O'Connor DamienHon DAMIEN O'CONNOR (Labour—West Coast - Tasman): Indeed it is a pleasure to speak on the New Zealand Horticulture Export Authority Amendment Bill. It is legislation that was originally brought into Parliament in 1987 by a Labour Government—a very smart piece of legislation which has stood the test of time. I have to say that this bill must be a bit like a dead rat for the National members to have to swallow because what they believe in ultimately—and we have seen it—is that the market should determine our future and that the market should drive decisions on capital investment on research and development and on where our primary industries should go. That is not the view that Labour has taken and over the years we have introduced legislation like this. We introduced legislation that supported the Kiwifruit Marketing Board and formed Fonterra because we believe that through collaboration and cooperation we can achieve more together.The alternative—as the horticultural industry realised back in the 1980s and still realises today—is that it needs some discipline and some guidelines and some standards to adhere to so that when we go offshore and market our products we do not end up undermining one another and undercutting one another in the market place because we are selling the same products basically into the same market. It is about collaboration and coordination.This bill makes changes to and updates the Horticulture Export Authority's jurisdiction. It is a very important mandate that we give this organisation: the power to tax—to levy—and to impose discipline and rules and regulations on exporters from this country is not something that Parliament hands over to an organisation lightly. The organisation is an amazing one because for the total cost of $227000 it oversees market discipline market development and product development for a $300 million export sector—that is 54 exporters of nine different products in the horticultural sector generating $300 million for New Zealand. That is a considerable level of export income and it costs $227000 to administer that. It is probably the best value-for-money piece of legislation I think this Parliament has ever passed because that cost is after 23 years I think it is—no it is more than that 32 years; since 1987—I cannot do the maths in a hurry I am sorry.But the principles remain: that is where product groups—growers growing the same product—come together and can show a mandate whereby more than 50 percent of the growers agree to come together to levy themselves and come under the Horticulture Export Authority's mandate they then sit down and develop a strategy for how they should best develop their products and adhere to standards and then go and market their product around the world. And it has been outstandingly successful. The only ones where the success has been better I guess is kiwifruit where there is even more discipline and in dairy where traditionally there has been a lot.The challenge I guess for the Government is how to apply this wisdom across other areas of the primary sector. I would start with meat and I would then move on to wool where in two sectors we have had proud industries that go back well over a hundred years and we have now come to a level where they are still significant exporters but we do not have the level of confidence either from the producers or in the market place to actually move on. The Government has effectively thrown $350 million at the meat industry to try to improve it when arguably a piece of legislation like this could sort out the meat industry and actually deliver a far better outcome for farmers for exporters and for New Zealand as a whole. I would certainly suggest that to the Minister. I have challenged members of the Primary Production Committee on why the Government does not develop legislation like this which would allow for and assist with coordination and collaboration in the market for meat for the three different meat sectors—for beef for lamb and mutton and for venison. They are three different red meats that are quite unique that are based on pasture-fed production—The ASSISTANT SPEAKER (Lindsay Tisch): Horticulture.Hon DAMIEN O'CONNOR: —that have huge potential in the market place—The ASSISTANT SPEAKER (Lindsay Tisch): Horticulture.Hon DAMIEN O'CONNOR: —and that could as I say be very similar to horticulture. I appreciate that Mr Assistant Speaker.So Labour supports this legislation as we did in 1987 to bring it in. We support the update that we are effectively delivering here. To touch on it briefly it is I guess to bring it up to the real world where we have new methods of information transfer where it is important. We have got new standards in the market so that we have to meet higher standards of minimum residue levels for products and make sure that the growers are not going to undermine their whole industry by having good standards on the orchard and then following through and being able to assure the importers in those foreign markets that we have delivered to them the best-possible fruit that we can.As I say the need for more flexible and targeted export market strategies is true now. As there is more information and you have got better transport and logistic systems you can better target some of those markets and deliver through what were I guess fairly basic systems back in the 1980s when this was first developed. Horticulture has thrived because it laid out a strategic plan for growth back in the early 2000s. I applaud this sector for that visionary thinking. As I have said other sectors have not shown that wisdom. So through that planning and through legislation like this which has enabled small groups of growers to come together and develop their markets horticulture—from the very biggest to the smallest growers—has had in place a system of planning and discipline that has seen it be arguably one of the most successful sectors in the New Zealand economy. The growth has been staggering and I hope it continues. But horticulture should as I say learn the lessons from other sectors where deregulation and undisciplined markets have undermined the value of what were top-quality products in New Zealand that were sold into market but ended up competing with one another on the basis of price.I will just finish with the point raised by my Green colleagues and that is that the horticultural sector which in its wisdom firstly asked for this legislation and secondly developed a strategic plan has now been asking for country-of-origin labelling. This is because it believes that the effort it has put in to produce the finest horticultural products in the world—and the safest products—should be acknowledged by those in the New Zealand market and offshore to provide consumers with the knowledge that these things have been grown in New Zealand under New Zealand conditions to sometimes higher standards than are required here but standards that are very very high and ensure safe food. I cannot understand why the Government does not want to move ahead to implement country-of-origin labelling.We have a deal with Australia actually—the Australia New Zealand Food Standards Code. New Zealand has an exception to that agreement so that we do not have to have country-of-origin labelling. It is a bizarre situation to be in and all we would have to do is adhere to that trans-Tasman relationship and have country-of-origin labelling. Consumers would know what they are buying and the fine-quality food produced here in New Zealand could be identified by consumers so that the option of buying an Italian or a Chinese kiwifruit could be known to the consumer when they go to buy.So in concluding I say that Labour supports this legislation. We have assisted the Primary Production Committee with the processing of this bill. We need to ensure that we maintain discipline in the market place. The model of the Horticulture Export Authority regulations should be imposed across other sectors of the primary sector where we have undisciplined marketing and coordination. We would all be better off if we thought more laterally and collaborated in all our efforts.