Moroney Sue: Dairy Industry Restructuring Amendment Bill (No 2) — First ReadingText is incorporated into the Bound VolumeMoroney Sue: Dairy Industry Restructuring Amendment Bill (No 2) — First Reading[Sitting date: 15 May 2013. Volume:690;Page:9996. Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume.]SUE MORONEY (Labour): It is a real pleasure to rise and speak on members’ day to support my colleague Damien O’Connor’s bill on dairy industry restructuring the Dairy Industry Restructuring Amendment Bill (No 2). I do rise with some pleasure to support this because we have just heard a speech from a member of the National Party and surprise surprise National is voting against it. But after all this is the party that brought us the sale of State assets—flogging off the family silver to overseas interests. We used to actually have 100 percent ownership of Mighty River Power. One-hundred percent of New Zealanders used to own Mighty River Power until very very recently. Now only 2.5 percent of New Zealanders have an interest in owning Mighty River Power. So I think it is no surprise that when this very good bill comes before the House where the aim is to ensure that our biggest and our most successful company stays in New Zealand hands of course the National Party votes against it.In reality the National Government does not believe that the New Zealand people have a role in actually designing their own future. It actually does not believe that. It thinks that the market is supreme and that the market is the almighty that the Government must bow to. That is the fundamental reason why the National Party will not support this very sensible bill. What is the evil that the National Party sees in this bill which supports the cooperative model that Fonterra has had through all of its different manifestations? Why is it that the National Party will not stand up for supporting the cooperative model? We have heard some of the history about the New Zealand Dairy Board and how Fonterra came to be and actually it is a story that I think would be good to hear told in a lot more detail because although we have had some to-ing and fro-ing about whether Labour was in power or National was in power I think people clearly understand that that type of cooperative New Zealand ownership model is fundamental to Labour principles and values. People can see how closely that is aligned with what Labour stands for so people will get that. This is a New Zealand - grown concept. That is the exciting thing about it and it is successful internationally. The only other thing that I think comes close to it—and of course it is not a commercial entity—is that other great New Zealand icon of Playcentre and the Playcentre movement. It is a New Zealand - grown model that we own and that the rest of the world looks at in awe and goes “Isn’t that great?”. Fonterra fits that exactly.What this bill wants to do is ensure and enshrine in legislation certainty that there cannot be a private or a foreign takeover of that cooperative model. That is quite simply what we are aiming to do here. As much as the previous member might say: “Don’t worry your pretty little heads about it. It will never happen because the market will ensure that it doesn’t happen.” well I would ask that member to tell me what happened in the situation of Fisher and Paykel Appliances. It started off with just a 20 percent—only a 20 percent—investment from a Chinese company called I think Haier. I am not sure exactly how you pronounce it. Haier originally had only a 20 percent investment in Fisher and Paykel Appliances. That over time ended up in an eventual complete takeover of Fisher and Paykel Appliances by that Chinese company. That iswhat concerns the Labour Party. We are not prepared to just wait and see what happens with Fonterra because Fonterra is so fundamentally important to this country and its economy. We are not prepared just to let the market have its way. We want legislation in place that will protect Fonterra. This bill will definitely keep it as a cooperative in the hands of New Zealand farmers.