Menéndez March RicardoRICARDO MENÉNDEZ MARCH (Green): Tēnā koe Mr Speaker. I rise on behalf of the Green Party to speak in support of the Animal Welfare Amendment Bill. Like other speakers I want to begin by noting the tragic sinking of the Gulf Livestock 1 in September 2020 and acknowledging the lives that were lost in that event. I want to also acknowledge our past and present animal welfare spokespeople who have long campaigned on these issues such as Mojo Mathers Gareth Hughes who campaigned last term to end live exports by sea and Chlöe Swarbrick who is our current spokesperson on the issue. I hope to do them justice in this speech. This bill is about putting animal welfare in the spotlight and acknowledging that profit cannot be the only consideration that we take when it comes to how we regulate any industry. We've known for years that there are serious issues with the welfare of the animals that are transported on live exports as well as the welfare of the workers who are part of that industry. That has been made visible by activists by the use of hidden cameras as they've exposed these awful situations. It's worth noting that in 2020 we live exported over 2 million day-old chickens and over 100000 cows. In 2008 the then Government ended live exports for slaughter on the basis that we couldn't control what happened in terms of animal welfare at the point of slaughter when animals went overseas and then we somehow weirdly retained live exports for breeding. So it has been settled for more than a decade that we can't control what happens to animal welfare when it comes to slaughter in other jurisdictions. That logic extends to how we cannot control animal welfare for breeding in other jurisdictions which is why this bill is so important. It's also worth taking into account that it is basically impossible to actually monitor whether those animals are actually going to be slaughtered or bred after being exported to other jurisdictions. So it is not logically a tenuous distinction but it is also impossible to enforce. But this is more than just what happens to those animals when they're overseas. It's about the fact that the live export process via sea is traumatic and also dangerous. I also want to note that this bill in fact captures only a portion of live exports. Live exports by sea represent only about 0.2 percent of New Zealand's primary sector export revenue since 2015. The phase-out period of two years is problematic something that we have noted in the past that activists have also noted in the past and said is way too long. Hundreds of thousands of animals have been and will be exported and therefore suffer in that time. So when this House has acknowledged that live export by sea is an issue and then we create a long phasing-in period of this policy we are accepting that people and animals will suffer as a result during this period. I also want to acknowledge that this bill will only be banning the live exports of cattle deer sheep and goats by sea. It won't include things like longfin eels which my colleague Eugenie Sage put a Supplementary Order Paper in to try and include into this legislation and was unfortunately voted down. It also does not include exports by air.It is clear that our work continues in this area and as activists have supported putting this issue on the spotlight into legislation I also note that they will be also pushing to expand the remit of the considerations we take when it comes to animal welfare and the live export part of our industry. Again it is critical that the way in which we relate to food production isn't one just driven by profit. We have to take into account our relationship to the environment in which food is grown and the welfare of the animals which ultimately will be exported for consumption. So with that we're happy to support this bill and will continue working to strengthen our animal welfare legislation. Kia ora.