rural-urban split and start to work together. That means giving credit where it is due—and it is due in places; a lot of progress has been made—but also it is about farmers acknowledging that a lot needs to be done. We need to move beyond denial. We need to move beyond minimisation and ask how we are going to work on this stuff together. In the context of mass conversions where a lot of money is being invested in dairy conversion we have to acknowledge that the context is changing. 
Climate change will change farming both because of the climatic impact and because of the price of carbon. Environmental regulation will increasingly change the context. Issues around water access will increasingly change the context of farming and there is increasing talk now of farmers and commercial users of water paying a price for the use of that water. That is something that will affect farmers. So industry leaders have to understand how the world is changing rather than trying to hold back the tide.