Statutes Amendment Bill (No 5)

I thank my esteemed colleague the list MP from the West Coast for his very good introduction to this session this afternoon. He showed an articulate grasp of this legislation, and it is very good to follow in his great footsteps. We are looking at Part 7, and specifically at the Dairy Industry Restructuring Act, which is a very important piece of work for the Waikato and the major industry in New Zealand, the dairy industry.

Although Chris Auchinvole mentioned that we are in an environment where we are talking about legislation that does not have a major procedural impact, as a new member who has come into this Parliament I have seen that sometimes the most obvious parts of the session, such as question time, do not relate to major procedural elements. It is often a matter of being able to get one’s way out of questions and answers. That approach by the Government has been very disappointing when valid questions have been asked. We hope the Government will take a better interest in this country, its people, and the legislation that it can use to govern us, and we hope that it will respond to the questions that are asked in such a valid and conciliatory way by the Opposition. [Interruption]

💬 Chris Auchinvole: Keep going, David. Don’t take any notice of them.

No, we will not take any notice of that. It was interesting, in the last debate, to hear Labour members talk about student loans. Labour actually destroyed the Green vote by taking on that policy.

Talking about green issues, I say the Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry officials actually initiated the amendment to the legislation that is in this part. Although the amendment is very technical in nature, it was designed to clear up a potential interpretation issue. Fonterra has no real concerns about the amendment, which should provide greater certainty as to whether Fonterra is able to issue redeemable preference shares. But there was the potential that section 104 of the Act, as initially worded, did not reflect the legislative intention and would require Fonterra to pay out for surrendered shares in cash, unless a single shareholding that was sought be surrendered exceeded 5 percent. So Fonterra, in dealing with the possibility that it could be incurring a payout of that extent, is quite happy with the proposed amendment.

The restructuring that resulted in the emergence of Fonterra was undertaken in response to the Dairy Industry Restructuring Act, and that was one of the major things that the Government did in relation to the dairy industry. Although in many cases the Act provided what farmers actually wanted, it did so in a very regulatory fashion. It is an example of how Governments, if they try to regulate too much, can over-regulate or miss certain opportunities. With regard to Fonterra one sees that in other ways, such as its requirement to sell off certain parts of production. Companies such as Open Country Cheese have taken advantage of those opportunities. Those examples show that a Government that makes too much legislation, or that gets it incorrect, can cause problems later on. It is important to have legislation that is flexible and not too difficult for companies to be able to interpret and use in a market economy.

We look forward to this amendment bill being passed, so that the company, the shareholders, and the hard-working people of New Zealand who pay so much tax to this Government will actually get representation and receive a dividend for their hard work and the money they pay to this Parliament.

Part 7 agreed to.

Part 8 Defence Act 1990