Guy Nathan: Statutes Amendment Bill (No 2) — First Reading 
Guy Nathan: Statutes Amendment Bill (No 2) — First Reading 
[Volume:642;Page:12112] 
NATHAN GUY (National) 
: 
 For all those people now out there in their vehicles heading up the Kapiti coast snarled up in congestion I am taking a call on the Statutes Amendment Bill (No 2). They will interested in the comments I want to make as will the farmers listening out there in their cowsheds while they milk the cows. I am sure that they will be interested in the comments I am about to make because I wish to cover Part 6 which talks about the Fisheries Act; Part 10 which talks about the New Zealand Horticulture Export Authority Act; and quite an important issue in relation to Part 14 the Veterinarians Act 2005. 
Dr Richard Worth 
: Quite a panoramic sweep. 
NATHAN GUY 
: Mr Worth is right it is very panoramic indeed. This legislation is very much a tidy-up bill. Mr Finlayson made a very good comment before in relation to the third reading last week of a Statutes Amendment Bill. We now have the Statutes Amendment Bill (No 2). One would think that if the Government were on to it it would have had this all tidied up in one bill. But once again the Government Administration Committee will have to sort that out. 
The bill amends the Fisheries Act 1996 and provides that the Minister will be able to determine that stock or species subject to the permanent moratorium will not be subject to the quota management system. The important thing to realise here is that apart from tuna species there are only very small aspects that are not in the quota management system. It is really just a bit of a tidy-up around the Fisheries Act 1996 which National supports. 
Part 10 relates to the New Zealand Horticulture Export Authority Act. In essence this provision encompasses the New Zealand Fruitgrowers Federation New Zealand Vegetable and Potato Growers Federation and New Zealand Berryfruit Growers Federation and brings them into one collective that will be called Horticulture New Zealand Incorporated. Also a big part of this provision is that it will allow the New Zealand Nurserymens Association to be rolled into and encompass the Nursery and Garden Industry Association of New Zealand. I am sure that you Mr Deputy Speaker as a very passionate gardener on the weekends will be interested in this part. 
In essence I want to talk about the horticulture industry because it is an industry that is very important to our primary production. It exceeds about $4.7 billion and it does a very very good job in terms of industry-wide issues. It is an important lobbyist for the 7000 commercial fruit and vegetable growers in New Zealand. The big issues they have at the moment are environmental and employment issues. The Government is very keen to attract employees from overseas into New Zealand to help pick our fruit and vegetables. I am interested to see that they will be paid more than our New Zealand workers because they will have their accommodation supplied and their transport costs supplemented. Also half of the cost of their air travel will be paid for. Those are the issues that this industry has to come to terms with. It is a very very important primary produce industry that nets about $4.7 billion into our economy. 
 The other provision I wish to touch on relates to the Veterinarians Act in Part 14 of the bill. In essence this will do just a bit of a tidy-up in relation to the registration and disciplining of veterinarians. I dug out the annual report of the Veterinary Council of New Zealand and I looked at just how many complaints the council has in a year. It says that there is a chance that a veterinarian will be involved in a formal complaint at some stage in his or her career. When I delved into this a bit I thought it was interesting that New Zealand veterinarians—Massey University has the only veterinary school in New Zealand—are likely to be complained about more than veterinarians from overseas. I thought that probably deserves a bit of comment. In essence that is because overseas veterinarians are here for a shorter time than New Zealand veterinarians. 
We have a shortage of veterinarians in New Zealand. Interestingly in the Primary Production Committee earlier in the year we heard from the Minister for Food Safety Annette King about how we were trying to attract veterinarians from around the world. One would have thought that we should have been able to attract more people to be trained as veterinarians at Massey University here in New Zealand. But what are the Government and the New Zealand Food Safety Authority doing? They are going on trips to London to try to attract veterinarians to New Zealand. 
Those listeners who are hosing down their cowsheds at the moment or who are out there in the drive time snarl-up and congestion on the Kapiti Coast will be very interested to know that from 14 to 20 October 2006 the Government spent $30000 at an expo in London trying to attract 10 veterinarians and it struggled to get those 10. Then from 1 to 10 July it spent $21000 on a programme trying to attract 12 veterinarians and it got six. So there is a huge cost involved in our trying to attract veterinarians to come to New Zealand even though I think fundamentally we have a very good qualification here in New Zealand at Massey University. We should be doing more to attract students to get involved in becoming veterinarians for New Zealand. 
Just to sum up this bill is really just a tidy-up. National will support it going to the Government Administration Committee which will have to do some work and explore some of the things that Mr Finlayson and I have raised here today. National supports the bill and we have some questions that need to be touched on particularly on Part 14 with regard to the Veterinarians Act 2005.