Jones Shane: Dairy Industry Restructuring Amendment Bill — In Committee 
Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume 
Jones Shane: Dairy Industry Restructuring Amendment Bill — In Committee 
[Sitting date: 17 July 2012. Volume:681;Page:3568. Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume.] 
Hon SHANE JONES (Labour) 
: 
 From the far north to the deep south I greet you sir. Having returned from Waitangi and other such far-flung places and never having enjoyed the opportunity during the Committee stage to visit a modest level of oratory on the Committee I will take on board what you had to say. 
I would like to start off however by saying that in order for that Shane Ardern’s words to come to pass there has to be a bit of compromise on both sides. But I want to direct our attention back and follow on from Damien O’Connor taking on board the admonition of the Chair. It is not unreasonable in this stage for us to challenge the efficacy or the adequacy not so much of the transitional provisions etc. but of the safeguards for what is proposed—beyond all the parliamentary brouhaha because that will have come and gone. This will be well down the track this will be back into the innards of Fonterra this will be back not even necessarily at the table of the Minister for Primary Industries; it will be with the stable of bureaucratic advisers. During the course of the select committee process they had a task that they needed to acquit themselves of and in fairness what they are paid to do they by and large delivered for their Minister. But the point remains at a deeper level that it is not unreasonable for members on this side of the Chamber to continue to raise the concerns and to question whether for example if the trading scheme does not come to pass with the alternative process we can be confident that the key stakeholders in the farming community will be listened to or will it be that those who enjoy the corporate leadership of Fonterra will be the ones whose voices are amplified—whose voices carry the day? 
As parliamentarians during the select committee process time and time we were warned that once the large rhetorical battle is over it then moves into almost a regulatory phase and a subsidiary level of legislation and we have got every right to put it on the record here and have it entered into the  
Journals of the House of Representatives 
 that we fought this until the final point. Why? Because it is not unreasonable for us to remind you it is not unreasonable for us to remind ourselves that once this fund is set up without a legislative cap or without a legislative safeguard we do depend on the constitutional processes within Fonterra. At one level as has been said it is its business. But Fonterra itself is a creation of this House so that makes it the business of legislators and for those reasons at every opportunity this side of the Chamber will continue to remind our friends on the Primary Production Committee and indeed key stakeholders within the farming community because once it leaves here another dynamic takes over. 
I do not want to inquire as to whether it is dumb capital that will fill the $500 million order book or whether a smaller amount will actually step up to the plate. But we need to be absolutely sure that these transitional provisions the regulatory-making power actually allows for a threshold of safety and reassurance because as day follows night if it does not work out this is where they will come back to. First to the advisers after the litigation which will be driven—rather humorously I might observe—by both sides that comprise my DNA the Dalmatian and the Maori rest assured they will definitely litigate going forward and we will see an example of what Telecom put us through. 
Hon Damien O’Connor 
: Too much money. 
Hon SHANE JONES 
: Yes well I am sure the Dalmatians have got too much money; for fear of losing what slender Maori votes I still attract I will not say that about my own people Mr O’Connor. But I would remind the Minister in the chair the Minister for Primary Industries that of course on this side of the Chamber we are champions for the industry but in the absence of compromise Minister you know as well as I do what they told us recently in that great talkfest to do with cooperatives. The great cooperatives of Manitoba and that part of Canada have all disappeared as a consequence of people being asleep at the wheel and allowing privatisation to sneak in and ruin the core foundations of their cooperatives. We remind you that you must not under your watch allow such a thing to—