Dairy Industry Restructuring (Export Licences Allocation) Amendment Bill

I present a legislative statement on the Dairy Industry Restructuring (Export Licences Allocation) Amendment Bill.

DEPUTY SPEAKER: That legislative statement is published under the authority of the House and can be found on the Parliament website.

Hon TODD McCLAY: I move, That the Dairy Industry Restructuring (Export Licences Allocation) Amendment Bill be now read a first time. I nominate the Primary Production Committee to consider the bill.

It’s a privilege to bring this bill to the House. The purpose of the bill is to improve the dairy export quota allocation regime by broadening access to dairy export quota markets to a wider range of dairy exporters, including those that do not collect milk solids, small-scale dairy exporters, and non-bovine dairy exporters.

The dairy industry is a cornerstone of the New Zealand economy. Dairy exports generate over $25 billion in export revenue each year. The changes being progressed in the bill will support the Government’s priorities of maximising added value before exporting, doubling the value of exports over 10 years, supporting economic growth, and growing the economic prosperity for all New Zealanders.

The current dairy export quota allocation system dates back from 2007. Under that system, dairy export quota is allocated to processors based on the proportion of bovine milk solids that each applicant collects from New Zealand dairy farmers. Between 2022 and 2023, the Ministry for Primary Industries reviewed the current system for allocating dairy export quota. The results were interesting and revealing. A key finding was that the current system had not kept pace with changes in the New Zealand dairy industry since the system was last reviewed in 2007. Since 2007, business models in the dairy industry have become more diverse. Many dairy companies are manufacturing niche and high-value products but not collecting milk directly from farmers. The current system excludes these businesses from the dairy export quota allocation, which is a lost opportunity for them and for New Zealand.

In addition, some quota allocations are too small to be commercially viable. This is resulting in some quota holders for smaller allocations opting not to use their allocation. The system also does not allow for non-bovine dairy producers to be allocated quota, such as sheep, goat, or deer milk processors. This is in spite of the fact that some quotas include non-bovine dairy products.

Finally, some businesses are eligible for quota that can include products that they may not necessarily export, while others that do export these products cannot be allocated quota for them due to not meeting the current milk collection requirement.

The bill will alleviate these barriers, allowing access to quota markets for a wider range of New Zealand dairy exports. This will open doors for new exporters and allow different parts of the industry to showcase the innovative products that New Zealand companies have to offer.

I’d like to draw members’ attention to some of the key features of the bill. Firstly, the basis for dairy quota allocation will change from a company’s proportion of milk solids collected to its share of exports of the relevant product. Using export history for dairy quota allocations will allow a wider range of exporters to explore new opportunities and markets that historically they have been unable to access. This includes through our new free-trade agreements with the United Kingdom and the European Union.

It also provides a clear pathway for exporters to grow their quota share by building up their export history across markets. For those businesses already eligible, the change will better align the allocation exporters receive with the products that they actually produce and export. This will mean that new and existing exporters can access a larger share of quotas that are relevant to their specific export focus and capabilities.

Secondly, there is a new regulation-making power to enable portions of individual quotas to be reserved for otherwise ineligible exporters or for exporters who are only eligible for small volumes. Where reserve portions are created, they will enable commercially meaningful quota access for exporters of low-volume, niche products that may not ever become eligible due to their small scale. In addition, some companies that are eligible on the basis of their export history may receive too small a quota allocation for it to be commercially viable for them to pursue exporting. Reserving a portion of individual quotas will allow those who are ineligible for quota allocation and those only eligible for low-volume allocations to have access to quota allocations of up to 200 tonnes. This will give them access to commercially viable quantities of quota and help them to develop their export history as they scale up. Quotas will be reserved on a case by case basis in consultation with existing users where there is clear evidence that there is unmet demand for exporters. Reserve portions of quotas will provide our small exporters with more opportunities to generate value for them and for New Zealand.

Thirdly, these amendments will enable non-bovine animal dairy exporters to access dairy export quota on the same terms as bovine dairy. Access to quota will allow these exporters to explore markets that may not have been commercially viable in the past. These amendments will allow non-bovine dairy exporters to apply for quota alongside bovine dairy counterparts where international trade agreements permit. This will open the door for potential export opportunities for new and innovative non-bovine dairy products.

