SpeechANGELA ROBERTS (Labour): Kia ora Madam Speaker. It's a great pleasure to stand today and take a call on the Dairy Industry Restructuring (Fonterra Capital Restructuring) Amendment Bill.As most of you know I love a teachable moment especially when it involves economics and even more especially when it involves a world-leading innovative primary sector—and when you chuck in a capital restructure well I get a bit excited. As my esteemed colleague Dr Deborah Russell knows there's some things that only a few of us love. As someone who lives in a community at the pointy end of the just transition it's really great to see this bill. We want our farmers to do well and we also want innovative competition that helps to continue to drive our dairy industry to be world-leading. Again like others in the House I want to acknowledge the record payout. I guess one little teachable moment here is about the concept of circular flow. I know what that payout does for a community like mine. For a little town like Inglewood it isn't just about the farmers having more money to spend; actually that money gets spent at the local supermarket it gets spent down at the garden centre it gets spent at the school gala day and I'm sure there's the odd pair of flash new gumboots that get picked up down at Farm Source as well. That money then gets spent again in the community. It's one of the things that helps us thrive as small rural communities. So there you go there's your circular flow clip level 1 economic students.But the just transition is really important. We live at the pointy end in Taranaki when we're really struggling to continue to meet that challenge. It's wonderful to see our dairy farmers stepping up day after day and meeting that challenge. This bill will help us to make sure that the dairy industry continues to be competitive and that farmer choice will actually be incentivised. I note we've heard about some concerns that this will just make Fonterra all the more powerful and will mean that they will not be encouraged to really be focused on the environment and the changes they need to be sustainable as they have done in recent times. But what this will do is it will incentivise more sustainable practice. We've seen some of the innovation that Fonterra have made and how it's encouraged and supported our young farmers to become organic to be innovative and to do that riparian planting because Fonterra's been able to reward that.So the idea is that by having greater fluidity it's easier for farmers to go in and it's also easier for them to step out. Now when that happens of course there's some accountability there. So when you've got young innovative—well not necessarily young but it's a bit skewed that way—farmers who are really keen and when they look at Fonterra and they look at the proposition of Fonterra if Fonterra can say We're going to support you to continue to make progress." they need to make sure that they've got a proposition that's attractive to those who are leading the way with our just transition for our dairy industry. So making it easier to leave or to make it a proposition for farmers to enter is a really really important thing.The concern though that's been raised that there are going to be additional safeguards put in is a little disconcerting in that you want there to be an improved capital structure but in order to have that capital structure—which I believe is fairly unique; it's pretty unusual globally—and the idea that that capital structure just means that Fonterra's going to be left to do what they want is naive. What we need is the safeguards to support liquidity in farmer choice. When you don't have shares being traded on the open market and those signals are removed and there are concerns about whether the share price is going to be reasonably set you need your market maker. You need your financial institution which will be contracted to continually buy and sell orders to make sure that there's an appropriate spread between buying and selling and it maintains a means for shares to be traded and for that market to be retained.I think it's interesting that there are concerns that increased transparency is a bad thing. We've heard how important—how important—dairy is. We've heard the numbers—billions of dollars; huge percentages—and we have to make sure that we safeguard and protect Fonterra. We have to make sure they have access to capital. We have to make sure that they are able to be the best that they can be and continue to lead the world. It's a challenge for Fonterra of course to balance the milk price paid which is a cornerstone of course of their constitution and retention for future investment in the absence of that external capital. So it will be really interesting to have this come to select committee and have those debates about—you know we're really clear about the intent and this is about making sure that we've got this fabulous world-leading dairy industry and the structures around Fonterra that will make sure that happens. We need to make sure that competition is healthy so that our dairy industry remains healthy.I just want to reflect for a moment that it was wonderful and refreshing to hear from the other side of the House the support for a cooperative and we've seen cooperative structures that've really really supported our exporters because we are able to collectively take our product to the world. So it isn't just about the outward-facing; it's about that collective and cooperative way of having a market in New Zealand that means that we are strong and innovative and global leaders. A collective approach or some might argue a slightly socialist approach—and I'm really really pleased to hear from the other side of the House that they love New Zealand's socialist cows. It's wonderful to hear from the other side of the House that when it comes to making sure that our primary sector is as good as it can be a collective approach is a really good one. So I'm glad to see we're converting you over on the other side of the House—it's really wonderful.We've heard Fonterra's shareholders. We've heard how strongly they supported with their vote in December the capital restructure and while we've obviously got some conversations to have about that capital restructure and the safeguards that we put in place I'm a little confused about the concern about the time frame. It's really really clear from those of us who understand the ebbs and flows of the dairy industry and how things work and how Fonterra works that there is a sense of urgency for this bill. This is in response to the needs of the sector so we're really really pleased to be supporting the time frame that has been established for this bill.It's going to be really good to have this bill come to select committee and have a conversation. It's always great to be sitting on the Primary Production Committee because the expertise in that room and the variety of world views means that we have robust debate and that actually in the end we can be confident that we are going to come up with a piece of legislation that will support and futureproof and really ensure a just transition—not just for Fonterra but for all of the players in the dairy industry—and make sure that we continue to be proud of our global innovative dairy industry and that we can continue to be the best with our socialist cows. To that point I would like to commend this bill to the House."