Carter DavidIn CommitteePart 1 Repeal of provisions that provide for expiry of subparts 5 and 5A of Part 2Rt Hon DAVID CARTER (National): Thank you Mr Chairman and as we move to the committee stage can I just say that I hope we see a Minister regularly on his feet answering the questions that I'm going to raise because that will certainly mean that we get more value out of this inquiry. Let me start with the three questions I need to ask. The first question is why the rush—why are we here in urgency? The second question I want to ask is noting Rino Tirikatene's comments—[this] review has … nothing to do with [the] bill." were the words he said—I want to know the relationship between this bill and a bill introduced in the latter stages of the National-led Government. And the final question I want Minister O'Connor to answer is I want an assurance around the procedures that he's followed to make sure that we're putting into place legislation that will work that is accurate because of course we're not seeing the luxury of the select committee having a look at it.So let me deal with the first one: why the rush? I've listened to the contributions from both sides of the House. They've certainly been more meaningful and had far more content from this side of the House than from the other side but accepting that point—Hon Tracey Martin: Ha ha!Rt Hon DAVID CARTER: I note the Hon Tracey Martin immediately agrees with that because she's been shrieking for the last hour or so—been away for a long lunch no doubt. But I don't understand the reason for the rush because as I read the legislation there is a requirement that these competition safeguards around Fonterra's share will breach on 31 May this year and here we are in urgency on 13 February. So I see no reason at all why normal procedure couldn't have been followed with this legislation introduced and sent to the select committee. It's about a 70-word bill so we could have had a fairly truncated process at the select committee but that way 4000 South Island dairy farmers would have had a chance to make a contribution and to scrutinise the legislation. So my first question and I hope the Minister will take the opportunity of rising to his feet is why the rush? Why can't it go before a select committee?My second question then was picking up on the very concrete and eloquent contribution from Rino Tirikatene. He talked about the fact that we're acknowledging there's a review. We're in the dark as to the terms of reference of that review but there has to be I consider a relationship between this bill and the one introduced by the former Minister the Hon Nathan Guy. I know that in that particular piece of legislation the issue about open entry and exit was going to be dealt with. It's not an easy issue. I accept it's a complicated issue and I think the fact that the Minister's shirked his responsibility by simply taking it out of the bill and saying that it will form part of the review still to be announced and still to be progressed—we need to know tonight the relationship between this bill and the former bill.And then the final point I want to make is around this legislation being rushed through in urgency. I've acknowledged many times it's about 70 words. It should be accurate but this is complicated stuff that we're dealing with. And I know the Minister in the chair Damien O'Connor was well educated at a Christchurch school. I know that he will have studied each word in detail but I want to be absolutely assured. We know we've seen embarrassing situations from both Governments in the time that I've been in this House where Governments have chosen to rush stuff through with urgency absolutely confident that the work's been done and the wording from the Parliamentary Counsel Office has been adequately addressed and lo and behold within a few weeks of it being passed we find out it hasn't been done accurately. So I just want the Minister—and if he'd rise to his feet and answer those three simple questions I think we could curtail this committee stage and maybe minimise it for two or three hours knowing that the bill hasn't had the opportunity to be scrutinised by a select committee. So I'd be very very grateful to see the Minister immediately on his feet in cooperation."