Smith Stuart; Borrows ChesterSTUART SMITH (National—Kaikōura): Can I begin by congratulating my colleague Steffan Browning who is one of my constituents. He is from the great electorate of Kaikōura and lives in Marlborough—is based in Marlborough. But I think Steffan—who has decided not to run at the next election—it is a really fitting note for you to go out on to have a bill in your name drawn. This far out from the election it will go quite a long way through the process hopefully before you leave. I know that you are very passionate about these issues.It is a great pleasure to be able to speak in favour of this bill. I support the bill not only because National is supporting it; I support it because I believe in it myself. I think it is a fantastic piece of potential legislation. I look forward to taking it to the select committee where there will no doubt be some debate but it is certainly not the aim for it to be a watering-down. No doubt we will have to ensure that the thing works and that is what the whole process of the select committee is for. I think that you will no doubt have a lot of input there Steffan. I am looking forward to it. We might even knock Mr Prosser into shape and get him sorted out as well at the same time but—Tim Macindoe: You're in for the long haul there.STUART SMITH: Yeah. Well I think—The ASSISTANT SPEAKER (Lindsay Tisch): I am sorry to interrupt the honourable member. The time has come for me to leave the chair for the dinner break.Sitting suspended from 6 p.m. to 7.30 p.m.STUART SMITH: As I was saying just before dinner the wine industry is a great case in point where country-of-origin labelling is used in a mandatory sense in almost every market in the world where wine is sold. Despite what many think it has not had any impact on local producers when export products go into those other markets. In fact I would argue that having that opportunity and that choice is really just giving the consumer the information they need to make a decision—not necessarily to be parochial about their own home-grown products but merely to make a decision based on their own tastes.I think a lot of this goes back to—it is in our DNA really. We grew up and evolved growing our own food and having a link to it. In villages the groups got together—perhaps not all the individuals who were involved in growing the food but they had a very close connection to it. Now we have evolved through the industrial age to where most of us have little or nothing to do with the production of the food that we eat. Very seldom if ever do we set foot on a farm an orchard or indeed into a vegetable patch of the commercial variety from where our food comes. I think it really just comes right back to that innate feeling that we have: we want to know where our food comes from. We want to make those decisions based on those views. I think it is really important that this bill comes forward and deals with that.As I said earlier there will be some things that we will maybe want the rough edges taken off of but that is in the spirit of this bill. It will be only to enhance the bill and make it better than it would have been otherwise. I do not believe it is anything to do with a trade barrier at all. In terms of cost I know officials will always find reasons why things could not and should not be done but in actual fact this is what consumers want. Everybody agrees with that. I do not think there is any issue there at all.I note that the promoter of the bill Steffan Browning said it is a simple bill and that may well be right when compared with many of the other bills that come before this House that are very very complicated. But it gets right to the heart of the matter of what needs to be done and what needs to be covered for consumers' rights. It is only for single-variety foods and that is for a really sensible reason I think. To go to the next step you then get into really complicated territory. I think the member really recognised that early on and thought You know after all politics is the art of the possible isn't it so let's get this bill through the House and see how it works and then think about other things later on down the track." and I commend the member for that.I remember the last time I spoke to Horticulture New Zealand's chief executive Mike Chapman who was very keen to tell me about the results of the poll that they did and I think that was alluded to by previous speakers. I think industries like that will be very delighted to see this bill before the House.I would like to circle back and just say once again good on Steffan Browning for having the luck to have this pulled out of the ballot. It is also a great swansong for the member. It is with that that I would like to commend this bill to the House.Michael Wood: Mr Deputy Speaker.Hon Damien O'Connor: Mr Deputy Speaker.Mr DEPUTY SPEAKER: The Hon Damien O'Connor."