Whaitiri MekaHon MEKA WHAITIRI (Minister of Customs): E Te Māngai o Te Whare tēnā koe. E ngā mema o Te Whare nei tēnā tātou katoa. Today is a special day for me and for my whānau. I beg the indulgence of the House to wish my mother a happy 80th birthday today. Happy birthday mum.I'm pleased to speak on the third reading of the Food Safety Law Reform Bill. It's sad to follow the previous speaker David Bennett who in his contribution sounded like could've would've should've" but didn't do it. That side of the House had opportunities to pass legislation in this House to help not just our primary sector but of course our food safety producers throughout the country. I want to say I'm really proud of the work that the Hon Damien O'Connor has done. Not only did he usher through the Dairy Industry Restructuring Amendment Bill (No 2) which helped our southern dairy farmers but he also did go to Cabinet and got $93 million—not hoped to get it not planned to get it but actually got it—before Christmas last year to deal with the biosecurity system that was badly let down by the other side. Of course now we have the Food Safety Law Reform Bill which we are passing today.Can I just say that this bill amends the three main food safety Acts—the Food Act the Animal Products Act and the Wine Act—to address the gaps identified by the whey protein concentrate (WPC) inquiry and to make other improvements to the food safety regulatory system. I remind us all that the bill arose from the botulism false alarm in 2013 which resulted in the independent Government inquiry and its 38 recommendations.It's important to identify that the objectives of this bill are to protect human health. It is aiming to maintain New Zealand's reputation as a supplier of safe and suitable food both domestically and internationally. It does attempt to ensure all steps have been taken to address the recommendations of the WPC inquiry and it also attempts to harmonise the implementation of the WPC inquiry recommendations across the three food safety Acts.I want to touch on the parts of the bill that I've identified are important for members of this House around what it is actually trying to do. I want to highlight not only what the bill is doing but actually how the bill enables particularly our officials at the Ministry of Primary Industries (MPI) to implement them. The first part I just want to comment on is the improving responses to food safety incidents. This bill will improve the ability for MPI to identify incidents quickly and respond appropriately. How would they do that? They would do it by permitting the Director-General of MPI to compel parties that provide services to a food business to provide information. It will also allow the director-general's statements to be made to inform the public. It will also clarify that MPI has a statutory role in contingency planning.And then we go into what the bill is attempting to do around traceability and recall. And it's important to note that this bill improves the regulatory system for tracing and recalling foods. How does this bill do it? It makes the obligation in the Act to have traceability systems more explicit. It enables regulations for setting prescriptive requirements for example of mock recourse.Then the bill I want to highlight talks about the verification and in this part it's about improving to fill gaps identified by the WPC inquiry. How is it intending to do that? It states first that the duty of the recognised agency or person—the verifier—is to the relevant regulator. It then requires the agency seeking or maintaining their formal recognition to provide all accreditation reports to MPI. Then it further allows regulations to where necessary set requirements for the independent verification of obligations.Then I want to touch on the electronic system enhancements. The bill attempts to improve efficiencies in interactions with operators and overseas trading partners and it helps to promote modern business practice. It does this by permitting use of automatic electronic systems under the Animal Products Act and the Wine Act as in the Food Act and it permits the director-general to require information electronically. These are just a few examples of how this bill is going to modernise and protect our food-producing sector in this country. I'm proud that the Minister of Agriculture the Hon Damien O'Connor has acted as swiftly as he has to bring this bill to the House that we are debating for its third and final reading.In the time I've got left I do want to acknowledge the work of the Primary Production Committee. I particularly want to acknowledge the 43 submitters who submitted when the bill was first referred to the select committee on 16 August but who submitted on 22 September. I also want to acknowledge the 11 submitters that appeared before the select committee in late 2016.That then begs the question: if we had the select committee hearings in late 2016 we are here now in 2018 and there was every opportunity for the so-called side of this House that purports to be the representative of farmers and growers to have ushered this bill through the House. So it's a bit rich when that side attacks this side for doing something that is actually right and correct and should have been done but wasn't done. So like the previous speaker I'm pleased that this side takes our food producers our farmers and our growers seriously and we take them seriously because this bill did need the attention that this House has been so poor in giving it. It is important for all our growers throughout New Zealand to preserve our international reputation when we're trading on the international markets—that we have a sound and robust food safety system to give us that competitive edge internationally. So without further ado I'm proud to stand in support of this Food Safety Law Reform Bill and commend it to the House."