The bill resets our dairy export quota allocation system to reflect the capabilities of New Zealand’s dairy industry. Times have changed and there are exciting new opportunities for New Zealand dairy exporters. These amendments reflect the diversity of dairy exporters; recognise the potential associated with the new trade relationships between New Zealand and the United Kingdom, and New Zealand and the European Union; provide broader access to a range of different types and sizes of businesses; and support small companies to scale up.

Building confidence and trust in overseas markets can be an involved process but with these changes, I have no doubt that our exporters will make the most of these opportunities and do what they do best: represent New Zealand as a top global competitor in dairy, and growing our exporters.

With that in mind, the Government is committed to doing what we can to support both new and existing exporters to capitalise on their dairy quota usage and access to overseas market. This will sit alongside our wider trade and export growth agenda, providing an environment where exporters are free to foster relationships with our trading partners. I commend this bill to the House.

The question is that the motion be agreed to.

Thank you, Madam Speaker. Can I say thank you to the Minister, the Hon Todd McClay, and to the Government for bringing this piece of legislation in. The Dairy Industry Restructuring (Export Licences Allocation) Amendment Bill is a good piece of legislation, and it will help the dairy industry move into its next phase of development. Like most good things for the dairy industry, in fact, it was initiated by Labour. This was a piece of legislation that we in Government pushed the Ministry for Primary Industries to investigate, off the back of new and emerging opportunities through new free-trade agreements with the UK and the EU and the reality that quotas were not being utilised as was originally intended when negotiated.

What we have at the moment—and that will shift over time—is, of course, China being the single biggest market. Other quotas into the US, small ones into the EU and the UK, and some to Japan have not been all taken up, because there’ve been greater returns in other markets. That will change over time. One of the questions we had to ask is: are we maximising the value of that? I’m not going to run through the piece of legislation the Minister has very ably outlined but to say that the original intent of the quota allocation was, of course, firstly, to ensure that maximum value was retained for New Zealand exporters, that we had in place a system that was fair and that was based on who was producing the milk—a history of vertical integration, actually, through the Dairy Board ultimately, and then we had, through the Dairy Industry Restructuring Act, other exporters, but for the most part a vertically integrated industry; as I say, almost $26 billion of exports. It is important that we continue to grow the value of that.

Peak cow was reached in about 2015-16. There may be more cows in New Zealand. There will be more milk as farmers innovate and both the breeding capability and the feed conversion of the cows improves, but it won’t be huge growth. If we’re going to get more value, it will have to be through more high-value products. The allocation of quota access on the basis of the volume of the milk collected from farmers is the historical way of doing this. The new and emerging innovative players in dairy exports—and we’ve got a number of them. I won’t list them, but Lewis Road Creamery is, I guess, one of those getting very high value for its butter in the US market, vertically integrated back down through Southern Pastures. They weren’t able to access—because they’re a relatively small company—the advantages of getting into quota markets. Clearly, there was a need to change for them and new and emerging players who will use small amounts of milk or take raw milk or raw powders from the bigger players and turn them into high-value specialty products.

The quotas are quite substantive in some markets—20 percent, 30 percent; even 15 percent. It makes a difference, and ensuring the quota management is retained with New Zealand—not all of that is the case. In fact, other countries manage access into their markets for some of our quotas. This bill does not deal with them. It deals with quota management within New Zealand and making sure that we allocate the additional opportunities or the reduction in the barriers into those markets to the people who are going to take them up, for a start, and those who show innovation and get more value from the raw materials that we have.

This is a good piece of legislation. It also opens up to the new emerging areas of goat milk and sheep milk. They’re going through a rocky road at the moment, the goat industry in particular, but I have no doubt that we will be significant players in both goat milk exports and sheep milk as we work through land-use diversification. Ensuring that this process enables them to have access to these negotiated markets is great.

I’m not going to say too much more other than Labour is proud to have helped develop this piece of legislation. It will be happy to assist the passage of this through the House to ensure that the dairy industry can grow, innovate, and add value to the raw material that farmers produce in this country. Labour has always supported the farmers of this country. We’ve shown innovation, we’ve developed the progress for them, and I’m happy to do that once again.

Thank you, Madam Speaker. I’m happy to speak to this legislation. It will be terribly disappointing to the members opposite to find that we’re going to be supporting this legislation, because we’re not those radical anti-farming guys that you think we are. It would be so much simpler if we were, wouldn’t it? It’d be so much simpler if you could just lump us in a box and say that we are anti-farmers, when, in fact, farmers are vital to the survival of all of us on this planet, and, in fact, farming, I would say, is the opportunity that New Zealand is uniquely placed to actually make transformational change in for the good of the environment and the good of the climate. We are more relevant in farming than in any other matter, I would say.

