Heatley Phil: Wine Bill — Second Reading Procedure In Committee Third Reading 
Heatley Phil: Wine Bill — Second Reading Procedure In Committee Third Reading 
[Volume:612;Page:9494] 
PHIL HEATLEY (National—Whangarei) 
: 
 I would like to speak to these various clauses during this Committee stage and I indicated that in my first speech. But before I do I would like to thank the Minister in the chair—the “Minister of Fart Tax”—for standing up and giving us an oration on what he did not understand about this bill. When we in the select committee—I as a member and my colleagues—first received the bill and David Carter will confirm this we actually had a bill twice as thick as this one which was filled with compliance costs. We made the changes—took the knife to it and carved out those compliance costs. Yes there are still some there but the Minister seems to be unaware of that. In fact I can say that of the submitters and there were over 100 a large number claimed that the bill could over-regulate the wine industry and stifle innovation and development. That has happened in every industry in this country for the last 4 years through regulation legislation compliance costs and taxes. 
In fact the Committee will recall that on 6 May 2003 the Government went into urgency as we are now except I believe that it was extraordinary urgency and spoke until the early hours of the morning when the National Party defended the right of old ladies to have a sherry without it costing them a fortune. 
Hon David Carter 
: A mean and uncaring Government. 
PHIL HEATLEY 
: Yes. At that time the Government went into extraordinary urgency on the Customs and Excise Amendment Bill otherwise known as the sherry tax arguing that it would put up the price of alcohol to youngsters to keep them off the streets and to keep them from drinking. The interesting thing at that time was that the alcohol involved was 14 to 23 percent by volume and that affects sherry. Not many teenagers drink sherry. 
Hon David Carter 
: The teenager over there does. 
PHIL HEATLEY 
: There is a teenager over there that is right—the young member over there. Alcohol of a strength of 14 to 23 percent by volume would net the Government $18 million this year and next year. As Gerry Brownlee the member for Ilam said it would be straight out of grandma’s pocket. At that stage the wine industry stood up to the Government and said “No more” that it could not cope with all of that. That is just one compliance cost that I would like to indicate to the Minister that the wine industry has had to face. It would have had to face much more if it had not been for work by the select committee to cut out all the regulation and legislation we were faced with when we first received this bill. 
There is a rigid and inflexible bureaucracy in the European Union and we all know that. Certainly the “Minister of Fart Tax” knows that because he spends most of his time overseas on the other side of the world and not fronting up to constituents here. He knows all about the European Union so he will know that over there bureaucracy has strangled that wine industry. I am not too sure whether there are wine police in the European Union with all sorts of uncertain powers going through the books of winery businesses and having a taste of the product. I do not know whether the Minister has followed wine police in the European Union but I wonder whether he is interested in what the powers will be for wine police in New Zealand. Has the Minister considered that after a morning of visiting a number of wineries his wine officers may need a designated driver and a police escort to do their job? Has the Minister considered that? 
Hon David Carter 
: Ruth Dyson might have. 
PHIL HEATLEY 
: I could not comment on Ruth Dyson. I do not think that is appropriate. But has the Minister considered that compliance cost when passing this bill? Apart from accident compensation regulations and employment relations regulations and the increase in taxes the compliance costs originally in this bill were excessive and we took a knife to that. I have already thanked Philip Gregan for helping us out with that and I would like to do so again.