O'Connor DamienHon DAMIEN O'CONNOR (Labour—West Coast - Tasman): As my colleague Meka Whaitiri says we support the bill and we do see the value in it proceeding. The Primary Production Committee under the reasonable chairing of Mr McKelvie over there did I think a very fair job in working through all the issues. It did seem kind of technical and we could repeat them here for the Committee and for the country but people would probably go to sleep rather quickly I think. It basically came down to commercial tensions between those who are developing new ideas for old products and developing new products and how much protection we should give to them in their innovation or in their creation I guess of new products. New Zealand is an agricultural nation and we depend upon agricultural compounds to protect our crops and upon veterinary medicines to look after our animals. I read an interesting statistic today saying that up to 50 percent of the production through the world is destroyed through pest and diseases. So although we are striving to feed the world 50 percent of what we grow is wasted and then of that which we produce a third again is wasted. The world can produce enough food if we in fact use the proper products to protect crops from diseases and protect animals from diseases as well but then we have got to actually do some more work after the production. I digress a little. Saying that the balance that we were trying to achieve here was that those companies that invest money in new products needed to have up to 8 years guaranteed protection for the intellectual property but for those who took innovation—that is they saw an existing product for a crop and they thought We could use that on another crop. We will do the research and development."—they too are protected through the use of that information in getting that product certified. Certification of these products is absolutely essential if we are to continue to maintain our reputation of producing the finest quality food in the world free of residues safe to eat and indeed being the highest quality. That is done through proper application of these compounds at the right time and at the right rates. As a part-time—or hopeful—boysenberry grower and dabbling a little in horticulture I understand full well the importance of what we are passing here to ensure that nothing that someone could put on their crops could put a residue in the crop that might then be identified in a foreign market and lead to us being shut out of it. To come back to the issue: in my view the guts of it is adequate protection for the companies of their intellectual property to ensure that in this relatively small market of ours companies will continue to innovate and do the development. On the other side was the argument from some farmers—and traditionally farmers have always wanted the cheapest possible import costs because we do not have subsidies and our survival depends upon our ability as primary producers to get our products to market and to make enough money along the way to ensure that it is a sustainable production system. To come back to the point we do not want to in protecting the intellectual property for the companies—and we do see it in some areas of pharmaceuticals and in other areas where companies will invest money and then seek to reap I guess not just profits but super-profits back for that innovation. We need to keep a balance between a fair return on their investment keeping the cost for the producer down at a viable level but encouraging of course innovation. I think the select committee in general has done a good job. I am not going to go through the technical parts of this—as I say I think people are probably not that interested—but I know that the industry and farmers and the production system are looking to have this legislation passed which is why Labour is supporting it is supporting the Government and is supporting the select committee and all the good work that we have done to move it forward. I will leave it to other speakers to perhaps focus on different more technical issues. I do not see the need to do this and I am happy to leave it to my New Zealand First colleague. Kia ora."