Woolerton R Doug: New Zealand Horticulture Export Authority Amendment Bill (No 2) — First Reading 
Woolerton R Doug: New Zealand Horticulture Export Authority Amendment Bill (No 2) — First Reading 
[Volume:607;Page:4680] 
R DOUG WOOLERTON (NZ First) 
: 
 I will say at the outset that New Zealand First will support this legislation to the select committee where we will listen to the debate with interest and in particular hear what the select committee will do about the concerns that the Federation of Maori Authorities has regarding this bill which they see as an attack on free enterprise or the free market. In particular the federation sees this as disadvantaging Maori. 
Hon Damien O'Connor 
: What do you reckon? 
R DOUG WOOLERTON 
: I will tell the member what I reckon in a minute. We would like to hear what the select committee has to say on that but before I go into that subject I would like to say that this industry along with all the other producer boards had the once-over heavily by the Hon John Luxton at the time of the review of the producer boards. 
I was told by people close to the Federation of Maori Authorities that this industry wanted to be deregulated that it wanted to go it alone into the free market and do all those sorts of things. In fact when the vote came this industry voted for a similar structure to that which the dairy industry opted for which was to change the board and the other structures surrounding it into a corporate to be called Zespri and it has continued more or less as a single seller since then. Therein lies the problem for some of the people namely the Federation of Maori Authorities which does not believe that that was the way it should go. But that was what the industry voted for. The industry went back to the Minister of Agriculture and so it turned out to be and that is what we have at this point in time. 
If a corporate like that with the backing of the industry decides that it will set standards and a marketing strategy and put value into its brand it will insist that that value is retained by the selective choosing of products. In other words only the highest-quality product will get through to the market. That situation is harmed enormously when some people use the one deregulated market in Australia to then export on to other markets and therein lies the problem. 
The legislation we are considering now which we support going to the select committee will be looking at whether that is the case whether it is being used quite deliberately and whether it is like the monkey with his hands over his eyes ears and other parts saying “I don’t want to see this evil I don’t want to hear about this evil and I don’t want to know about this evil”—let alone any other evils that the Greens might think up. 
Hon David Carter 
: The Prostitution Reform Bill. 
R DOUG WOOLERTON 
: We have an interjection from the numbers man in the National Party. I would have thought he had far more work to do in that corner than to spend time interjecting on my interesting speech. 
We in New Zealand First believe that if the majority in an industry is intent on retaining a market sector and brand value and on creating more money for New Zealand and New Zealanders the majority should be backed. People who do not agree with that stance need to have a very good case and we would be prepared to look at some alternatives that may progress the Federation of Maori Authorities’ desire to have a freer market. In order to have their ideas accepted we think they should come up with some fairly entrepreneurial points of difference. However we will look at that in the select committee. I look forward to this bill getting to that point so that we can do business with it.