King Colin: National Animal Identification and Tracing Bill — Third Reading 
Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume 
King Colin: National Animal Identification and Tracing Bill — Third Reading 
[Sitting date: 14 February 2012. Volume:677;Page:386. Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume.] 
COLIN KING (National—Kaikoura) 
: 
 It is fair to say that the bill as it stands has been well canvassed during its third reading. But I would just like to make one or two points before I sit down again. One concerns the complexities that we are facing as we implement this very worthy bill the National Animal Identification and Tracing Bill. One has to stop and think about the million or so cattle that are on lifestyle blocks and are going to have to come into this system. That starts to illustrate the complexity. We can start talking about sheep and already stud breeders are doing it with their high frequency identification systems. But we have just got to be mindful that it is appropriate that the introduction of the National Identification and Tracing Bill deals with cattle and deer—effectively cattle on 1 July 2012 and then deer on 1 March 2013.  
It is appropriate to give a bit of flavour with regard to the difference between the low frequency and high frequency transponders. The low frequency can be read only at about 1 metre and that is where that debate crept in with regard to the high frequency where it was possible to read the animal’s tags out in the middle of a paddock about 200 to 300 metres away. There is still a wee way to go before we actually see innovation around this area.  
I would imagine that we certainly do need to keep a very close eye on what the rest of the world is doing because we do sell to the 5 percent of the world that have the incomes to choose what they eat and are prepared to pay for it. So it is very important that we protect New Zealand’s food safety record and its credentials. They are at the platinum level and that is something we cannot take for granted. There is no doubt a lot of potential within the National Animal Identification and Tracing system and the farming technologies that will be applied in the future and I know that our farmers and our community of New Zealand are very quick in the uptake of modern technologies.  
That having been said this legislation is important. There is a view out in the farming community—or there was a view for a while—that if it was this good or that good why is the industry not driving it? One has to think a wee bit long and hard to answer that question but the answer is that there are a lot of people in the meat industry whose main financial drivers are not the meat. You have only to look at the dairy industry. There are hundreds of thousands of tonnes of beef going through to the market that come off dairy farms and their main driver and their whole breeding systems are geared around milk production and butterfat production—milksolids. So to give it the integrity and credibility that it needs from an international point of view it was important that we draw up this legislation.  
We have overcome those obstacles. I do not find anything overly offensive in farmers being concerned about costs being heaped upon them. They have to run very very challenging operations in challenging economic times and it is good to see that although this legislation is to be implemented it is during a time when farmers are able to see a bit of light at the end of the tunnel. This is very good legislation. It has been well handled by the Primary Production Committee members on both sides of the House and it is high time that it quickly passes into law. It is a pleasure to support this bill.