Tanczos Nandor: Misuse of Drugs (Industrial Hemp) Amendment Bill — Second Reading 
Tanczos Nandor: Misuse of Drugs (Industrial Hemp) Amendment Bill — Second Reading 
[Volume:619;Page:15078] 
As the Minister herself so adequately put it this legislation is now completely superfluous. It would have been irresponsible for the select committee to come up with any other recommendation than that the legislation not proceed further. I listened to the excited words of the Green member of Parliament when he was before our select committee and at the time we were deliberating the legislation and I felt that although he certainly took the opportunity to express his disappointment he was agreeable that that was the most positive and responsible course of action. The reason this legislation is superfluous is that between the time it was drafted and the time it came into the House the Government moved to allow a trial of industrial hemp. 
I would like to go through the report we received from Ministry of Health officials prior to us making our recommendations and I shall comment on one or two of the issues that needed to be examined through the trial process. The first was the issue of security. We received reports from officials noting that the local police and growers liaised well and in fact there were no issues of security. There was certainly an issue involving two particular crops where the THC level went above the permitted level of 0.35 percent. That required the immediate destruction of those two crops and to the best of my knowledge that particular operation was also carried out without rancour or ill will. Nandor Tanczos referred to the third problem—that of bird strike which resulted in farmers having to consider the added costs of covering the crop or purchasing a bird scarer which is no cheap compliance cost for a crop such as that. 
I recall one issue at the select committee that would be of interest to the Green member and that was the sourcing of seed from overseas. I well remember two or three members—Gerard Eckhoff our esteemed ACT member being one of them—picking up on the issue of whether the Green member was able to assure New Zealand that the seed we were then importing for industrial hemp had not actually been genetically modified somewhere overseas before it entered New Zealand. Certainly that question was put to the officials and they had no ability at all to assure us that there had been any testing of the seed that came forward and was then planted in the trial. That was an interesting minor conflict of interest that the Green member had to suffer the indignity of as the select committee examined that issue. 
The real problem that stuck me in the industrial hemp trial—and it was not discussed or brought to us by the officials—was the issue of the economics of growing industrial hemp. No information was presented to the select committee in that regard at all. Nor should there have been. However I suspect that the primary question to be asked by the less-dedicated triallist in this area is: “How does the cost of cropping industrial hemp compare with any of the more orthodox crops available to farmers to choose?” That I suspect will be the issue that determines hemp as a future alternative crop for farmers of New Zealand. 
I shall comment on one particular person whose name I must admit eludes me at the moment. He is a man whom Mr Tanczos referred to in his contribution as being from Ashburton. He came to see me and I thought: “Here goes another guy a bit of a crackpot involved in this industry.” He was a most impressive young man who had set up a significant business for the processing of industrial hemp into oil. 
Nandor Tanczos 
: Bruce Hill. 
Hon DAVID CARTER 
: Bruce Hill was his name. He was a very impressive man and I must say that that particular meeting which occurred at my electorate office significantly influenced my attitude to this particular crop and its future. 
In closing I repeat that the bill is now superfluous. I am surprised by the agitation of the member who promoted the bill but as he has done a significant amount of work in the early stage I imagine it is of some disappointment to him to note that the Government has moved forward with industrial hemp trials making his bill completely superfluous. That is the basis on which the National Party will be voting for the legislation not to proceed further.