Let’s be clear: the reason that we are passionate about getting farming right in this country and why we have an environmentalist on the Primary Production Committee in myself is because we see farming as a huge opportunity for how we solve some of the planet’s greatest challenges, including the existential challenge of climate change. Why we’re supporting this legislation to the select committee is that it gives an opportunity for those farmers—[Interruption] Pardon me?

Hon Mark Patterson: This is the speech you should have given to the last bill.

DEPUTY SPEAKER: Yeah, but then I would have pulled him up, because he’s speaking to this bill right now.

STEVE ABEL: Thank you. I really appreciate it. The last bill, as I was asked about just now, was about removing protections for the environment, which is why we’re so against it. This bill is about doing exactly the sort of thing that we need to do. There are some really cool innovations happening in the farming sector in this country. There are some people who are working out, for example, how you can be producing sheep milk. I know Mark Patterson will love me mentioning that.

The potential limitation to innovation, as the regulatory impact statement says, is the current way the quota allocation is done. Those people in the industry who are trying to find ways to produce a viable economic product that is perhaps more sustainable because it doesn’t have the same impact as perhaps in other intensive forms of farming don’t have access to markets. This legislation is enabling a better and more diverse distribution of that quota, and that is a good thing. That means that we might have a current situation where there are 94 dairy companies operating in New Zealand, but only 10 of them are currently eligible for dairy quota allocation. We have farmers who are producing sheep milk as an export. There are two processors with significant Māori ownership and stakes which identify as Māori and are the two largest New Zealand sheep dairy businesses.

It is a good thing if we have greater diversity in our production systems. It is a good thing not just for the planet but it is a good thing also for our own domestic resilience in our production. If we are able to utilise arable land and fertile land for producing a greater diversity of products, we are going to end up with a more resilient food system for ourselves and for the planet. If we are able to move to less impactful forms of farming that are still profitable for farmers—because we want farmers to make a good living. You’d be shocked to hear that, Mark Cameron; we actually want farmers to make a good living, and you know well that there are farmers who are making a great living and having less impact.

It’s about decoupling the dollar from the harm to the environment. Think about it like that. If you can make two bucks out of producing something on a hectare of land that does less damage to the environment or you can make two bucks out of producing something that does more damage, maybe you should do the thing that produces less damage, and that is what it’s about when we put in place environmental regulations that one of the members mentioned opposite. Also, this legislation is about finding a pathway to getting more diversity in the allocation of quotas.

We want to see it go to the select committee. We want to make sure it doesn’t get simplified down to just being about only growing markets. It needs to be about the diversity of production in this country for the good of all, for the good of our agricultural sector, which we do want to thrive in a way that doesn’t harm the environment and the climate. Thank you.

Thank you, Madam Speaker. I rise on behalf of the ACT Party to speak in support of the Dairy Industry Restructuring (Export Licences Allocation) Amendment Bill. Just to correct the previous speaker, Steve Abel, an economic farm surplus of $2 a hectare is not going to make you a profit. It’ll be pretty hard to make two bucks a hectare.

Look, I think this is a very good bill. It may seem quite dull, technical. It’s probably the first time in history in New Zealand that anything related to the Dairy Industry Restructuring Act (DIRA) has been called dull, but that probably shows how we’ve matured as a dairy industry in terms of farmers’ appreciation for this piece of legislation and the aspects to it.

I think it’s so important to New Zealand, as has been mentioned before, our dairy industry. It’s our largest industry here in New Zealand. It is so vital to us, and trade in particular is so vital to the dairy industry: 95 percent of what we produce is exported. Now, over the years, we’ve managed to gain access across all parties to foreign markets and have been able to get benefits from that. Often, this access has come in the form of quotas of how much product we’re allowed to put into those markets. Historically, that quota and how it was divvied up between the various companies was managed by the Dairy Board back in the day and then through the DIRA legislation that created the formation of Fonterra.

This has, obviously, remained, as has been mentioned, unchanged since 2007, and obviously the industry in that time has changed markedly. As has been mentioned before, we now have a greater diversity of companies. We’ve got more different types of milk—sheep milk, goat milk, even deer milk in a few strange places; definitely wouldn’t want to milk them myself. We’ve got to move the legislation forward so that we respect these new, emerging industries, give them opportunities. As has been mentioned before, the current status quo legislation, effectively, was just, “How much milk you produce, that’s your share of the quota.” We know that that’s not a good way of going forward. It’s not driving innovation. That’s what we want to see: companies that are thinking about how they can export more niche products, getting more value from the market. That is the key for success for the dairy industry going forward and for all these new, innovative start-ups.

