Tisch Lindsay: Animal Products Amendment Bill (No 2) Animal Products (Ancillary and Transitional Provisions) Amendment Bill (No 2) — Third Readings 
Tisch Lindsay: Animal Products Amendment Bill (No 2) Animal Products (Ancillary and Transitional Provisions) Amendment Bill (No 2) — Third Readings 
[Volume:624;Page:19218] 
LINDSAY TISCH (National—Piako) 
: 
 It is always interesting to hear Government members talk about how great the dairy industry is and how great agriculture is but it was not so many years ago that David Lange said that agriculture was a sunset industry. 
Lianne Dalziel 
: 1985. 
LINDSAY TISCH 
: In 1985 David Lange said that agriculture was a sunset industry. It is actually agriculture that has led the charge in the growth of New Zealand. The prosperity of New Zealand has been very much dependent on what is happening in the agricultural sector. With deregulation we have seen—as my colleague the Hon David Carter said—the creation of enterprises like Open Country Cheese which David Carter and myself visited yesterday. We have seen the kind of entrepreneurial spirit that has gone into that initiative. It is a $25 million investment which was oversubscribed—that is how well the investors thought of this operation—and which is now within a short time moving into whey production. To manage the risk of that operation the company is moving into whey and the markets associated with it. 
I want to share a couple of comments with the House about Open Country Cheese. For the benefit of the member from New Zealand First Doug Woolerton who does come from the agricultural sector—as he has mentioned his father was very much involved in the dairy industry—I say that although Fonterra has to supply so many litres of milk to that company under the Dairy Industry Restructuring Act individual farmers have taken it upon themselves to move straight out of supplying Fonterra— 
Hon David Carter 
: They are queuing up. 
LINDSAY TISCH 
: They are queuing up as my colleague says. We had yesterday the situation where a Tatua Cooperative Dairy Co. supplier—and everyone knows what a success Tatua is—has taken his supply away from Tatua to supply exclusively Open Country Cheese. Now as my colleague says there are farmers lining up to supply this company next year. The member says the company is taking money from Fonterra because of the Dairy Industry Restructuring Act but I tell him that it is not dependent on that because it is making it out there in the marketplace. It has established a reputation. 
Lianne Dalziel 
: What’s the name of the company? 
LINDSAY TISCH 
: It is called the Open Country Cheese Co. 
Opposition Member 
: That member should know about that. 
LINDSAY TISCH 
: The member should know about it. Here we have a company with entrepreneurial spirit and get-up-and-go. These people—the dairy farmers of the country—are making it worthwhile. They are the wealth creators. 
Brian Connell 
: They do not get handouts. 
LINDSAY TISCH 
: No they did not need any handouts from Mr Anderton. They are the wealth creators of New Zealand. National supports their initiatives. We support their entrepreneurial spirit—not only the dairy farmers but also those companies that are making a go of it at the coalface such as Open Country Cheese. And there will be other companies that do that. National is happy to support that. As we move to adding value the point needs to be made—it has been made before but I reiterate it—that New Zealand is no longer the country producing the cheapest dairy products. We have been overtaken now by the Argentine and Chile. Those countries’ costs of production are lower than ours. We have to be footing it in the marketplace we have to be adding value to our products and that is what this sort of company is doing. 
It is no credit to Labour I can tell members; it is no credit to what this Government has been doing. It happened during National’s time when people with foresight such as John Luxton and Wyatt Creech were prepared to stand up and be counted and Wyatt Creech has led the charge with this new cheese company. 
National is supporting this legislation and we are supporting the dairy farmers and the dairy industry of New Zealand. 
Bills read a third time.