Luxton JoJO LUXTON (Labour): Madam Deputy Speaker thank you for the opportunity to speak on the Dairy Industry Restructuring Amendment Bill (No 2) in the name of the Hon Damien O'Connor. It's a real pleasure to be here in this third reading and to take part in this. This is a small piece of legislation but as the Hon Nathan Guy mentioned the other day it is a very important piece of legislation. It is a significant piece of legislation. Why? Why that is is because it provides certainty and stability for our dairy-farming industry both large-scale and small family-owned farms.It amends the Dairy Industry Restructuring Act (DIRA) of 2001 and that originated to create Fonterra in its infancy as Fonterra had 98 percent of the New Zealand milk production. Now there was concern over the fact that they had such dominance in the market and the cause for concern was that it could create barriers to new producers wanting to come into the industry. It could lock in current suppliers and pay high prices also to current suppliers. This isn't healthy for industry so DIRA in 2001 created regulatory requirements of Fonterra through Subparts 5 and 5A of Part 2. Subpart 5 of Part 2 of the Dairy Industry Restructuring Act ensured that activities of Fonterra are regulated and thus promotes the efficient operation of dairy markets in New Zealand. Subpart 5A provides for the monitoring of Fonterra's Farmgate Milk Price and this is a way of managing Fonterra's dominant position.We know that dairying has continued to grow within the South Island but if this legislation didn't pass we would be seeing the farmers in the North Island receive the protection of these regulations of this particular bill and the South Island dairy farmers would be missing out which isn't fair—in my view anyway. There are quite a significant number of farms in the South Island and in particular I just want to draw people's attention to the fact that there are actually 3219 total herds in the South Island—although not all of them would necessarily supply to Fonterra. But that actually equates to quite a high number and of that number there are 595 owner-operators and sharemilkers in the electorate that I live in alone. The electorate that I live in provides 18.17 percent of the total South Island herds. That's a really substantial amount and whilst they might not all supply Fonterra my anticipation is that quite a lot of them would be supplying Fonterra. What this bill will do will be to provide certainty to those dairy farmers going forward.What this bill will also do will ensure that dairy farmers still have the opportunity to supply Fonterra with milk but also the option to supply other independent processors a portion of their milk too. It'll also allow them to exit from Fonterra should they wish to do so and to me that's fair. That encourages competition within the industry within the sector. So this bill in my view will certainly provide certainty to dairy farmers. I don't believe that it is a pathway for all the scaremongering all the conspiracy theories that we are hearing from the other side. So I think dairy farmers will be happy to see this legislation proceed and I commend this bill to the House.