It was mentioned Lewis Road Creamery—you know, go back to 2007, every dairy company out there that was exporting was doing it because they had a supply base. That’s another thing that’s changed. We’ve got people that are exporting dairy products now that don’t have a supplier base. They may have a few farms of their own, but they’re purchasing milk from others and they’re turning it into products. We’ve got to move the legislation forward to enable all of this to happen. It’s a very good piece of legislation. It will help the dairy industry. I commend this bill to the House.

I too rise on behalf of New Zealand First to support this Dairy Industry Restructuring (Export Licences Allocation) Amendment Bill. I, like the previous speaker, the Hon Andrew Hoggard, got pretty excited when I saw the Dairy Industry Restructuring Act—that’s the granddaddy of all dairy Acts and probably agricultural Acts; of course, the formation of Fonterra. I thought the Minister may have been stepping in to stop Fonterra selling off their brands but, alas, that doesn’t appear in this bill. What it does do, however, is make some changes to how dairy quotas and export licences are granted, and we have heard extensively already that this has not kept pace with the changes in the industry and hasn’t been revisited since 2007. In the EU and UK trade deals, there is a high level of interest all of a sudden in these quotas, that perhaps there wasn’t previously when a lot of product was moving up to China and South-east Asia. Now there’s more interest in that diversification and, of course, taking advantage of those lower tariff rates.

I do too want to pick up on the issue of the enabling of innovation that this bill brings for those smaller companies. It’s about maximising value. It’s about identifying niche markets and just enabling some of those smaller companies to get a foothold. Who knows? We’ve heard Lewis Road mentioned, but maybe Lewis Road will shortly be at the scale of Tatua and Miraka and maybe up to Open Country at some stage. No one’s going to eclipse Fonterra, but it gives a pathway to open up some export markets, to build a brand, to build a business, to give us some diversification of businesses exporting into these markets.

I would also like to recognise the diversification into goat milk, sheep milk—I don’t think deer milking is of a scale that would see exporting. I think the biggest threat for the sheep milking is that soon wool will be so valuable that they probably won’t want to be bothered milking them, but for those who do want to persist with the sunset industry that would be sheep milking, ahead of the pending wool boom, there are some opportunities for them.

We do have, as a Government, a target of doubling exports over the next 10 years. This is a modest start. I mean, at the big end of town there’s Fonterra, Open Country—those big players—but this is a multifaceted approach. It’s not just the big players. We can’t just double the commodities or the ingredients side of the business—that’s going to be very hard—but some of these smaller players in the ecosystem can grow, and grow quite quickly if they’re given the opportunity to access export markets.

I commend the Minister for bringing this bill forward. I’m pleased it’s got widespread support across the House, and that includes that of New Zealand First. Thank you.

Tēnā rā koe, e te Pīka, otirā tēnā rā tātou e te Whare. E tū ana ahau ki te waha i ngā kōrero mō te Pāti Māori i te pō nei. Ā, e mihi ana ahau ki te Minita nāna i kawe mai i tēnei o ngā pire, ā, ki rō Pāremata i te pō nei.

[Thank you, dear Speaker, and greetings to all in the House. I stand to represent Te Pāti Māori this evening. Also, I would like to acknowledge the Minister who bought this bill before us here at the Parliament this evening.]

I rise on behalf of Te Pāti Māori to support this bill in its first reading in order to take it to select committee so we can hear from the many different perspectives in the select committee process. However, I do want to take this opportunity to add my own flavour, as I usually do, and add my two cents on the broader context of how this affects us in our rohe and our electorates as Māori, and the different kaupapa that we face in this industry as a whole.

Te Pāti Māori wishes to voice its overall concern that entrenching status quo arrangements will make it more difficult to transition to the new, sustainable economies of the future. We express our ongoing concern that as sustainable farming and food security come under significant pressure, tamariki here in Aotearoa continue to go hungry. It is unacceptable that Aotearoa exploits this environment to provide food for the world while so many whānau are experiencing food poverty due to the expodent—can’t even bloody well say that Pākehā kupu!—exponential increases in cost on top of generations of entrenched poverty.

