Walker HamishHAMISH WALKER (National—Clutha-Southland): This is a very sensible logical bill. It does not reduce the likelihood of an outbreak occurring but it does limit the outbreak. In some cases the officials estimated this could save the country if there was a foot-and-mouth outbreak—touch wood there isn't—between 4 and 10 percent which is somewhere between $400 million and $1.2 billion. We all know the introduction of pests and disease can be very costly to our country. You only need to look at the stink bug or the Queensland fruit fly which cost about a million bucks per bug to get rid of—Mycoplasma bovis which is going to cost the country farmers and Government over a billion dollars now. I've seen first-hand the financial emotional and social effects of that throughout Southland over the past 12 to 18 months. We know we all need to work to improve the traceability and systems and preserve our reputation of being an amazing food producer across the globe. One of our biggest value-adds as a country is the fact that we are pest-free disease-free in most cases. This bill is about making the necessary changes to ensure National Animal Identification and Tracing (NAIT) is fit for purpose and working as it should be. National kicked off the review in 2016 under the leadership of the Hon Nathan Guy and the system was found to be wanting. There were a number of recommendations not all of which were taken up by the current Minister but a number of those were. While I'm on the topic of the Hon Nathan Guy I just want to acknowledge him for all his hard work for the National Party. He announced his retirement a number of months ago. He's a hard-working MP for Ōtaki and also an excellent Minister—back in the day originally in food safety but also agriculture. Last year in the middle of last year stage 1 we saw changes made under urgency and we supported that bill as we wanted to see NAIT being fit for purpose and working as it should be. Just quickly about the select committee process—there were several issues the National Party raised throughout. One of those was around non-compliance. There's a lot of non-compliance still under way which is still a concern. However in saying that farmers have been frustrated with the 0800 number that has been set up for the NAIT system for enquiries but it's great to see that number's available 24/7 now and over the weekend. So it's good to see that NAIT the industry and the Government are working hard to ensure the system is improved. It's also been very constructive during select committee with these rounds of changes. One concern we did have was around unsafe tagging. We did manage to get in a change around an unsafe to tag" exemption for five years. It is limited for five years but in all cases if you've got a stroppy stag it's quite hard to tag and it's also quite a hefty fine for a trucking company who can get fined for. [Interruption] The members on this side of the House obviously like stags; Matt King likes a stroppy stag. We also had concerns around privacy issues and information being shared. It's great to see those were resolved throughout the select committee process. One concern with M. bovis in Southland was the fact of the privacy concerns. If a farmer does have M. bovis originally before the law was changed neighbours nearby that property weren't informed in a number of cases. That was concerning for them in terms of trading. We did have another case where a farmer was in a contract to sell I believe $300000 or $400000 worth of stock and the buyer pulled out as that seller couldn't prove that they didn't have M. bovis. So it's good to see throughout the select committee stage all sides of the House working together. I do want to acknowledge the Minister for Biosecurity. I believe he's handled this well and I just want to acknowledge all the members of the Primary Production Committee. With that I commend this bill to the House."