Dyson RuthHon RUTH DYSON (Labour—Port Hills): For a short part of those two contributions to the debate I found myself in the very unusual position of agreeing with David Bennett. I don't recall that happening before actually in the history of this Parliament. But I am recovering a little bit from that position and I guess the reason for that is that this bill was in part introduced by the honourable member's party. It was introduced in the bad old days when we had a National-led Government. It didn't proceed to a select committee. The incoming Government looked at it and said there are some provisions in this legislation that we want to see go ahead but the new Minister of Agriculture the Hon Damien O'Connor who has had a lot more experience with the dairy industry than the member who just made a contribution although I acknowledge his experience in the dairy industry—Hon Nathan Guy: Try and be nice. Try and be nice Ruth if you can.Hon RUTH DYSON: You should address people by their proper names the Hon Nathan Guy. Standing Orders of the House of Representatives—page a day. The Hon Damien O'Connor the current Minister who has a lot of experience in the dairy industry said there are some provisions in this legislation that if they don't progress through to the third reading and be passed will mean that provisions that everyone in the House seems to agree on will expire. So that's why I'm pleased that we've seen despite the debate that the National Party keeps contributing to that there's a lot of agreement that those provisions shouldn't expire.There is some debate about that and that's one of the downsides of not having gone through the select committee process but I want to raise one that's been mentioned to me because I know it's been considered by the Minister and in his view the positives from this legislation outweighed the negatives. In fact in his view taking away the provisions that I'm just going to refer to would not address the problem and that is this: there are some units that are dairy farms that would in most situations be considered not viable. Most good dairy farmers would say That's not a place that you should have a dairy farm." It might cost too much to irrigate it might cost too much to fertilise or it might be too far away from the pick-up system but under the dairy industry legislation of course Fonterra have a requirement to collect that milk. So the position that's been put to me is that we should consider that as a Parliament and I think we should in the way that often these issues are discussed—in a more bipartisan way than many other pieces of legislation. If we do have some parts of our country where we actually don't think that dairy farming is the best use of that land but some people have started a dairy farm and then Fonterra are required to pick up the milk is that good? Do we want to see that continue?I think that's a legitimate debate to have and as I say because we are progressing this bill through all stages so that the provisions we all agree on don't expire I think that as the wider review is done—the Minister's given us a clear undertaking that the wider review of the dairy industry is going to take place—I welcome the contribution from our National Party members. The Hon David Bennett who I've already acknowledged has got experience in the dairy industry and the Rt Hon David Carter—a former Minister—has got a lot of experience in this House as well as in the farming community. I would welcome their contribution to that particular point: is this a problem? Is it an issue that this Parliament should consider? Should we just leave it entirely to the market in which case would we take away the requirement for Fonterra? I'm not talking about for existing farms of course because you couldn't retrospectively change the rules but in my view the incentives are wrong. We are providing incentives for dairy farming in parts of the country that without that Fonterra requirement would probably not run a dairy farm.So I'm really pleased with the progress that this bill is making. It hasn't been around the Parliament that long—it was introduced only last year by the National Government and didn't ever make it to a select committee. As I said some provisions that were in it originally have been taken out but to make sure that the parts that this Parliament wants to keep don't expire this very small bill is going to progress through all stages provided that it gets the votes that it needs. I've enjoyed listening to the debate yesterday and today. I hope that we have more contributions to it and that perhaps more than just biffing bricks at each other we talk about and contribute to the actual policies that drove the introduction of this legislation in the first place under a National-led Government and which have led us to this situation as we currently are in.It seems to me that the more we are able to openly discuss policies rather than just take political point-scoring opportunities the better off our legislation will be. We can consider the views and perspectives of other members of Parliament particularly those who have experience and expertise in this area and make what might be a medium-quality bill even better or as I have seen in years gone past a bad bill better. That's the responsibility of a member of Parliament. I think it's one that we take pretty seriously. I know that the Hon Nathan Guy has put in one amendment to this. I've had only a brief read of it. I don't think it will be getting the support of our party at this stage but—Hon Nathan Guy: I've pulled it.Hon RUTH DYSON: Oh the honourable member's pulled it? Thank you. I didn't realise that. I wasn't aware of that fact. I just saw it on the Table about half an hour ago. So we haven't then had any amendments to this legislation. Perhaps it's not big enough to amend—there's not much to it! But certainly I would welcome the opportunity to give consideration to amendments from whatever party in Parliament to make sure that as we progress this particularly without select committee consideration we make it as good as we possibly can. Thank you Mr Chairman."