We need to find more sustainable ways to provide more food for everyone in Aotearoa while also breaking up the stranglehold that monopolies have on food supply while it can be in production, distribution, or retail. The vision for Te Pāti Māori is to facilitate and support the transition of Māori in kai dependency to kai sovereignty. Our vision is to feed the community, teach the community to feed themselves, and empower them to feed each other.

While we support the use of quotas to ensure that the people of Aotearoa continue to have access to these products here at home, we recognise that more information is needed to understand the impacts and opportunities for Māori dairy farmers. That’s why Te Pāti Māori are supporting this bill through its first reading, in order to hear from a broad range of views from the sector as a whole and the place of Māori dairy farmers within that.

The people of Waikato have a complicated history with milk. Like other iwi, our lands were illegally, excessively, and unjustly confiscated to provide for New Zealand dairy and larger export growth. The predicament that we face as Waikato is the mere fact that 1.2 million acres of land was wrongly confiscated off us and the majority of our land is being used for farming. The majority of our people are the kaimahi—the hard-working factory workers—in these industries, like AFFCO, Open Country, etc. I find it ironic that our country is one of the largest food providers in the world, exporting the world’s highest quality of dairy and meat, yet its own workers can’t even afford the very own bread and butter that they make on their own land.

Now, don’t get it twisted: we do support development in these industries. However, we don’t need to look at the stats to know how devastated our environment is and how hungry our people are in Aotearoa. I think there’s just a clear power imbalance here. We must hear more from Māori from within the sector.

To close, I refer to an exchange between Kiingi Pōtatau and Governor Grey that I consistently go back to, and the tongikura that has led me here today. Governor Grey said, “I have in my possession a cow of great progeny. I shall send this cow into the Waikato to drink your waters dry.” Kiingi Pōtatau responded, “Just as the rains fall from the heavens and just as the waters spring deep within the earth, our people, like its water, shall never dry. We come deep from beneath the earth. We are Waikato.” Governor Grey responded, “And after my cows have eaten your crops, what else then will you have to eat?” Kiingi Pōtatau responded, “We shall be nourished by the traditional foods of our ancestors contained across the land.” Governor Grey continued, to say, “And when the foods of your ancestors are destroyed, what then will you have left to eat?” He then said, “You—I shall eat you.”

Te Pāti Māori longs for the day kai sovereignty delivers a reality where the people of Aotearoa continue to be nourished by the food grown from its own soil. We must work together to transition as a competition to resources.

Thank you, Madam Speaker. I rise in shock as we’ve reached some “Kumbaya” moment here in the House where everyone seems to be agreeing—

Glen Bennett: You’ve got the wrong party—join the Greens.

MILES ANDERSON: —on a farming-related bill. I do suspect there may have been a couple of head knocks over in that corner. As has been said before, this bill will encourage innovation, increase competition, and increase value returned to farmers. That is a good thing. I think the Primary Production Committee will really look forward to having this bill before them and deliberating over it and having various submitters before it. With that, I commend this bill to the House.

Kia ora, Madam Speaker. I too rise in support of the Dairy Industry Restructuring (Export Licences Allocation) Amendment Bill. We heard the word “aspirational” come from that side of the House, and I thought, “This is aspirational.” Then it was confirmed that it, indeed, originated from the Labour Party. Tēnā koutou, but we can still “Kumbaya”.

First of all, obviously, I want to acknowledge the opportunities this provides for Māori in the industry. It’s going to be fantastic for Māori to go from not only being at the beginning of the value chain—i.e., land ownership and milk supply—to being further up the chain, hopefully, to be able to do some processing and some more innovation.

Speaking of innovation, sadly I’m too young to have remembered the luscious creaminess of Nati Butter that was produced in Ruatōria back in the day—good for the hips, no doubt. You can’t tell that I didn’t have any! But this may provide, indeed, an opportunity for industries such as that to maybe not come back in Ruatōria—but they probably will want that, no doubt; I’d certainly encourage it—but wherever people want to do this on their whenua throughout Aotearoa.

I really like the notion of diversity. Recently, I had the privilege of going on a Speaker’s delegation where part of the visit was to Fonterra in South-east Asia, and prior to that, Sri Lanka, where there was a lot of talk about the value of our dairy products and the opportunities to add value at both ends of the trade relationship. Given that Fonterra are now looking at selling some of the consumer value-add items, it’s another opportunity, of course, for our producers here in Aotearoa, where our reputation proceeds us all around the world.

