SpeechLAWRENCE YULE (National—Tukituki): It's a pleasure to speak to the Dairy Industry Restructuring Amendment Bill (No 3) and I do so after several very eloquent and well-put speeches from this side of the House. It actually gives us no pleasure to oppose this bill but we are doing it as a matter of principle because we are trying to and will continue to support our farmers Fonterra and the significance of this industry to New Zealand. Quite frankly Minister we think you've got it wrong. Fonterra is our largest multinational—$20 billion worth of turnover 22000 employees; it is huge. It is important in this House as we debate this bill that we get it right. Fonterra also is internationally significant in the dairy industry. Not many companies in New Zealand can bear that title but Fonterra can. In previous work I've done in Asia and other parts of the world people are very proud of what Fonterra can do.So this review comes from the Dairy Industry Restructuring Act (DIRA) 2001. It's being reviewed every four to six years. It vitally affects 10500 farming families in New Zealand and it actually has a fundamental impact on the economy of New Zealand. When I stand back from not just looking at this from a pure agricultural perspective but I look at it as what we're being asked to do here we're being asked to let a company allow a competitor to move into its patch supply it with 30 million litres of milk so it can get started and then proceed to take more of its market share. We also then say By the way if you don't like Fonterra for a while you can leave but you can always come back at the same terms and conditions." Can you name a market or any other organisation that would allow that type of disloyalty or disruption? We also have the fact that Fonterra's share of the milk has dropped from 97 percent in 2001 to 80 percent now and has been dropping by 1 percent per year. I agree with previous speakers including the Hon David Carter who said that dairy cow numbers are probably at their peak. I also agree that we've probably got as much stainless steel as we need in New Zealand in terms of facilities. I also agree that we do need to provide the likes of Goodman Fielder and others a domestic offshoot for milk.But let's not tie the hands of our largest corporate behind its back 18 years on from when the DIRA Act was formed. We are working for farmers and we will continue to do so. For those of you that are very strong in supporting the cooperative model and who want to support this bill—in my role as horticultural spokesman I want you to reflect on what happened for instance to the apple industry which was run as a co-op; hell was going to freeze over before it changed it was deregulated and look at the prices now. Look at how the market's working: people are innovating. You see big isn't always better. I know Fonterra is a special case but it's really hard being big when you've got both hands tied behind your back—you actually can't move. So I want to come back to this issue of how you can leave with no responsibility—really all care and no responsibility. See it would be like Mark Patterson coming back to the National Party which is where he started not liking it for a while and then going back to New Zealand First.Rt Hon David Carter: Or back to the farm after the next election.LAWRENCE YULE: Or back to the farm. Now New Zealand First would never have him back. So what we're doing here in this DIRA bill is we're saying "You can leave Fonterra you can leave us the fact that we've got huge drying towers that can't be used now because we've got no milk we can't do anything about that because we need to hold them because one day you might want to come back." That is the most ridiculous and ludicrous business proposition you can ever think of. Yet this Minister despite some of the other things that have been changed wants to leave that in the legislation. This is a bad move and that's why we're opposing it.Debate interrupted."