Mallard Trevor: Dairy Industry Restructuring Amendment Bill — First Reading 
Mallard Trevor: Dairy Industry Restructuring Amendment Bill — First Reading 
[Advance Copy - Subject to minor change before inclusion in Bound Volume.] 
Hon TREVOR MALLARD (Labour—Hutt South) 
: 
 Mr Deputy Speaker this is for 5 minutes by way of an arrangement with your predecessor. 
Mr DEPUTY SPEAKER 
: Is this a split call with the Greens? 
Hon TREVOR MALLARD 
: Yes. I want to thank the member opposite Colin King for his contribution because I think amongst much of what he was saying there was not much difference between us. I think with his being a sheep farmer being a shearer his thinking was a little bit woolly but I think a lot of the issues that he raised are issues that are important to both sides of the House and I agree with him that the process at the select committee is going to be vital. There is an opportunity there to allay some fears to make some changes and to get something that is broadly agreed to by both sides of the House. I think that is something that will be important if this is to proceed forward because where you have this sort of statutory monopoly effectively in place it is something that needs to have the support of more than just the Government of the day.  
That is why I regret the fact that the Minister in charge of the Dairy Industry Restructuring Amendment Bill has signalled that he is going to foreshorten the period to even shorter than the 4 months that is now regarded as a short period for hearings of the select committee. I think what he is doing there is taking away the opportunity for process to be followed for debates to be had for discussions and for the possibility of getting some of the issues if not all of them off the table.  
I say to members opposite that this is not actually strictly a partisan matter. I mean I think it is fair to say that you know I could well have more points in common with the Minister in charge of the bill than with my colleague Damien O’Connor on this. I have looked at the issue carefully— 
Hon Damien O’Connor 
: That often happens. 
Hon TREVOR MALLARD 
: —yeah there are a few other issues that way—over many many years and I do know that we have got to somehow better capitalise our dairy industry. There is no doubt about that at all. It is innovative and we have got to make sure that it gets some more capital in. But despite the long period that this has taken this has the appearance of being ad hoc cobbled together and at the end rushed rather than being a coherent and logical piece of reform.  
There are a number of alternatives and I should say one point I am adamant about is that what this Trading Among Farmers proposal lets happen is the sale offshore not only of our farms but also of our most important exporter and innovator that we have in New Zealand. I think that through that arrangement this will let people like the company that is trying to buy the Crafar farms aggregate massive amounts—aggregate large amounts—of Fonterra through the trading exercise. There is a question about the way that the units will work and people’s ability to aggregate that.  
Having said that I think there is room in New Zealand for some ordinary Kiwis to invest in the processing or research part of the dairy industry and this does not give them a chance. This arrangement does not let my constituents in Wainuiomata and the Hutt Valley have an investment in the research that needs to be done for the dairy industry but it lets a Chinese-owned lot who suck up to the National Party do it. It lets a Chinese-owned company that is trying to take over Crafar’s farms get into this area and that is wrong.  
There is another area that I think is wrong and I think it needs to be sorted out here and that is the arrangements whereby companies other than Fonterra have a “take it or leave it” arrangement as far as milk is concerned. Fonterra has to have the capacity for milk but a whole pile of its competitors can choose whether or not to take that milk and I think that arrangement is wrong. I think it was wrong when it was set up. I take some responsibility; I have been involved in that over a period of time. I think it needed to be sorted out and it has not been and I think there are some companies that need to be sorted out there.  
I will make one final point and that goes on to the responsibilities of Fonterra. It has what is effectively a statutory monopoly. Farmers have an obligation to be clean and green but New Zealanders also have the right to get their milk at a reasonable price. Ninety-five percent of it is exported and people all around the world get our milk cheaper than Kiwis get it. That is wrong. That is wrong it cannot continue and if Fonterra expects us to support its arrangements then it has got to take the lead—not just in a few schools—to make sure that the milk that we have that we drink on a day-to-day basis that we use in our baking and that we use in our cooking is something that is available at a reasonable price.