Guy Nathan: Dairy Industry Restructuring Amendment Bill (No 2) — Second Reading In Committee Third Reading 
Guy Nathan: Dairy Industry Restructuring Amendment Bill (No 2) — Second Reading In Committee Third Reading 
[Volume:644;Page:13765] 
NATHAN GUY (National) 
: 
 I wish to thank that member Tariana Turia for her contribution on the Dairy Industry Restructuring Amendment Bill (No 2). I enjoyed listening to the very sound debating points she put in front of the House today. This is a very important bill for the cornerstone of New Zealand agriculture. I have also enjoyed hearing the debates from the Green Party and in particular New Zealand First because I want to take up the challenge from New Zealand First around what Mr Woolerton has been talking about in terms of Fonterra looking to the future around its capital structure regime. Mr Woolerton has spoken two or three times today and it seems that during his addresses he has been all over the park. On the one hand he has been saying that we do not want Fonterra to look offshore to overseas investors or even to internal New Zealand investors and on the other hand he is saying we support competition. I believe that this bill will allow greater competition in the New Zealand dairy industry. Where Fonterra in the past has probably had a monopoly on some of these overseas markets this legislation will let the smaller players— 
Hon David Carter 
: They did have a monopoly. 
NATHAN GUY 
: The chair of the Primary Production Committee David Carter points out that it did have a monopoly. The smaller players—there are about seven of those smaller producers in New Zealand making up about 5 percent of milk that is exported—now have the ability to get into those markets. But I say to Mr Woolerton and New Zealand First who are wading into this debate it is really up to New Zealand farmers. Tariana Turia has acknowledged that today. New Zealand dairy farmers will make that decision without New Zealand First wading into the debate. New Zealand farmers are smart enough and Fonterra I believe is smart enough to recognise that we need to get Fonterra’s suppliers to agree to 75 percent of this to get it through. Seventy-five percent of farmers need to look outside their own backyards to make a decision in the direction of where Fonterra wants to go—not be driven to listen to what New Zealand First is saying because it seems that New Zealand First is keen to look inwards instead of outwards. This is a big decision that New Zealand farmers need to make and they will make it in their own time when they get all of the facts. I am not sure New Zealand First is full of the facts when it joins this debate today because listening to Mr Woolerton I am confused as to where his party actually sits on this issue. 
The other important thing to realise is that this industry is producing 15 billion litres of milk a year. When one thinks about it one realises that we cannot export that fluid fresh milk around New Zealand so it has to be processed. The money for all New Zealand dairy farmers is in the fluid fresh the liquid milk market around the world. That means investing in worldwide markets. But New Zealanders cannot do that without opening it up. So the challenge to New Zealand First is whether it wants to see the status quo with Fonterra or whether it wants to see Fonterra move into the worldwide markets. I say to Mr Woolerton that New Zealand farmers not the influence of New Zealand First will make that decision. 
The important issue with this bill—and we are in urgency—is for us to realise that it will allow greater competition in the New Zealand dairy industry. New Zealand dairy farmers have other external factors tthey are concerned about. I believe those external factors will be further debated in the House this afternoon. Farmers are concerned about the emissions trading scheme and it will be interesting to hear the debate on that this afternoon. Agriculture is set to join that scheme in 2013 and I know that some of my colleagues will make valuable contributions this afternoon around that issue. We should not get drunk in charge and follow willy-nilly and be world pace-setters in this climate change debate because we need to weigh up the economic opportunities and our environmental obligations. That is what the members of the Green Party and the Maori Party have been talking about this afternoon—balancing those issues. If we look at where New Zealand First members would like to see this whole debate go we see they believe we should just stay in and look inwards instead of outwards. 
Those are some of the challenges we need to think about addressing in the future—not having knee-jerk environmental debates such as Labour wants to have. We need to make sure we are investing in the future of research and development to ensure we are changing the microbes in the rumen of the cow’s gut and ensuring we are making changes at the grassroots level. The most important thing with an emissions trading scheme is to change behaviour—not to have it overall as a tax which will just be struck down on each individual farmer. We need to change behaviour and I am acknowledging that but we need to ensure that the emissions trading scheme will direct the change of behaviour and not be just another tax. We have seen the Government come into the House to try to pass the “fart tax”. We have seen the Government come in to try to impose a carbon tax. We need to be mindful of weighing up the environment and the economic drivers. 
In conclusion the Dairy Industry Restructuring Amendment Bill (No 2) is very important. We are in urgency on a Wednesday afternoon and the Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry has had this lurking around on the Order Paper for the last month. Now we find ourselves in urgency because it is very important that this bill is passed and gets the Royal assent before the end of the year. So National is supporting the bill. It is fortunate that we have had the good work of the Primary Production Committee which has focused on the grassroots to ensure that some of the good changes in this bill will help as we move forward accepting the challenges for the New Zealand dairy industry that lie ahead of us.