Utikere TangiTANGI UTIKERE (Labour—Palmerston North): Kia orana. Thank you Madam Speaker. No look we don't support the truncated period which won't come as any—Hon Shane Jones: Oh why not? TANGI UTIKERE: Well I'll tell the Minister why not but before I do I want to support the views that have been expressed by my colleague Mr Bennett. What we are seeing in front of us this evening—and I have to say it's a bit of a pattern that we are experiencing under urgency from the Government—is a level of sloppiness that I think New Zealanders would find very distasteful. Actually it's probably circuitous against democracy. We are starting to see Ministers that simply do not know what they are doing. I have real doubts around what will go in front of the select committee given the haste within which—Hon Chris Bishop: Read the bill. It's right there.TANGI UTIKERE: Yeah the bill is there. It's unfortunate the Minister wasn't able to actually move it correctly—the referral motion that we are debating. Details matter Mr Bishop. Details matter. This is just ongoing sloppiness and it is a cascading theme of something that is rather shambolic and they really need to sort themselves out. This is a bill—and I raised this in my first reading contribution not that long ago. The Government has had a legislative programme. They had plenty of time to bring this to the House. They have chosen to do so under urgency. They have chosen to then constrain and suggest the truncation of a period of time in front of a select committee that will be not in the best interest of the community or of the public. Hon Chris Bishop: You never did that aye ever? You never did that!ASSISTANT SPEAKER (Maureen Pugh): No I didn't Mr Bishop. I didn't.TANGI UTIKERE: We've heard a lot about the aquaculture sector. Well let's hear from them. Let's give them an opportunity rather than a short seven-week opportunity to actually hear from them. Maybe the Government does not want to hear—Hon Shane Jones: Here it is.TANGI UTIKERE: Well the Minister is waving a piece of paper. Clearly he thinks that because he's heard from them this House—members of the House via the select committee process—don't need to. Well Democracy 101 Minister Jones—that's not quite how it works in this country. What's really important here is that if the aquaculture sector want to be heard let's give them time to be heard. Let's hear from them. Let's ensure there is a clear and fair process for them to participate.I know the House has resolved that this will go to the Primary Production Committee. I have to say I haven't spent a lot of time on the Primary Production Committee. James Meager: That's not relevant.TANGI UTIKERE: Well it is relevant because this is where it's going. What I do know is earlier in the week—[Interruption] I don't know why members opposite want to make some undesirable and silly interjections when they already know the answer.ASSISTANT SPEAKER (Maureen Pugh): It's actually a very good point Mr Utikere. Please keep the interjections to the minimum and preferably witty and calm.TANGI UTIKERE: Thank you Madam Speaker. Wit on that side of the House is clearly nothing in abundance at this time of the evening. The Primary Production Committee is a busy committee. I spent some time on it this week. I know that they have a busy work programme and I'm sure other members of the House who are actually on that committee might want to contribute to give a bit more of a closer examination and view on that. This constrained time period is not going be helpful. If we look at the date that the Minister has proposed we are talking about a report-back date to the House by 18 July. I do apologise to you Madam Speaker. It sounds as though it is a little bit of a repeat of the previous referral motion because it's the same date and it probably could be argued that it is the same set of reasons or examples that apply to this. But this is a separate bill and so I do want to go through it.Hon Member: It's brand new.TANGI UTIKERE: It is a brand new bill. If we're looking at 18 July and my colleague Mr Bennett has helpfully—thank you Mr Bennett—identified it's 33 working days. I didn't think about the two public holidays there. If we have that as our end date and work back let's think about the consideration for what is on the work programme for the Primary Production Committee. Let's think about the fact that one week will be taken out by scrutiny week which is something that is extremely important for that select committee and all select committees to do. Let's think about the fact that it will provide a level of unfairness to any other matters that might be in front of the select committee. We are talking about a truncated period of around five to 10 days at most where members of the public will be able to submit on this bill and for members of Parliament to hear what it is that they have to say about it—five to 10 days. The 10 days is probably being generous to be honest; the five days is probably conservative. My view is that it is not fair to those who are engaged in aquaculture. It is not fair to the people who have already—since this bill has been progressing through its first reading—made contact with members of Parliament to express concern about the fact that they will not have a fair opportunity to engage in this process. The level of fairness is pretty important.Hon Member: Mail is streaming in as we speak.TANGI UTIKERE: They are streaming in. We're also talking about—and I referred to this in the first reading contribution—there are approximately 1200 existing marine farms. Now many of them will be in a number of different types of ownerships. If we're going to say for example that the chair of the committee may call for submissions later this evening that's not going to be a huge period of time by which submissions will be allowed to go in. We are currently in King's Birthday. That rules out the communication level that some might be expecting where they might hear from this sort of stuff. It in my view is rather unfortunate and so I think that's a consideration that the House needs to take account of.What we are talking about in this bill—and this is very important—is a proposal to extend by blanket opportunity a 20-year period. That is a significant period of time. Truncating that period of time by which the select committee would be required to report back I actually again don't think is very fair. The argument that I am mounting this evening is one of fairness—fairness to those who are involved in the aquaculture sector and those who are not involved in the aquaculture sector but who wish to participate and have their say on this. We are not talking about a bill that is going to effectively constrain something for a short period of time. We are talking about 20 years—it's a long time. I challenge members opposite to suggest that 20 years is not a long time. We've also got provisions in this bill around regional councils and I know the Minister has a very strong view it seems around regional councils. They are part of the local decision-making and democracy process. To expect them to have a say—and this is a bill that directly affects them. I can point to the relevant section if you would like it is new section—it's like an alphabet section—165ZFHM. You don't see that very often but it's alphabet section 165ZFHM. We might call it the alphabet section. Hon Shane Jones: Why is that relevant? Irrelevant.TANGI UTIKERE: Well no. It's not irrelevant because it's in the bill. What this select committee process is about is hearing from the very people for whom this bill will have an impact. Our regional councils are directly impacted by this bill. Is five to 10 working days an adequate opportunity to allow them to submit? I don't think it is. Members on this side of the House will not support the truncated period.The other thing I will say—and then I'll conclude—is that we again are starting to see something of a similar nature in that we are in urgency but it is very clear that the Government in continuing to provide referral motions that are truncated—when they actually get them right—simply does nothing but continue to demonstrate that they actually don't seem to care about engaging with stakeholders.If they did care they would want to make ample opportunity and provision for stakeholders and members of the community—Hon Shane Jones: Marginal—marginal.TANGI UTIKERE: Well members of the community Mr Jones are not marginal. You might think so but they are not. Hon Member: They shouldn't be marginalised. TANGI UTIKERE: They should not be marginalised. Exactly. This is an opportunity for them to have a fair go. A date of 18 July is far too short. I like the idea that Mr Bennett has suggested that actually it needs to be much longer—well not much longer but a period of time longer. What we're asking for here is some fairness available. The select committee process—the only opportunity that people will have to submit to this bill which we can't say for some of the other items that are in the Government's urgency motion over today 30 May—is simply not fair. I invite Minister Jones and I invite members of the Government to reconsider the referral motion and to listen to the arguments that have been advanced primarily on this side of the House around not just unfairness but the workload that we expect of people who have been working hard in this particular precinct while we've all been here over the last few days. This is about making sure that the process is fair to everyone to participate in and giving them as much time as is possible and necessary and fair is very very important. And so unless something changes in the next wee while from Government contributions our position will continue to be one of not supporting a truncated referral period of time.