Goff Phil: Dairy Industry Restructuring Amendment Bill — In Committee 
Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume 
Goff Phil: Dairy Industry Restructuring Amendment Bill — In Committee 
[Sitting date: 17 July 2012. Volume:681;Page:3561. Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume.] 
Hon PHIL GOFF (Labour—Mt Roskill) 
: 
 I want to come back to the concern that I have that the Minister in the chair David Carter is not looking to get a stronger base of support for what is a very important piece of legislation the Dairy Industry Restructuring Amendment Bill. In the earlier primary legislation we managed to get support across the board in the House. The Minister has said in argument that first of all he does not want to interfere with Fonterra. But the very fact of this legislation under which Fonterra exists indicates that there is an interest by this Parliament and by this country in what the future of that industry would be. We do not want to see demutualisation. We do not want to see the investor fund get so large that foreign interests will ensure a greater degree of influence over the way in which the company goes and send money out of this country. But I see no provision in this legislation that provides adequate safeguards against that. 
I would like the Minister to clarify what his understanding of Fonterra’s position is on the cap of 23 percent because first of all Minister you said that Fonterra was opposed to it and then you said that it would accept it. My understanding from looking at the email traffic is that it is comfortable with that—that that is a safeguard. That is what we are asking you to consider. Hopefully it would not get anywhere near that cap but having the cap is at least a safeguard in terms of limiting the amount of dividends that would flow from our most successful enterprises out of this country. 
I received from the Parliamentary Library just on Friday its concern about the trend in the current account deficit. It is now $2.8 billion for the March 2012 quarter. That is the biggest level of current account deficit in over a year. It has increased by $624 million. We know from Treasury projections that our current account deficit is going to get worse year after year after year. So my question to the Minister is how will having an uncapped level of dividends coming out of this country—because there is no cap on the level of people who can invest in the bonds—help our current account deficit? How does that help grow New Zealand? How does that help us control and own our own future? 
We are putting in good faith to you Minister a proposal that would provide some assurance. And it is not just this side of the Chamber—and I think all three parties on this side of the Chamber have expressed concern—but as the Minister will know it is also many of the farmers. I get all the farmer magazines; I live in a rural area. Week after week I have seen that debate raging in the farming community. It is not good enough to say that 66 percent of farmers have voted in favour. Sir Henry van der Heyden expressed his disappointment that that figure was not what he wanted it to be. We know that it is 66 percent of milkfat solids; it is not 66 percent of individual farmers. So the level of farmer opposition to this legislation could be considerably higher. Whatever it is—and it is at least a third; it may be as high as a half—that concern is expressed passionately and farmers in this country and the people of this country want to know that we have got some assurance over the future ownership control and flow of dividends from this company. 
I want to know whether this bill and the failure of the Government to accept a cap are because this is the top of a slippery slope. I want the Minister to explain what John Key meant when he said to the former chief executive officer of the New Zealand Exchange that it would be great to have Fonterra as a listed company. That is set out in the  
New 
Zealand Farmers Weekly 
 on 22 August of last year. Is it actually the agenda of this Government that it is prepared to see Fonterra publicly listed it is prepared to see shares sold and it is prepared to see ownership and control go out of the hands of cooperative farmers and New Zealanders and into the hands of big foreign investors? We are asking as a measure of good faith that the Government support Supplementary Order Paper 85 which would at least put a cap on the amount of the bond fund. That is not asking too much. 
The response to accepting that Supplementary Order Paper would be the support of the largest Opposition party for the legislation and providing some certainty about the future of the industry. It would also be an expression of good faith by the Government that it did not intend to go down that slippery slope of listing Fonterra as a public company and allowing the shares to be sold off. Minister I am not aware of whether you agree with what the Prime Minister has said. Certainly that is not the proposed agenda that you are putting forward but the risk is there and you can settle it.