Woolerton R Doug: Geographical Indications (Wine and Spirits)Registration Bill — Third Reading 
Woolerton R Doug: Geographical Indications (Wine and Spirits)Registration Bill — Third Reading 
[Volume:635;Page:6454] 
R DOUG WOOLERTON (NZ First) 
: 
 New Zealand First supports the Geographical Indications (Wine and Spirits) Registration Bill. In speaking to the bill I want first of all to give credit to people in the sorts of occupations that Mr Groser and Mr Hayes held in their former careers—our trade negotiators all around the world. There are not a lot of them. [ 
Interruption 
] Well there are quite a few and they do a marvellous job on our behalf. They are essential because we have just had a recent occurrence when our English friends on the release of the Stern report talked about food miles and all sorts of things that people in our exporting markets bring up as essentially non-tariff barriers. I am sure that in the diplomatic world formerly inhabited by Mr Groser the phrase “non-tariff barriers” and crudities like that would not be countenanced in any shape or form but I am not there I am here and to me that is exactly what they are. 
I commend the people in the industry who have brought this bill together for turning something that is an essential requirement of the economic union in Europe to our advantage. They are saying that if we are required to do something over there then in turn if it is fair enough to be done there it should be done here and we can use some of these things to our advantage. One hopes that in the future some products in New Zealand in the wine industry in particular are just as famous as Champagne and other areas in Europe. I know that people have worked diligently long and hard and at great expense to make our wines superb and make them the equal of anywhere in the world. It would be nice if they took the added step—which I know would take years to accomplish—to establish over a period of time regions in New Zealand just as famous as those in the old countries. 
I know that in the Committee stage Mr John Hayes attempted to introduce a Supplementary Order Paper which Mr Groser has alluded to that makes it compulsory for industry personnel to be on the committee that the registrar is required to call if he needs its expertise. But we in New Zealand First as I have said before are satisfied by the assurances of the Minister and the Government that this person will call together a committee and we do not think it is essential that that be put into legislation. In fact I do not think it should be included because those sorts of clauses in a bill quickly go out of date and it is not uncommon to have to come into this House to correct provisions like that from time to time. We try to do things specifically but in more general terms nowadays if I can put it that way. 
I can well understand that in the world that Mr Groser and Mr Hayes were previously in lawyers make a lot of very fine points—and get well paid for it I say to Mr Chauvel—about words and sentences and they argue for ages as to what they will mean. My humble experience has been that no matter how tight and prescriptive we try to make legislation lawyers will still do that. I would sooner leave the industry and the registrar with due respect a bit of room to move. I for one would worry if the industry is defined just as those people who sell and trade in wine. I suggest that the farmers and the vintners who make the wine will have more to say and perhaps because I come from farming stock I would put just as much or more trust in the farmers and the people who make the wine than I would in the industry or in perhaps we could say the purveyors of the wine who in a cruder term clip the ticket on the way through. 
I cannot speak on any bill related to the wine industry without bringing to mind a colleague who is no longer here Gerry Eckhoff who was from the ACT party. He was with me on the Primary Production Committee. His family did rather well out of the wine business. When Mr Hayes and Mr Groser talked about the characteristics of a region and the characteristics that that brought out in a wine I could not help but recall the raptures that Gerry used to go into when it came to a wine. I do not blame him because they made millions out of it. As far as he was concerned there were magical things in the make-up of wine. Being of a more pragmatic nature although I can understand how that can be I think that if the registrar is able to call on the pragmatism of farmers the commercial expertise of the people who sell the wine the people involved in the registration and the Government I think it is a pretty good mix and we do not need to go into the magical properties of a particular wine or a particular region. I think they will be understood by the people that the registrar can call together on what is called an experts committee. 
I do not think I need to take any more of the time of the House. The bill is rounded out pretty well and I congratulate the people who took part in the deliberations. I thank them for that particularly as I said at the beginning of my little speech the people who have turned a requirement into something that is an advantage for New Zealand. That I applaud.