Bennett DavidHon DAVID BENNETT (National—Hamilton East): Thank you Mr Speaker. I just want to start by acknowledging my good friend and colleague Nathan Guy. We came into Parliament together. Fifteen years is a long time and I wish him all the very best in his future endeavours. Nathan has served this country very well and for all those newer members over the other side of here and to our newer members—and there's some even older members here—15 years is a long contribution out of your life. It is a big service to this country and his family as well have had to make sacrifices to enable that to happen. Personally he would've had to make sacrifices as well for the benefit of his people and his electorate and of this country and especially of the National Party. So we acknowledge that and we thank you for your service because everyone in this room is here to serve and we all serve with many commitments as well. So thank you Nathan for all you've done and for being a good friend and being a good supporter of the agriculture and horticultural industries in New Zealand.We will support this bill but I have reservations about it. The essence of the bill is actually not—nobody's really going to have a problem with that. You know like everybody knows that we need to have a stricter regime around animal recording and animal transport. That is something that started in recent years and needs continuous improvement. I don't think anybody could argue against that in any way form or in manner. The outbreak of Mycoplasma bovis showed deficiencies in the system and showed things that needed to change. But it didn't show that the Government needed to own the data around every stock every animal that every farmer owns and that's what this bill does. It transfers ownership of data to the Government. Now that is not necessary. Data is a really important part going forward in any agriculture or horticultural business. Anything in this country any business in 10 or 20 years' time is talking about data now. Data is crucial for any business and we have to under this bill hand it over to the Government.Now I've got no problem in that being handed over to the Government in the time of an incursion or in the time that there's a national emergency like we had with Mycoplasma bovis. There could be a clause in this bill which says in that point of time the relevant organisations that hold that data have to give free and easy access to the Government—no problem with that at all—and that would solve the problem that the Minister's looking for. But that's not what he's doing here. What the Minister is actually doing here is taking all that data ownership now and I'm not quite sure of the reason why he's doing that but it'll come out in the next few months and we'll find out why he's trying to do that. But there is no particular reason why that needs to happen. We can safeguard New Zealand's agricultural base and we can safeguard our export industries by having the right mechanism in there.A wholesale ownership of data by the Government is never a good idea. It's never worked in the past. If we just have a look at some of the issues with Government having ownership of data first of all if there's any problem then it's the Government's fault and the Minister will be responsible for any issues of data loss now. So in this case of Mycoplasma bovis the Minister's not responsible; the farmers and the industry are responsible but this will actually mean that the Minister now as the holder of that data will be responsible through the Ministry for Primary Industries for any failings.Secondly Governments have shown themselves over many many years to be not the most efficient holders of data. Often we find that Governments and Government departments don't have the necessary investment in that data recording and use that the private sector would have. They're not necessarily the most up to date with holding that data and their records can get out of date. So just say we have the Government hold this data and in 10 years' time we have an incursion again. We've got on one side the data that the Government holds which might be out of date and in a slow manner and we have data held by various business and industry organisations that's much more reflective of what's out there. Which one are we going to rely on for that incursion?Now there will be a number of other problems that will come out with having data. I'm just philosophically opposed to the Government holding data first of all. That's as a good—Hon Damien O'Connor: IRD too? IRD?Hon DAVID BENNETT: Well exactly the IRD but the IRD has very special rules around it and this will not have those very special rules around it. The Minister raises that point—that's fine. The IRD has all your financial data but no other Government department has access to that. No individuals have access to that. No competitive companies have access to that data. In fact the highest most stringent rules around that data are in the Government's hands and a breach of those is seen as one of the biggest breaches Government can have. This won't be in that category. The Minister won't have this data in that category. The Minister will have this in a lower category. What happens if this data is sold off to a competitor sold off to an overseas company? What's to stop that happening? What's to stop this data being lost? You have many issues in social welfare and Work and Income New Zealand where data is shared in a way that it shouldn't have been shared—Kieran McAnulty: By your deputy leader.Hon DAVID BENNETT: Yeah well and it happens OK and this could happen here. Mr McAnulty that will very much happen. That's the issue you bring when Government has data ownership. So you're opening yourself up for that issue.So that is one of the big issues in this bill and if we give that ownership of data to the Government I think it creates a whole set of problems that you don't need. Now we can still give Government access to that data in times of need and that's a completely different situation. I would understand if there was a situation that arose that that Minister should be able to invoke a power to get access to that data immediately. That should be the way it's done rather than ownership to the Government as it stands now.So we look forward to seeing how that's going to progress through the select committee but I think there are some really big holes around data ownership and I hope the New Zealand First Party sees light in that as they often talk about wanting to protect personal property rights. At the same time they're now voting as a Government coalition partner to take away those personal property rights from individual farmers.