Penk ChrisCHRIS PENK (National—Helensville): Thank you Madam Chair for the opportunity to speak on the title and commencement provisions within the National Animal Identification and Tracing Amendment Bill. Like others I would like to speak about the commencement date Madam Chair but with a slightly different perspective you will be relieved to know—first from the perspective of the constitutional requirements that law be accessible and an aspect of that is that it's easy to find. In the case of this piece of legislation that has been put together at somewhat short notice—certainly introduced to the House in that manner—it could be argued that the part of the bill that is least accessible least easy to find perhaps if you are on a farm and therefore most deeply affected by it is the date that it will come into effect.I'll give a brief little anecdote if I may about another piece of legislation and only briefly for the purpose of remaining relevant to this bill. I was recently contacted by a lawyer in relation to another bill that was passing through the House who wondered when it was likely to come into effect and my point is that even for those who are pretty well equipped to be able to understand the construction and the arcane details of legislation such as the meaning of the Royal assent and how the different stages of legislation being passed can play out it can be difficult to understand these matters.In the case of this particular bill—or Act or part of an Act as it will shortly become—I would like to raise a challenge to the Minister to explain how we are going to avoid a situation where the legislation is effectively retrospective. By that what I actually mean Madam Chair if you will allow me the chance to explain is that if a bill comes into law so quickly that those who are affected by it do not have the chance to become aware of it and make provisions to comply with it then effectively they are being asked to comply with some of the law of the land that they haven't had a chance to know would affect them.I know that that might seem like a pretty narrow and technical sort of point but actually I think it is in fact a very real one when you consider the circumstances in which the provisions of this bill might be enforced. Others on this side of the Chamber have spoken about the need for practical measures to ensure compliance and I wonder therefore in relation to the commencement date being such a short period of time after the Royal assent if we won't have a situation where the Ministry for Primary Industries (MPI) officers might turn up as they are perfectly entitled to do in accordance with this new legislation and state to farmer Joe or farmer Jane as the case may be that they have the right to turn up and do certain things including to enter and to search and seize and so forth. And said farmer might actually challenge their ability in genuine ignorance of the fact that this law has now been passed and an unpleasant situation might well arise. It doesn't take too much imagination to contemplate how it would happen whereby the farmer in question politely requests—indeed farmers in the Helensville electorate and across the land always do phrase questions in very polite terms—that the MPI officer might cease and desist from being on the property. That might be a genuine misunderstanding because it might be that the farmer in question was a bit busy this week to be tuning into Parliament TV or perhaps didn't realise that at 12.30 on a Thursday afternoon we would be still in this phase of the legislation.Perhaps I might finish my remarks on the commencement date again focusing on the short period of time between the Royal assent and the bill coming into effect [Member's phone rings] and I will do that with some competition from across the Chamber—I'm not used to being heckled electronically. I just note that the more significant a matter is—and we are talking about fundamental freedoms in the case of legislation that gives powers of search and seizure—the more time should be given for the implementation measures that are required under that. So a greater ability to comply should accompany the seriousness of the compliance requirements—that is my point there.