Guy Nathan: Agricultural Compounds and Veterinary Medicines Amendment Bill — In Committee 
Guy Nathan: Agricultural Compounds and Veterinary Medicines Amendment Bill — In Committee 
[Volume:642;Page:11953] 
NATHAN GUY (National) 
: 
 I take a call on Part 2 of the Agricultural Compounds and Veterinary Medicines Amendment Bill. There will probably be a few cockies around New Zealand who are listening to Parliament and hosing out their cowsheds as we speak and they will be interested to know that National is supporting this bill. In essence the legislation is a bit of a tidy-up as a result of reviews carried out in 2001 and 2004 and the bill pulls all of that work together. National is supporting that. 
Fundamentally the thing that is of particular note is that there is a 3-year review of the compliance costs around this bill. That will be very very important as we look forward. Although the officials have told us—and the Minister Annette King has as well this evening—that there will not be too many issues around compliance costs I think it is very important to have that 3-year review so that we can see how this rolls out. 
As the Minister will know this bill will have an impact on veterinarians around all of New Zealand. The Minister has been in front of our Primary Production Committee in the past. Of particular concern to rural New Zealand and a lot of farmers is the shortage in the number of veterinarians coming out of Massey University. The Minister’s department has been all over the world trying to attract veterinarians into New Zealand. This is really really important because at the moment we are unable to train enough. Farmers will be interested to know that it costs about $10000 per vet—if my recollection serves me correctly—to attract overseas veterinarians into New Zealand. Surely we need to do more promotion in order to ensure that we attract students to take up veterinary science at Massey University. 
We have also heard this evening about the data protection and how that was outside the scope of this bill. In the Primary Production Committee we heard from submitters who were able to tell us that around different parts of the world data protection is available for 8 and 10 years. I am pleased to know that a group is looking at this issue because I think it is fundamentally a very important part of this bill. I think that the Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry the Ministry of Economic Development and the Ministry for the Environment are involved in looking at the issue. 
The other issue that I touch on is this fourth drench family that will potentially—when it comes into New Zealand—come through this bill as well. This is of great significance to farmers throughout New Zealand. Currently we have three drench families. There is a thing called drench resistance—so the parasites are building up resistance over time to drench families—and the fourth drench family that will hopefully arrive in New Zealand at some time soon is forecast to return about $100 million to the farm gate. 
In summary National is supporting this bill. It is a bit of a tidy-up to provide a one-stop shop. We look forward to seeing it roll out and we will be watching with interest over the next few years to see what impacts the legislation has on any compliance costs. 
Part 2 agreed to.