Jones Shane: Dairy Industry Restructuring Amendment Bill — In Committee 
Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume 
Jones Shane: Dairy Industry Restructuring Amendment Bill — In Committee 
[Sitting date: 17 July 2012. Volume:681;Page:3573. Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume.] 
Hon SHANE JONES (Labour) 
: 
 I stand to support my colleague in focusing our attention on the title of this bill the Dairy Industry Restructuring Amendment Bill. Prior to your arrival Mr Chairperson I was censured—I would not say unfairly but disproportionately—for fear of wandering beyond what are the proper boundaries of a contribution at this point in the magisterial process known as the legislative process etc. But when we look at the word “restructuring” there are three things I want to say in all seriousness. 
I do not think that we were ignorant of the fact that there are challenges in relation to access to capital managing capital and in the year of the perfect storm a lot of what we were told. We had to trust in the integrity of what the officials reassured us was accurate and quite frankly what a lot of the senior members of the industry were telling us. 
We then delved into whether or not there were other alternatives to overcome the capital challenge that one no less august than Sir Henry van der Heyden told us of and may he do well for the iwi of Tainui. He has certainly done well for himself but that is another matter. So we are not ignorant of the fact. I say to the Minister for Primary Industries that we are not ignorant but we remain and will always remain either suspicious of or deeply troubled by the tension that exists between in this restructuring producer capital and investor capital. 
Even at this late stage of the debate it is a worthwhile and a legitimate concern to continue airing. The Minister for Primary Industries has all the power and the authority and he represents a party that enjoys enough support in the House I would think to usher this bill through. But without a doubt we are going to see as we go forward in the event that enough investors actually jump into what potentially could be dumb capital—I doubt it though. I think canny long-term investors will see this fund as the first step or an initial brick in the wall. That is the first rather significant area of concern that we have amplified at all key stages in this debate. 
The second concern is whether we have actually through this restructuring strengthened the dairy industry or served the interests of the executive within the institution empowered to drive performance for the industry. Unfortunately only time will tell. I accept that the farmers will vote because I sure as hang know they do not vote in the north for us. But that is another matter. They will vote and they will fail or flourish depending on the outcome of that vote and the stewardship that they themselves or the executives bring to bear on the question as to when the new derivatives trust—which is broad nomenclature—which is what I have been using to describe it and also Trading Among Farmers strike a price as to what is the value of the share. 
At one level it seems almost contradictory that we extol the virtues of a cooperative but we borrow the language and we garb the essentials of the cooperative in the context of Fonterra with a language more akin to a debate about a Wall Street company. But that is the fusion of having a powerful international trader and marketer such as Fonterra and also wanting to uphold. That is the second thing. 
We accept I accept that at the end of the day it is the farmers. But as I have said during this debate about restructuring Fonterra came into existence by dint of what we did in this House so it is not unreasonable for us as legislators to either challenge the farmers or challenge ourselves and not accept uncritically the notion that “You can’t talk about our business because it is farmers’ business.” 
Farmers’ business in so far as it requires legislative amendments is legislators’ business. Any farmer who thinks that that is not accurate or who seeks to deprecate us as legislators playing our rightful role I hope I meet in a future guise when I am a Minister with some level of influence over their affairs. The third thing at the end of the day is the price of milk and whether or not the minnows—Miraka Open Country Dairy and others—will be able to afford to buy the milk from Fonterra. The Minister has had an opportunity to allow Te Ururoa Flavell’s amendment but he swiped it aside just as he swiped aside my senior colleague Damien O’Connor.