Rurawhe AdrianHon AMY ADAMS (National—Selwyn): Thank you Mr Speaker. I am very delighted to be given the opportunity to take a call on this Forests (Regulation of Log Traders and Forestry Advisers) Amendment Bill. I want to reflect before I get into the substance of the bill that we're sitting here today in Budget day urgency—because in this House it's still Budget day—in the middle of the biggest economic crisis this country will see I suspect in any of our lifetimes. We're sitting here on the day that the finance Minister told us he needed to borrow another $140 billion to get us through because of the scale of this tragedy. Yet the bill that he brings to the House for us to debate in Budget urgency is for the State to dictate to foresters what they can do who they can sell to and how to run their businesses. That apparently is such a critical part of the Government's recovery plan from COVID that it had to be rushed up the Order Paper rushed into a select committee with barely any time for the industry—and in fact I was appalled to learn that the industry themselves and the Forest Owners Association had no idea of this bill until we sent it to them. That speaks volumes about the respect and professionalism of this Government in the way they treat business.In fact the speaker who spoke just before me—and if I was a little amazed when he concluded his speech it was because I couldn't quite believe that Mr Tamati Coffey stood there and had the audacity to say We know what's best for forest owners. We know what foresters need. You should all be quiet because we know best." That is probably the most accurate and honest self-reflection on the way the Labour Party views business and that exact ethos is represented in the bill in front of us.In the bill in front of us you have clauses that allow the Government to dictate to foresters what can be in their supply contracts. That is pretty chilling stuff. Again if you reflect back on the context that we're sitting in putting this through under Budget urgency is all part of the Government's—well part of the Government's recovery plan; as far as I can see it is the Government's recovery plan. That should be chilling because that tells us that this Government is going to pin its recovery hopes on a view that Government knows best and Government will be telling every business up and down this country how to operate and how to come through this. The last thing we need is for this Government to be dictating to the people who actually get up every morning invest their money and put their own assets on the line to create jobs and create the tax revenue that pays for every member of this House every member on the Government benches—for those members to sit in this Chamber and have the arrogance and the audacity to say "We know what's best for these industries and we will tell them what's in their contracts. We will tell them who they can sell to and by the way our idea of an economic recovery strategy is to pile a whole lot more cost and compliance on to business."Let me give the Government a bit of economic advice for free. I don't say this as a member of Parliament; I say this as someone who has run many businesses employed many people and actually done what so few of the Government Ministers have done and that is I have been in the private sector. Let me give you a piece of advice for free: you don't help any business by more cost more compliance more red tape.Now I know that's pretty much the only tool in the Labour Party tool kit: Government will take over Government will dictate and we will have more bureaucrats telling businesses what to do. But I tell you it does not work. If you don't believe me you can read any economic history text. You can look at any example in the world where Government has thought that it taking charge of businesses and sectors is a good step forward. It isn't. It will fail and it will hurt the very people that this Government pretends to care about. They're very good at standing up and talking about caring and compassion and kindness. You don't help anybody I say to the Government members when you destroy their businesses you tie them up in procedure and cost and regulation and you start creating structures that dictate how they can operate. We heard from the speaker before last David Bennett who made the excellent point that our primary sector is the best in the world because it was deregulated and it was forced to stand on its own two feet but it was given the flexibility to adapt to market conditions. It was given the opportunity to work out how to compete and then was left to get on with it. It didn't become the best in the world by being run out of Wellington. I don't care how good the Ministry for Primary Industries or any other ministry is. If they think they will improve business by taking it over they are wrong they are misguided and it is dangerous thinking. I can't believe that a bill that purports on the face of it to be wanting to protect minor forest owners thinks that it does that by miring them in massive cost and bureaucracy. There is only one reason that we are prepared to have this bill go to a select committee and that is because National wants to give the forest owners the chance to give their feedback that this Government denied them. This Government denied foresters any chance to feed into this bill it denied them any opportunity to be part of framing this up and it wants to now deny them any sort of opportunity to be heard through a woefully inadequate select committee process.Now we will oppose the short—unbelievably and unacceptably short—select committee process and we'll get to that debate shortly but I can tell you: we at least want to make sure that the forest owners have an opportunity to have their say. I can assure this House that members on this side are going to be doing everything we can to make sure that they know of that opportunity and that they take full advantage of that opportunity. Our members are going to be listening very very carefully to the feedback of those foresters about exactly the damage that this will do. It is not economic recovery to be dictating to business and yet this Government wants to do exactly that. I do believe that this is the first we are going to see of many attempts by the Government to impose more and more State control on industry under the guise of COVID recovery. I tell you now: it won't work it will do damage and we will oppose it all the way.ASSISTANT SPEAKER (Adrian Rurawhe): This is a split call. I call the Hon Eugenie Sage."