Luxton JoDAIRY INDUSTRY RESTRUCTURING AMENDMENT BILL (NO 3)First ReadingDebate resumed.JO LUXTON (Labour): Thank you Madam Speaker. I'm really pleased to stand here and take a call on the Dairy Industry Restructuring Amendment Bill (No 3).Hon Member: Are you going to oppose it?JO LUXTON: No I am absolutely not going to oppose it because I support it wholeheartedly and I too want to commend our Minister Damien O'Connor for being brave enough to bring this piece of legislation to the House. He's keen on making the hard decisions not sticking his head in the sand and looking for the next vote. He's happy to make the hard decisions because sometimes that's what you have to do to make progress. And this will make progress. We've heard from the Opposition—[Interruption] here they go they must be getting excited—that Fonterra is going to be constrained and handcuffed and all the rest of it. But I have to agree with other colleagues here and the Hon James Shaw: where were you in the last nine years? Not the Speaker sorry Madam Speaker but where were the Opposition in the last nine years? The defenders of the farmers the defenders of Fonterra they sat there quiet as mice until this Government was brave enough to bring this piece of legislation to the House then all of a sudden it's an uproar—an absolute uproar. Well we know that the DIRA Act came in in 2001 and yes we know that times have changed 18 years have gone by things change; the industry has changed. But the fact of the matter is that Fonterra even though they've gone from having 96 percent of the market share they still have 80 percent which is still a really significant amount of the market share.One of the things that this piece of legislation proposes—and I think this is really good—is the ability for Fonterra to be flexible in whether they say yes or no to someone becoming a shareholder or actually collecting their milk. It comes back to the point that the Hon James Shaw made with regard to say a dairy farm being set up in the Mackenzie Country or in places that are actually not ideal and it's not good for the environment to be turned into a dairy farm. There are lots and lots of places within New Zealand that are fantastic pieces of land for dairy farming but some places are not and if somebody wants to set up a dairy farm there then the obligation is on Fonterra to collect their milk. Well that's not OK. What this piece of legislation also does is it gives Fonterra some protection with regard to the ability of saying yes or no because we know—we know—that the dairy sector is our largest export sector here in New Zealand. I think the Minister said it brings in around $8 billion of total GDP. Now a lot of that is based on the fact that they have a good reputation and we know that other milk factories have agreements with their farmers that they must farm in a certain way and they must show that they can protect the environment and farm sustainably. We know that the majority of farmers do farm and look after their environment because they want to pass the farm—if it's a family farm—on to the next generation better than when they received it. So they do genuinely care about their land they work really hard to sustain it and they want to do the right thing. That is the majority. It is unfortunate that some make the news and then everyone seems to be tarred with the same brush. However the fact that we have Fonterra and the dairy industry here is our largest export sector we need to protect it. So that is good that Fonterra will have the ability to perhaps say no to a farmer who is actually not going to comply with what they believe is good farming practice.I'm not going to go on any longer. I just want to say that I really really commend this bill to the House. I look forward to seeing it go through the committee stage and see what comes out at the other end. But again I commend the Minister for being brave and making the hard decisions.