Ewen-Street Ian: New Zealand Horticulture Export Authority Amendment Bill (No 2) — First Reading 
Ewen-Street Ian: New Zealand Horticulture Export Authority Amendment Bill (No 2) — First Reading 
[Volume:607;Page:4683] 
IAN EWEN-STREET (Green) 
: 
 I intend to take only a very brief call this afternoon. But I do want to take the time to say to the honourable member from “Upper Coal Creek” Gerrard Eckhoff: “I told you so!”. It is very interesting how fashions come and go. All through the 1970s and the 1980s we had to deregulate. Every single-desk seller had got fat lazy and inefficient and so had to be deregulated. We have done that and look at what happened to ENZA. Mr Eckhoff said that ENZA is a classic case. ENZA of course was corporatised—it actually became a corporate. That was the cause of its demise not the fact that it was a single-desk seller. 
We need to look at what is actually going on here. For years we have been told that the market would dictate prices that inefficient growers would fall by the wayside and that those remaining would live happily ever after in a prosperous nirvana. They would be safe in the bosom of the free market. Well what has happened to these exporters to Australia? The prices have fallen by 24 percent over the last 2 years. At the same time the regulated part of the same industry has had increases in prices over the last 2 years. It is interesting. 
We Greens get dumped on a lot. We have consistently opposed deregulation and consistently supported single-desk sellers. Our reason for doing so is that we believe they provide better returns for growers. Our friends in National told us that we were wrong and that we were just a bunch of long-haired jandal-wearing mung bean - munching potheads and dropouts—myself excluded of course except for the long hair. We have been told that we are wrong. But are we? What has happened in Australia with the kiwifruit is that a whole lot of people have been independently exporting to Australia and the prices have dropped. We know all about the re-export to other countries. But what has happened in respect of kiwifruit going into the Australian market is that it has become a commodity. 
We are told that commodities are great that we live and die by commodity prices going up and down. But we do not often stop to think of what a commodity is. A commodity is simply something we grow or produce in this country that is identical in every way to an equivalent product grown or produced in any other country. When these products which are identical to those from a whole range of countries whether New Zealand Australia Argentina Chile the United States or wherever go on to the open market and when the buyers which are generally big international corporates or supermarket chains have established that they are buying commodities—which members should remember are identical to each other—their sole criterion in making a purchase is price. If people are selling a commodity then by definition they have to accept the lowest possible price for their product. 
That is the problem with our deregulated industries. With Zespri we have a regulated industry that is showing a united front to all those commodity buyers in other parts of the world who are trying to undercut or play off individual exporters within New Zealand. It simply does not work. 
Gerrard Eckhoff 
: What about stockpiles of wool? 
IAN EWEN-STREET 
: That is perfectly true. I would not defend that kind of behaviour. It was unusual behaviour in the first place. 
It is interesting to look at the prices that have happened in Australia. The price has gone from $2 a kilo in 1999 to $1.53. That is a 12 percent decline per year. That is extraordinary. 
A further thing I want to mention just very briefly is the question about Maori growers. Other people have mentioned the Federation of Maori Authorities which quite rightly said that it wished to retain the right to export its product independently to Australia. The majority of growers have voted to be reregulated. That is what this legislation about. 
Gerrard Eckhoff 
: Who needs the tyranny of the majority! 
IAN EWEN-STREET 
: Yes the tyranny of the majority. The Maori authorities want to have something that is good for them. It does not happen to fit the ideology of the day but it is clear to them that it is better for them. The Maori authorities are perhaps a special case. We could probably argue a special case for organics as well. Maybe there is a reason they should be left out of the collective. They should have the right to export either independently or collectively. 
Gerrard Eckhoff 
: Why? 
IAN EWEN-STREET 
: They have qualitatively different product. It is the same with organics. We are not talking about the same product; we are decommodifying it. All the conventionally grown kiwifruit that is going into Australia are effectively the same. But if one has certified organic kiwifruit or indigenous-grower kiwifruit then one has something that is different. It is a different market. It may look the same and taste the same but it is a different market. We have to be very aware of that. The Maori authorities have a very good point. Is their right to export independently covered by their right to self-determination? That is a fairly interesting point. Does self-determination for Maori mean self-determination in exporting their product? It is a reasonable point to put. 
I said that I would be brief so I had better stop before the interjectors get too excited. I look forward to hearing the evidence particularly of the Federation of Maori Authorities in the select committee. I am happy to say that the Greens support the passage of this bill through to the select committee.