Woolerton R Doug: General Debate 
Woolerton R Doug: General Debate 
[Volume:675;Page:14410] 
R DOUG WOOLERTON (NZ First) 
: 
 I want to talk for 5 minutes about one of New Zealand’s most fabulous success stories—in particular the New Zealand dairy industry. 
Dr the Hon Lockwood Smith 
: You were against Fonterra! 
R DOUG WOOLERTON 
: As I say that I am already hearing jibes coming from the National Party because those members do not think that Fonterra or any of these outfits in New Zealand are important. Those members think they should be sold off to whoever is prepared to buy them because those members do not know the history of this industry. 
This industry was brought up to what it is today by men and women who understood that each generation would take the previous generation’s work build on it and pass it on to the next generation. It was not something that one flogged off or put on the stock market to reap a windfall reward. The people who grew this industry knew what a cooperative structure was. It was people banding together to add value to their farm produce so that the efforts of many small farmers could be put together to take on the world. People in that industry never ever had a problem raising money and they do not have a problem raising money today. Everybody in this country should know that. 
What they cannot do using just their own money they can and have done through joint ventures and other recognised business models and they have been hugely successful. In excess of 20 percent of New Zealand’s exports go through that one company today. We know that there are people who do not care about that. We know that there are other people who look at that with envy. We know that there are other people who have had no access to this company who now want access so that they can reap the rewards of something that was not built up by the present generation nor built up in the last 5 or 15 years but was built up by farming people for in excess of 100 years. There are people who want to go in there and clip the ticket and strip it. When I say that shares may reach a spike if they are listed on the stock market and may go from something like $7 per share to something like $30 or $40 per share—admittedly for a short time—one can see why people are keen to list this company on the stock market. 
I want to make sure the average good hard-working farmer—the likes of whom built this company and who are still out there today—is heard in this process. Thank heavens those farmers have been heard recently. They have said to the directors and they have said to the moneymen who are advising on a listing for Fonterra: “Hold on a minute. Not just yet. We want to stop for a cup of tea we want to have a talk about this we want to know what you’re doing we want to know what you’re saying to those investors—not farmers but Queen Street farmers—we want to see what you’re offering them and we want a fair vote in this company. We want to make sure that all of the issues are on the table.” God bless them! I knew they would understand. I knew they would hold up this reform if only they were given a chance. My fear was that they would be overruled by a few big operators within the company and by the propaganda of the executive. 
I want to compare those people who are running this company today with the people who started it and the people who made it what it is. The people running it today want to flog off 100 years of hard work but we never ever doubted the intentions of the people who built it up. We may have disagreed with them we may have had robust arguments but they were hard people who worked their guts out for the industry and we never ever doubted their intentions. They wanted the company to succeed for the farmers not for the international moneymen and New Zealand First will help them. 
The debate having concluded the motion lapsed.