van de Molen TimTIM VAN DE MOLEN (National—Waikato): Thank you Mr Assistant Speaker. It's great to be talking on this second reading of the Dairy Industry Restructuring Amendment Bill (No 2). It's a shame of course that we're not going through a select committee process right now but instead having the second reading under urgency when there's no need for it. It's a shame because there are so many aspects that could have been discussed through the select committee process. As a member of the Primary Production Committee I would have welcomed that opportunity to open it to the broader public to give their perspective rather than what we heard from two former speakers on the Government side tonight highlighting the arrogance on that side of the House to suggest that they know better—that they know better than the public of New Zealand.We heard it from James Shaw suggesting that the reason we go into urgency is so that we can have great debates and hear from these amazing speakers in the Government. Well that is ridiculous to suggest that they know better than the people in the industry immersed in this industry daily. That is an outrageous claim and we've just heard it again along with some ridiculous and ongoing economic terms around the need to continue to hear from the amazing speakers in this House rather than actually getting out there with the grassroots people in the industry and understanding what needs to happen.There's no listening from the Government and we've seen that again simply by being in urgency again. As they did last year with the parental leave bill they've assumed that they know better than everybody else and we don't need to open it up to the select committee process—let's just make all the rules ourselves! What we saw then as again now is that they are missing the point. Things are falling through the gaps. They haven't got their head around it. And look they can't expect to know everything—I accept that. That's why we have this process. Use it. Don't try and overrun this system with ridiculous urgency motions when they're not needed. And the Green Party sit quietly every time one's proposed—the party who have been so against urgency every time it was used previously and now it's a great tool a great part of this new Government! This is ridiculous and what we're seeing as well with this move to the review—I would suggest that because of the nature of what we're hearing from the Government we've seen very short calls on this the second reading. Why aren't they standing a little longer sharing some more of their insight? Is it (1) because they simply don't understand the industry and can't talk any longer on it or is it (2) because actually this bill is not the purpose—it's all smoke and mirrors to get to the real crux of it which is their review of the entire dairy sector. That's what's really going on here. We're seeing a broad-brush approach being taken to an overview a total review of the sector. We don't know what the terms of reference are yet—we haven't heard that other than that it will be comprehensive. But I well suspect it will include an assessment and I guess new take on what the environmental aspects are. We certainly accept that dairy farming has an environmental impact as do any number of other industries as do the urban centres. We all need to contribute to improving that as I've mentioned previously. But what we don't need to do is have this ridiculous focus on blaming farmers and that's what we've seen through the campaign.We've heard it from New Zealand First; we've heard it from the Labour Party—about how we're trying to drive this wedge on this side of the House which is absolutely ridiculous. Hon Tracey Martin: Oh come on.TIM VAN DE MOLEN: They've mentioned it again and again through the campaign—Barbara Stewart might suggest that's not the case but we're hearing that again and again. The protest in Morrinsville was another fine example of that where New Zealand First turned up pretending to be friends of the farmers and the Rt Hon Winston Peters was booed off the stage.Hon Member: Oh was he?TIM VAN DE MOLEN: He certainly was. They had no time for him there.SPEAKER: Order! The member will resume his seat. I'm going to remind the member. I unfortunately have not been monitoring the debate throughout and have just recently come in and I'm not sure what the precedent has been tonight. But I have been in the Chair now for three minutes and the member has not come close to mentioning the bill. While the second reading is quite a broad debate the member has to at least circuit around the bill and come back to it—and pretty soon.TIM VAN DE MOLEN: Thank you Mr Speaker. I was just about to get there. Can I assure you that my contribution has been much more restrained than some we've heard.Now with regards to the bill in particular there are some elements in there that we really need to see raised and we're not seeing that detail in here at the moment. We're seeing a very narrow lack of detail around trying to allow the Dairy Industry Restructuring Act (DIRA) to continue functioning as it has but in reality this was triggered two years ago. The Minister's had months now to make a call on it if he wanted to and yet all we're hearing is Let's repeal Subparts 5 and 5A of Part 2 to make some changes so we can carry on at 31 May and continue with our broader review." What we need to see is an inclusion or an assessment an understanding and some more consultation around some of those other aspects that we're hearing are a major concern for the Government but in reality aren't actually up for debate—areas such as farmers being concerned about not being able to supply any more—well that's just simply not the case. The previous Government's proposed bill did not suggest that would be happening at all. It wouldn't be taking away the right for people to supply Fonterra. Any existing supplier can continue to supply. And I would encourage the Government to actually read the detail to understand that. Again we're seeing a complete lack of understanding from the Government speakers on this bill around how the agricultural sector operates. We hear about how they don't want foreign-owned businesses and yet there's no sign of a clause to constrain the foreign-owned processors in the dairy sector. So where is that? Why aren't we seeing those sorts of items included in this? There's such a lack of detail; a flimsy couple of pages is all we have. If we'd gone to select committee process we would have had the opportunity to discuss this in a lot more detail to review some of those aspects that had already been assessed through the Commerce Commission's report and to get a clear plan forward that was best for the industry.So what I would say is that it is extremely disappointing that all the hard work that was done by the previous Government—it was triggered in 2015; we passed that 20 percent threshold in the South Island for milk supply which required the Minister to go out to seek consultation a report on the state of the industry. We received that from the Commerce Commission which had a number of recommendations. Submissions were made; 105 were received. We've seen a lot of work go into this and that's all been scrapped now. We're back to the drawing board. This new bill suggests that we actually need to go back and just put in whatever rules we like because we're not going to follow the process. We'll go through urgency and just talk as we see fit.The review is a concern for me and I believe that is the crux of what we're really discussing here today. There are some underlying issues that this Government is going to be stirring up around land-use change that will stifle innovation. We hear so much in the speakers' contributions tonight about how the Government is trying to give the industry certainty give them confidence that they can go forward. We're seeing none of that. All this does is hang a great big cloud over the heads of Fonterra and all the dairy farmers in New Zealand with this massive review with no detail around the terms of reference. How can they have confidence to invest in the industry to continue to grow their export markets to expand and benefit the economy of New Zealand when there is so much uncertainty around what is happening in this review and indeed the time line? Is it the end of this year; is it 12 months; is it 31 March? These are some of the questions that we need to see answered by the Minister and I'd certainly encourage him to clarify that for the sake of our industry so that they can have confidence going forward from this point.Now there was a comment earlier on around the water-quality aspect. For me that is an area that is not covered by DIRA whatsoever. It should not come into this review. I suspect it may well do; we heard a lot through the campaign around taxes and water-quality issues and indeed cow numbers. So are we expecting to see a capping on the stocking rate on dairy farms off the back of this review as well?At the end of the day we don't have detail. We don't have confidence the industry doesn't have confidence and farmers can't have confidence without that clarity. We hear already the dropping confidence in the business sector and if this continues we'll be seeing that happening in the rural sector as well. So I would urge the Government to give us some confidence some clarity around what this review's going to include so that the industry can move forward with a clear plan in place. Thank you."