Mooney JosephJOSEPH MOONEY (National—Southland): Thank you very much Madam Speaker. I rise as the member of Parliament for Southland to speak on the Animal Welfare Amendment Bill. I've been very interested to hear speeches from the other side of the House talking about a just transition and New Zealand leading the world an export nation. This bill is about stopping exports. It's about stopping New Zealand's incredible dairy farmers from being able to send animals to the world rather than developing a gold standard to make sure we are the best in the world. Just closing the borders—this is Labour's solution. Stop the borders just stop trade. Don't come up with a better idea don't improve things don't make it better—just stop it. That's all they're doing.Let's just pause there a moment. Dairy farmers in New Zealand have the world's lowest carbon footprint half the emissions of other international producers. Do we hear this from Labour? Almost never. New Zealand has approximately five million people and roughly the same number of cows producing 21 billion litres of milk every year. We're the eighth-largest dairy producer in the world with approximately 11000 dairy farmers.Now let's look at another example. Brazil by way of contrast has four times the number of dairy cows over 20 million but produces less than twice the amount of milk: 36 billion litres with a huge 900000 dairy farmers. So New Zealand dairy farmers deserve recognition for how effective and efficient they are at producing food for the world.We also need to produce animals for the world and if I just point to one example right now that's top of people's minds: the Ukraine. There is a war in Europe now—unbelievably but there is a war in Europe between Russia and Ukraine. Now Ukraine urgently needs at least 50000 cows to replace their dairy herd which has been lost. They are estimating they may lose 150000 cows a third of their national herd and for Ukraine to produce enough milk cheese and butter for their population they're going to need dairy heifers from partner countries to restock the national herd. Can New Zealand help Ukraine? No it cannot because the Labour Government is stopping the trade of dairy cows and heifers being sent to the world. We cannot offer Ukraine assistance with their national herd because of this bill.It's a crying shame that we are just stopping trade rather than actually thinking about what we can do to make sure we weed out cowboys. None of us want cowboys. None of us want to see animals suffering on trips across the ocean. We want to make sure the cowboys are out of the industry. Australia has shown how to do it. Australia has shown they can actually implement a gold standard they can get great trade deals—they've got a fantastic trade deal with the United Kingdom. They've proven they can do it. Has New Zealand followed Australia's lead in this respect? No. So all this talk that we're hearing from the other side of the House about leading the world well no we're not. Australia has led the way showing how you can have a gold standard that makes sure you can look after animals when they're being transported across the oceans and have the credibility in the markets and that you can get good trade deals. They've shown how to do it. They've shown it can be done. The Labour Government in New Zealand has not followed this and instead they've just shut it down.Look it's going to cost New Zealand farmers about $475 million per annum—$475 million per annum. I should note that this is extra cash profit for farms not just revenue. For those who may be on the other side of the House who don't quite get what that means revenue is just money coming through. It's not money that you can actually keep in the bank and use for other things. This is talking about cash profit for farmers. So this is enormously valuable money when there's a cost of living crisis which is impacting the whole country and certainly impacting regional New Zealand because yes they're getting good prices for dairy products for meat etc. in New Zealand at the moment but the costs have gone up enormously. The input costs—the cost of fuel the cost of labour the cost of vehicles you name it; everything—have gone up significantly and that means the profit margins have reduced.So losing $475 million per annum to regional New Zealand is a big big deal and that is exactly what this bill does. Labour has just shut the borders shut down this part of the economy and doesn't propose another solution but they create another problem because it's estimated that there are going to be some 150000 bobby calves which are going to have to be slaughtered. What's going to happen with those 150000 bobby calves? This is a major major problem because the meat processors have a gigantic shortage of skilled workers. They are already struggling to process the animals that they need to at the present time and have been for some time. They don't have the skilled workers that they need and 150000 additional bobby calves being sent to the meat works is going to create an enormous problem. It's difficult not to see an animal welfare crisis being created by the so-called Animal Welfare Amendment Bill. This bill is creating more problems. It's seeking a solution and creating a hell of a lot more problems and it's incredibly sad to see this.Look there's all this talk about dairy herds and you know some people don't get that we have the most carbon-efficient dairy farmers in the world. But look the dairy herd in New Zealand is actually decreasing by about 20000 a year and has been doing so for the last five years. So we actually have a reducing dairy herd but we have a very good dairy industry with about 11000 dairy farmers who are showing the world how you can be the most carbon-efficient dairy farmers in the world creating incredibly good stock. Now we cannot share that with the rest of the world. Like I said one example is the Ukraine. Another example that springs to mind is Indonesia. Indonesia also has got foot-and-mouth disease. They're going to need to replace a whole lot of the dairy herd. They will not be able to get them from New Zealand and that is another crying shame because we have a responsibility to assist other countries with the livestock that they need so that they can feed their populations. I note another example: China is rebuilding its dairy herd and will New Zealand be able to assist with that? No it will not again. So we are missing out on significant trading opportunities and showing how we can be the most responsible leader in this space as we are in so many other spaces and that is a huge shame.So with that I am hoping I'm making it very clear that we are deeply opposed this bill. It is a major mistake by this Government and something that we are going to have to look at next year. The New Zealand dairy farmers deserve enormous recognition for what they do for our country and we are very proud to support them on this side of the House.