van de Molen TimTIM VAN DE MOLEN (National—Waikato): Thank you Madam Assistant Speaker. Look this is interesting. We are discussing the Dairy Industry Restructuring Amendment Bill (No 2) and as we've heard already this bill—a previous version a much more robust and detailed version of this bill—was put forward by the previous Government. However it wasn't debated due to the fine level of other projects that were being progressed through the Government at that time. So what we've seen now though is a total revision of that bill. It's been pulled to pieces and we've just had a couple of little bits chucked forward as a suggestion of something we might like to tweak with actually no real detail in behind it. It's very light in substance. Right—we're repealing sections 147 to 150 removing Subparts 5 and 5A. Great—and then what? What are we replacing it with? That's what we don't have the detail on here. We have no idea what's coming next. Yes we hit the 20 percent target in the South Island in the 2014-15 season. Great—triggered the review. The Commerce Commission stepped in and did a fantastic report on that. We consulted widely across the country following that. Submissions were received—105 of them. We've got good feedback around the proposals that were part of the former bill that was announced by the previous Minister the Hon Nathan Guy. And now we're hearing we need to go back to the drawing board and have a full review on it all. What's that going to achieve? It's wasting time. Eventually we were given a time frame after it being asked for many times from this side of the House. The Minister announced that we would have a review completed this calendar year 2018. As we've heard a few more speeches from the Government benches that's extended to 12 months from now and then it's extended to 31 March. So over the course of this evening's debate we've already had a 30 percent blowout in the time frame they're proposing for this review that hasn't yet commenced. And we still don't know the terms of reference of this bill. When are we going to see the detail? All we're hearing is smoke and mirrors. The dairy sector deserves better. It's a major part of our economy; we need to understand what's happening in that sector. I am proud to represent the Waikato electorate the dairy heartland of New Zealand. We are very much invested in this piece of legislation. We need to know what's happening. It's not just the farmers of course; it's the processors as well. Fonterra our largest company—when are they going to be given some clarity around what this looks like and what the future may hold for them? We still have no idea no answers no terms of reference and all we're seeing is ducking and diving and failure to answer. So what's going to be in this review? Is it comparing the farm gate to the factory gate getting those markets established as was previously suggested? Or are we delving into the environmental part going totally away from dairying? We've already heard about that a bit from our Green Party representative Gareth Hughes earlier who interestingly noted through most of his speech that we just need to improve water quality and if only farmers would fix it we'd be all right. There was no mention in there about anyone else having any influence on the water quality in this country. Well I can assure you that there is so much impact on our water quality from all contributors. We all have a part to play in this. Agriculture is part of that and they've done a fantastic job over many years now improving their farming practices. We've seen a significant investment in improved irrigation systems fencing off of waterways—over 20000 kilometres' worth. We're seeing a massive investment here. Let's see an equal investment in the urban centres if we really want to have that green focus on water quality.But what's been interesting for me is that coming from the Government benches we've had a range of different perspectives and whilst we had a reasonably informed and at least partly agriculturally based initial speech I've struggled to see much credibility from an agricultural perspective represented in the other speeches from the Government benches. We heard Mark Patterson talking about Fonterra's formation when it was producing 1 billion milk solids and how now it's risen to 1.3 billion and that's great. Well actually we're now at 1.8 billion milk solids well ahead of that. Out of touch—that's what we're hearing from the Government benches. They don't know what's happening. And we saw that during the campaign last year as well. They're not connecting with rural New Zealand. The Prime Minister said she wanted to be in touch with all 10000 farmers in New Zealand; there's over 50000 farmers in New Zealand. These are some of the things that demonstrate to rural New Zealand that there is a real disconnect from the Government. They don't understand our sector and haven't given us confidence that they have our best interests at heart.We're seeing a disorganised approach from a Government that's uninformed and we're seeing no unity within their parties. Look at water storage for example. There's so much potential for water storage projects in New Zealand and we're hearing that's been pulled apart. One document allegedly says there's going to be no more. Another says they're winding back but then we have the Minister for Regional Economic Development with his billion-dollar fund who says he will be funding localised storage projects and those localised storage projects are most of the water projects that are currently under consideration. This is another example of where the Government's not supporting the primary sectors within New Zealand.This bill we're debating tonight is in exactly the same vein. We don't know what we're up against here. We still haven't heard what sorts of things are going to be included and that's the biggest risk for us. The value of the sector is so important to New Zealand we can't afford to have this uncertainty. We're already seeing it in the business space. Business confidence has dropped significantly since the change in Government and now we're hearing from one of the previous speakers Greg O'Connor that it's our fault and we're promoting a growing divide between rural and urban New Zealand. That's ridiculous—absolutely outrageous—Greg O'Connor: Morrinsville.TIM VAN DE MOLEN: —and Morrinsville is exactly the example of the divide that the Labour Party has created through that campaign. They've manufactured spin. They've created all sorts of ridiculous proposals about taxes that are going to come in—they will do this to agriculture they will do that to agriculture. Where's the actual effort to incorporate rural New Zealand into a progressive framework from that Government? We don't see it at all. It's extremely disappointing.Morrinsville is a town in my electorate. I'm proud to have that town and they are constantly concerned around how their interests are being represented. They just don't know what it looks like and what we're hearing now is that a major review is going to come. After this flimsy piece of legislation is enacted we're going to have a thorough review. That could take 12 months. Maybe it'll be done by this year maybe it'll be some time in March or maybe it'll be even longer—we just don't know. And what's going to be in that? We've heard nothing around the sorts of things that will be covered. We heard earlier that the Hon Shane Jones actually wants this review to take even longer. So what's it going to be? When are we going to have some clarity? Why do we have to wait? Why can't our primary sector get on with confidence and do what they do well?Simeon Brown: Because they don't trust them.TIM VAN DE MOLEN: I suspect that may well be right. There's a lack of trust from the Government for what our primary sector does and I would really encourage them to engage more widely with the sector. I would be more than happy to host them in Morrinsville perhaps or at Matamata—any of our strong rural Waikato areas where farming is so well represented. There you will be able to see—you'll get an insight into what happens on a farm and how it works what it means to be a part of the primary sector. It's different and I would really encourage you to take up that opportunity.We need to be internationally competitive and whilst I acknowledge there are some aspects within this bill that will look to amend the Dairy Industry Restructuring Act part of that requires us to remain internationally competitive and of course we're focused on doing that. We're a major trade nation. Export is a massive part of what we do as New Zealanders. We've got to have clarity about this and at this stage we have none. I would encourage the Minister to share his terms of reference proposed under his review with us to outline what it's going to take who he's going to be consulting with who's going to be doing the work—because actually we heard earlier it was going to be Ministry for Primary Industries doing this. But hang on. We've also been told there is not going to be a Ministry for Primary Industries shortly. It's going to be smashed apart into all these different ministries. So who is going to be doing the work? They're going to be so internally focused that it won't happen.I'd encourage them to share with us what's happening and how the rural sector can get on with confidence so that we can have clarity. Thank you.