Roy Eric: Agricultural Compounds and Veterinary Medicines Amendment Bill — In Committee 
Roy Eric: Agricultural Compounds and Veterinary Medicines Amendment Bill — In Committee 
[Volume:642;Page:11948] 
ERIC ROY (National—Invercargill) 
: 
 As a member of the all-famous all-knowing Primary Production Committee I certainly would like to take a call on what I consider to be quite significant legislation. It is not significant because it does anything extraordinary but it does lock in some security around the whole aspect of assurance and safety and that is crucially important to us. As Shane Ardern said this is New Zealand’s biggest industry certainly in terms of exports agriculture and primary production. It is important that we can have some assurance for those people who want to purchase or whom we persuade to purchase our products. So we have the Agricultural Compounds and Veterinary Medicines Amendment Bill.  
It is just pertinent I think to note at this time that across the diversity of what happens in primary production and what happens in agriculture there is an absolute plethora—a humongous number—of elements compounds chemicals and medicines that actually fit into this bill. Across traditional organic and biodynamic production—across every form of production there is—there are inputs that go into the production system. In fact I am looking in this New Zealand Food Safety Authority document  
Agricultural Compound Residues in Food 
 and I see that it states: “There are at least 500000 identified natural chemicals that are present in all foods”. By nature of our production systems we require inputs into those systems—we need to lift fertility and we need herbicides fungicides and pesticides. There are a lot of things that are needed in the system. So as I said it is important we have assurance.  
The bit I want to speak on is section 8C inserted by clause 10 which states that the “Director-General may approve agricultural compound as exempt in special circumstances”. We do not have to apply a rigorous application and approval system to every single thing that is out there. Many of these things are quite safe. We have been using forms of them since tillage and agriculture were first recorded about 4000 years ago and some of those remedies have been used since then. It is important that we actually reduce the cost of compliance and maintain the assurance. We need credibility we need integrity and we need to be able to do it in the most effective way and in the most cost-efficient way.  
I note that section 8C has a whole lot of prescriptive things where the director-general can as it were short-circuit the system. I am quite in approval of that because we simply need to get on with the business of doing what we have to do in terms of making available the most appropriate remedies additives and fertilisers that are available to agriculture—and by and large this bill does that. I have some concerns that the process can add some cost but certainly the will of those who have put this bill together is to maintain the assurance. My plea to them in this Committee stage today is that in the actual interpretation and effectiveness of this bill we have a process that does not add any more cost.  
One of the great dangers we have at a time when there is some prosperity particularly in the dairy industry is that we can get a little bit sloppy because there is enough juice in the system to be able to absorb some of those costs. If we get sloppy in times of good that has a serious impact when times are tighter. And tighter times will come. I hope they are a long way away; they certainly will not come under the next Government that is not very far away.  
We need to be quite vigilant about the interpretation of this legislation. We need to assure integrity in what we do but not apply costs that are going to impact on the agricultural sector. It is interesting to note that never before in the times of the consumerisation of our product has the consumer had such an influence. Today if one looks in the supermarkets one sees that there is more and more information and more and more traceability on products that are sold. So we need to be aware of that; we need to accede to that and apply this bill to our agricultural industry.