Rurawhe AdrianFORESTS (REGULATION OF LOG TRADERS AND FORESTRY ADVISERS) AMENDMENT BILLFirst ReadingHon SHANE JONES (Minister of Forestry): I move That the Forests (Regulation of Log Traders and Forestry Advisers) Amendment Bill be now read a first time. I nominate the Environment Committee to consider the bill. At the appropriate time I intend to move that the bill be reported to the House by 5 June 2020 and that the committee have authority to meet at any time while the House is sitting (except during oral questions) during any evening on a day on which there has been sitting of the House and on a Friday in a week in which there has been a sitting of the House and outside the Wellington area despite Standing Orders 191 193 and 194(1)(b) and (c).I stand to explain to the House why we are proceeding with the forests amendment bill for the regulation of log traders and forestry advisers. This speech will begin by painting a picture of how incredibly important this third-largest export earner is for provincial New Zealand for the manufacturers of New Zealand and for the workforce of New Zealand. For far too long this is an area that has existed with minimal oversight and we have heard a host of very sad stories about the quality of the advice the quality of the conduct as is evidenced by some of the ways in which both advisers and logmongers have behaved.Therefore to complete the virtuous circle of forestry this Government has introduced the billion trees kaupapa dedicating nigh on $500 million over a period of time to achieve the outcome of having planted one billion trees for a host of purposes. Purpose number one is to expand the size of the nation's lung and to provide us with an option to manage the transitional costs of climate change. Purpose number two is to invest in biodiversity by ensuring that the trees that are planted under our Government's programmes are a mix of exotic and native and that such activities generate positive outcomes in terms of sustainability.Purpose number three is to have decluttered the overseas investment regime so that those who already own the forestry estate in New Zealand—well over 73 or 74 percent of that estate is already owned by foreign interests. They approached me and requested that we declutter the legislation back in late in 2017 and the outstanding area is to give confidence that the manufacturers the downstream processors the domestic sawmillers the owners of the timber processing sector have greater confidence that they can enjoy ongoing access in a predictable and consistent form to the raw material so that their businesses can grow their employees can stay on the job and we do not see mountains and mountains of raw commodities disappearing overseas without us as a nation creating additional value from so said resources.So this bill reflects considerable work out in the community by our officials but it also shows that when we're focused on creating a plan for an industry with the leaders of the industry we can deliver. This bill will go through the airing process at the select committee and where there are concerns potential imperfections—hard to imagine—they can at least be addressed by the select committee and the arguments rehearsed as to whether or not there's too much forestry in New Zealand not enough forestry and whether it's a reasonable type of investment. All of that can be trotted out at the select committee and the bill then can come back and we can develop a registration system.Now why would you want such a system? Well in a host of areas the quality of advice being offered to our investors in the forestry sector has been substandard. My office and a host of other MPs can attest to this. There have been some very sad and egregious cases where dodgy advisers have been allowed to get away with dodgy conduct for far too long.Now some might say it's the market—it's the laissez-faire system; don't interfere with it—but we as the Government have an interest in professionalising and creating a greater level of resilience and robustness into forestry creating a system that ensures that the logmongers offer the raw material both to Kiwi processors as well as to international buyers. Now this does not offend any World Trade Organization ruling. I did actually toy with the idea that there should be an export tax. Now obviously we wouldn't head in that direction if it created an impression that not only were we taxing exports but it might invite retaliation. But I say to you that we are going to face up to 300000 of our young people and our neighbours facing unemployment as we come out of the COVID medical contagion. Many jobs can be created in this forestry sector but the investors need certainty and confidence that they can gain access.What's the point of continuing to plant trees in provincial New Zealand if those trees are not available for manufacturing and processing on a predictable consistent and calculable manner? This bill will create that. This bill will enable people to go through a registration process. There will be suitable exemptions and it also will allow for complaints to be made. It will be run in a very efficient manner. We will not be tolerating excessive levels of bureaucracy and as a consequence of having an efficient system once it's established it can actually be delegated outside of the core Crown into another entity. But the main point is that people receiving advice from forest advisers need to know that the advice has integrity and there's a complaints process if they have been diddled. People that are logmongers must make the material available to both Kiwis and international purchasers.Now those international purchasers may or may not have subsidies buried in opaque arrangements overseas. This bill does not deal with that. But this bill makes it absolutely crystal clear to the people who are managing the logmonger business or forestry advisory services that you have to take account of climate change you have to take account of the needs of domestic processors you have to take account as to whether or not the land being used would be best suited for forestry. And after all of that if the advice is found to be egregiously defective then there will be a complaints process. But there will be a clear obligation as a consequence of this bill for people to have demonstrated that they have made the raw material available to Kiwis.There's no guarantee Kiwis will buy it. There's no guarantee that Kiwis will want it at all times but they will have the option. They won't sit watching large trucks taking all of our valuable raw material offshore while Kiwis become further unemployed and businesses cannot gain certainty in terms of gaining not only calculable but predictable flows of raw material. Now who can dislike that? In a post-COVID environment this is going to be absolutely essential.So to round up forestry policy the forestry industry is now very robust. We have rehabilitated the reputation of that industry. We have put that industry on a far more secure footing. We have used the $500 million - odd over time to regrow both the status and the human capital. We are attracting financial capital into forestry. This regulates this enables a process to be in place where grievances can be dealt with the integrity of advice can be relied upon and those who are in the business of buying and selling logs can no longer turn their backs on their fellow Kiwis and chase the speculative spot price overseas only to come crying to the First Citizen of the Provinces" when that spot price collapses.So we're going to achieve not only consistency but there are going to be legal obligations and those obligations will be spelt out in the form of a practice standard and those practice standards will impose enforceable duties on the people that are registered through this scheme. If they are not registered and they are circumventing it or trying to use it for money-laundering purposes and the rumours are rife they are going to be caught. That is why I commend this bill to the House. It represents fixing a neglected area in the forestry sector increasing robustness resilience integrity and ensuring that the owners of forestry resources can rely on the advice and that the owners and the workers in processing can have great confidence that the raw material will be made available. I commend this bill to the House.ASSISTANT SPEAKER (Adrian Rurawhe): Before I call Mr Muller can I ask the members on the Government side to remove the red boxes the green boxes—there's one at the front there. If someone could grab that please?"