Carter David: Veterinarians Bill — Second Reading In Committee Third Reading 
Carter David: Veterinarians Bill — Second Reading In Committee Third Reading 
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Hon DAVID CARTER (National) 
: 
 I was not going to take a call on this part but I am concerned about the comments made by the Minister who took the opportunity to criticise my colleague Phil Heatley—who put a tremendous amount of work into this legislation—when he was talking about limited registration. 
Hon Jim Anderton 
: Ask him whether he was right. 
Hon DAVID CARTER 
: I will certainly take the opportunity of pointing out to the Committee that Phil Heatley obviously understands this legislation far better than the Minister does after being briefed. Mr Heatley spent some time talking about time limits on limited registration but the Minister does not seem to have been briefed on the point that the previous legislation had a 3-month time limit. The legislation as drafted by the previous Minister’s office suggested a time limit of initially 12 months with the ability to extend it for a further 12 months. To tidy up the mess created by the work of the previous Minister the Primary Production Committee had to work closely with the Veterinary Council and it found that the best solution was not to have a time limit at all. That is the history of this I tell Mr Anderton. It was the select committee not the original legislation drafted by the Labour-Progressive Government that finally got it right. 
We value the opportunity to have limited registration for two reasons. We acknowledge that because the oppressive tax rates of this country are driving a lot of our young qualified vets offshore where they can earn more money in places like America Australia and England we need to capture the opportunity of— 
Hon Jim Anderton 
: Not because of the tax rates though. 
Hon DAVID CARTER 
: I say to the Minister that about 600 young qualified and talented New Zealanders leave this country every week. If he asked them why they go one of the reasons they would give him is the dramatic tax rates they have to pay in this country compared with what they have to pay elsewhere around the world. The other reason is that the pay rates overseas are considerably better than they are here. That means that people who make the choice to go actually have far more money in their pockets at the end of each week. If the Minister had been awake earlier in the debate he would have heard me say that my own niece who qualified as a vet at Massey University has spent most of her time practising in Melbourne rather than New Zealand because of tax rates and pay rates in Australia compared with New Zealand. 
However I want to concentrate on the time limits on limited registration which is the part that the Minister clearly has not been well briefed on. I tell him that if he wants to take the opportunity to speak in the Committee stage then I would appreciate his doing so. I really do appreciate finally having a Minister who takes the opportunity to rise to his feet and make a few comments as we ask questions but he should at least take the opportunity of being briefed about the true history of the legislation. 
Hon Jim Anderton 
: Brief your colleague. 
Hon DAVID CARTER 
: I can assure the Minister that Phil Heatley worked diligently on this legislation. 
Hon Jim Anderton 
: But he got it wrong. 
Hon DAVID CARTER 
: No we did not get it wrong. Every Labour member on the Primary Production Committee voted with us. This legislation has now come back before the House unanimously supported by the Labour members on that committee so we did not get it wrong. That is why we are here today passing the legislation through the House. We are happy to support it because now it is right. It is right because the select committee did the work and it is right because we had significant support from the Veterinary Council and the Veterinary Association. 
I want to comment a little more on limited registration. Among the things that became very evident to the select committee was that when we become so desperately short of qualified veterinarians in this country we have the opportunity to employ vets who have specialist qualifications in a particular area. An example may be qualified veterinarians who have specialised in the area of food safety. Those people may not have extensive experience in large or small animal work but that does not matter. We have the opportunity to recognise that those people have qualifications in their particular field and that we need to grab their services because we are desperately short of qualified veterinarians in this country.