Browning Steffan: Subordinate Legislation (Confirmation and Validation) Bill (No 2) — Second Reading Third ReadingText is incorporated into the Bound VolumeBrowning Steffan: Subordinate Legislation (Confirmation and Validation) Bill (No 2) — Second Reading Third Reading[Sitting date: 10 December 2013. Volume:695;Page:15368. Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume.]STEFFAN BROWNING (Green): I rise to speak to the Subordinate Legislation (Confirmation and Validation) Bill (No 2). As with the previous speakers the Green Party supports this bill and the commodity levies are a significant part of it that comes to our attention. The first one mentioned here is the Biosecurity (Psa-V—Kiwifruit Levy) Order. That has obviously been very very important as that industry the kiwifruit industry suffered so significantly withPsa. We do need to look more deeply into the origins ofPsa and at what parts of the industry were involved with that how our biosecurity system allowed it in and how our biosecurity system maybe did not react to it quickly enough. It is great that we are seeing an improvement with kiwifruit now as there seems to be a resurgence in optimism in that industry as alternatives to the originally most effective fruit come along. Also there is a levy around bovine tuberculosis. That has been put to great use and there is a reduction in TB. So it has been shown to have been put to good use.One levy that I would like to reflect on is the Biosecurity (System Entry Levy) Amendment Order. Although we do need major improvements in joint border management it is very very good to see some redress to some of the border control cuts that have happened that those aspects have come back now and that we have got some improvement. The Minister for Primary Industries was out promoting those new dogs and some teams working on border control. They clearly do not go far enough.One concern that I have with this is that the Government at the moment seems to be throwing its arms up over two of the more recent incursions. One of them is one of theTheileria species or varieties or strains that is going through the North Island at the moment. It is something that could be looked at significantly more for eradication. And whether this levy is not adequate or whether the Government’s budget is not adequate at the moment that disease which causes anaemia in cattle is racing through and is expected to cover all of the Waikato by the end of summer while the Ministry for Primary Industries is saying that we are in the response phase. Do we need bigger levies for that? I am not sure but something has to give and we need to have a far better response so these sorts of things are jumped on so people are not sitting on their hands and so they are not doing reports while a disease that will probably become endemic in this country gets hold. The great white butterfly in Nelson—we are waiting to see from this response whether the industry is going to make a call and whether that butterfly is going to be exterminated and eradicated or not. It should be eradicated of course and efforts should be going on there. If these levies are not adequate and if the budget is not adequate something has to give.The levies carry on to the commodity levies. There are levies for peonies as has been mentioned and for pipfruit. These are put to very good use. I see inTheOrchardist magazine that I have got here that in fact it has a section called “Your levies at work”. Some of that is particularly good. There is stuff around biosecurity leadership Nuffield scholars and other things mentioned in there including pest control although some ofthe pest control is unfortunately supporting some pesticides that should be pulled. How the sector chooses to use its levy is up to it but it is absolutely critical that each sector is involved with levies. It is always disappointing when we see sectors that choose not to vote in a levy for their sectors where they could actually get abreast some of the issues that they have.The Commodity Levies (Foveaux Strait Dredge Oysters) Order will be something close to our hearts. That is an important one because the actual industry itself has damaged the benthos the sea floor in that area and there was damage consequently to the cod fishery there too. So again we hope that the industry will get in make very good use of its levy and look for ways that are a lot less harmful to its own fishery.There is another levy here for thepāua industry. It is very intent on improving management of that industry and looking at some breeding techniques and maybe seeding in there. That is another good use of a sector levy. The rock lobster people have got a great name and something that we can all look at is the very successful use of a levy there which apparently has got a very sustainable and well-managed fishery of the rock lobsters. The potatoes levies—that industry has got a major issue withpsyllid. Everybody’s potatoes here have more pesticides in them at the moment unfortunately because of this very difficult pest called thepsyllid. It is also through the tomato and capsicum industries. Because of the nature of it and the lack of good controls—apart from chemicals it seems—we are all having more pesticide residues in our food.Again that levy is being used to look for biological controls and for nets in some cases for some of the crops and hopefully will not only be a benefit to the industry in terms of saving the huge amount of money that it is spending on pesticides but also will be good for the rest of the country in terms of consumers.The mussels oysters and salmon commodity levies are ones close to my heart and to my friends in Marlborough. As we speak there is a visiting Scottish expert from the salmon industry in Scotland meeting with the people of Marlborough where it has been a major contentious issue—the salmon farming and the effects on the environment there. The Marlborough District Council with its regional council responsibilities never had somebody there with a marine biology background. So here we have major environmental effects some of which have been well documented in terms of what is happening on the seafloor under these salmon farms. It is in the public space there is no rental on it to the public and there is no money going from the industry to the local council to do research. So I am hoping that that levy of course on farmed mussels oysters and salmon to be paid for by the fish farmer will be very wisely used to ensure that their activities are actually way more sustainable than they are currently.I use as an example of that the fact that the Marlborough District Council doing what it could looked at each of the farms that are there in existence at the moment and each one of them had failed its consent conditions. The expert from Scotland did a peer review and said that two of them should be shut straight away and the others all should have reduced feed. Those are the real deep issues that we need to be looking at through these levies.We will support this bill. We hope that there will be more commodity levies extracted from different sectors that will help work on the issues of biosecurity and environmental management. But at this point we are pleased to see this bill progress through the House. Thank you.