Cameron MarkMARK CAMERON (ACT): Thank you Madam Speaker and thank you very much for the opportunity to speak to the Dairy Industry Restructuring (Fonterra Capital Restructuring) Amendment Bill. Being very collegial I want to thank the other members of the Primary Production Committee that canvassed this piece of legislation in its entirety. The committee had a robust—and I'd sometimes argue enjoyable—debate and scrutiny of all three stages of this legislation right from its first reading subsequent submission process second reading committee stage and here we are.I think we all worked well with the officials the officials were very succinct in their delivery and deliberations with us to iron out the kinks and concerns that were raised in the legislation. There was certainly quite a lot of concern raised by various submitters—and equally a lot of support for this piece of legislation.It has been previously articulated in the House by various other speakers tonight and previously when this bill has been debated that it amends the Dairy Industry Restructuring Act 2001 (DIRA) to support Fonterra Co-operative Group Ltd to move to its new capital structure and we understand that we have an international shrinking milk pool. The new DIRA would regulate the activities of Fonterra to ensure Fonterra suppliers and the dairy market for all New Zealand that the milk production remains contestable and transparent and I think that was well-canvassed in the previous committee of the whole House stage. Transparency is key in this legislation for farmer owner-operators and other processors that they can have full transparency about the milk price panel—who sits on it how it will work.The committee heard 15 oral submissions and also 23 written ones. One notable submission—and I read it extensively—was from Open Country Dairy Synlait Westland Milk and Miraka. This was a joint submission and it made fair and honest and what I think are legitimate concerns. Vigorous discussion was warranted and I think the committee reconciled their differences over this. We canvassed the contestability the transparency moving forward with this legislation around the role of the Commerce Commission because that was tantamount to having good outcomes with the base milk price setting. Also the entry and exit provisions in the bill. Now it's been well articulated tonight that entry and the sheer requirements of those coming into Fonterra and the potential fiscal burden had been negated with the entry provision but the exit policy was equally as concerning by those somewhat older farmers like myself seeking to leave the industry and potentially lose some of their equity. We all know that those farmers in those instances had contracts often and obligations for banks via loans and potentially created liquidity issues for them. Such clarity was necessary and important for those farmers divesting from Fonterra in terms of their capital structure as I've previously mentioned. These were fair questions when posed in the debate and it was tantamount to a good outcome—in this House this is an open market of free ideas and sheer debate—that we canvass those. What will the time frames be for the $350-odd million that was previously discussed in the committee of the whole House stage? This was raised by shareholders that were potentially going to leave the industry—sharing-down process what will that ultimately look like for Fonterra suppliers leaving the industry? I think it was important that these time frames had some surety and the Minister did his utmost best in the previous committee stage to allay those concerns. Would there be any predatory pricing and the role of the Commerce Commission I think in this legislation has further put forwards and given those in the industry some solace moving forward that there will be contestability transparency and that will be publicly transgressed to all of New Zealand.The ACT Party did raise significant concerns about this process. We thought it was tantamount to a good outcome that there was a contestable free market and it was unconstrained in a fashion to give surety to all suppliers of milk and the processes therein.I think at the end of the day equally and importantly it strengthens the governance structure for Fonterra. It gave pause to those that were concerned about how the milk price panel would work and it gave consideration to improving the independence of that base milk price calculation.Really and truly the ACT Party did canvass this extensively we were concerned that it did not have full clarity. We understand the importance and the rationale to create an environment to give that transparency for New Zealand and equally Fonterra suppliers. We have raised these concerns before. We will agree with the bill in its third reading. We look forward to seeing how this new DIRA will give surety to Fonterra suppliers both leaving and coming into the industry and equally how the Commerce Commission will go through each role in holding Fonterra to charge over these to give surety to competitive processes. We support this legislation.