On that note, there’s been some jokes about the different types of milk we can produce, and while a few years ago I thought it was horrid to consider consuming goat milk even, I think there’s also the benefit there, because there’s a high prevalence of asthma and eczema amongst Māori, for example, and the consumption of goat products has increased in our communities. Who knows what innovation this will provide throughout Aotearoa.

That said, I think the Hon Damien O’Connor did a really good job of outlaying Labour’s position on this bill. I certainly endorse the opportunities for diversity in the industry, the opportunities for all innovators, but, of course, Māori producers to become processors as well and get further into the chain. I think this is going to be great for Aotearoa. It does promote innovation, it is aspirational, and I commend this bill to the House.

Thank you, Madam Speaker. It is a “Kumbaya” moment, isn’t it? It’s fantastic. This bill will open up quota allocation access to a wider group of dairy product exporters than the traditional cow milk traders. It’ll modernise our export quota system and grow export and farm-gate returns. It’ll drive efficiency and it’s a really important part of our plan to grow agricultural export receipts in the next 10 years.

I’d like to acknowledge the Hon Damien O’Connor, who initiated a Government review of the Dairy Industry Restructuring Act in 2023, the first in 17 years, which is what identified the opportunities to improve the quota allocation and better reflect the diversity of our dairy industry now. It found, amongst other things, that quota was being completely underutilised. The system was limited to the extent—we’ve got a much wider range of dairy products now, and this is going to allow people to grow their export base. It’s a big deal for farmers across the country. It’s certainly great for the 500-plus dairy farmers that live in the mighty Rangitīkei electorate.

The review found a number of things. One was that 10 of the New Zealand dairy processers met the requirements for a share of quota, but only half of them were actually using it. This is going to share that quota amongst other people. I think the other thing that was really interesting is that it now opens it—because of the diversification out there now, it’s going to allow sheep milk, dairy milk, and goat milk to be included in the quota system. This bill is about maximising potential, it’s about driving efficiency and innovation, and it’s about backing our primary producers and returning value at the farm gate. I am proud to commend this bill to the House.

Thank you, Madam Speaker. It’s a bit tempting—I could break out into song tonight. We could all sing “Kumbaya”. I’m not—

Hon Member: Go on.

RACHEL BOYACK: A little bit tempting—

DEPUTY SPEAKER: Go on, it wouldn’t surprise us.

RACHEL BOYACK: No, I won’t, Madam Speaker. What I will do is—[Interruption] Oh, people think I should—no, I’m not going to, Madam Speaker.

Look, it’s a great bill that has been brought to the House tonight. I, like previous speakers, do want to acknowledge my colleague Damien O’Connor. Reading through the regulatory impact statement (RIS) was a really useful read in terms of understanding the technical components of this bill. It was produced for him prior to last year’s election, so it’s really good to see that the Government has picked this up, and I’m sure that the Primary Production Committee will do a good job of listening to all the submitters.

There has been a significant amount of consultation, and I just wanted to pick up a couple of parts of that consultation just in my contribution tonight because it will be important for the committee to reconcile some of these matters. I do note that there were a number of different options considered by the Ministry of Primary Industries (MPI) in producing the regulatory impact statement and making recommendations on what changes to make to the quota system. I won’t go into all of the ins and outs of that quota system—it’s been quite well covered tonight—but one of the matters is that dairy exporters who did submit had different views. MPI landed on the option to change the basis of the quota allocation from what’s collected to what is actually exported in terms of the export history. That’s been the suggested change. I do note from the RIS, just reading through it, that it appears that Fonterra weren’t in favour of changing eligibility away from the status quo. I think that’s something that’s going to need to be teased out through that select committee process in terms of submissions and making sure that there’s good consultation.

As other speakers have mentioned, I think one of the most important benefits is to ensure that we can get the most out of our updated and new trade agreements that have come into force. Obviously, the UK and the EU free-trade agreements will bring significant opportunities into those markets, so being able to ensure that we’re fulfilling all of the quota that is available to our exporters is going to be really important. It would be a real missed opportunity to not be meeting the quota that’s available when we know there are actually players in the industry and in the market here in New Zealand who actually wish to participate in it.

I noted from reading through the RIS that there were some scenarios where people weren’t using their entire quota, but also where people had a quota and could actually go above it, so being able to actually make adjustments to those quotas for businesses so that new entrants can access those quotas, but also if there needs to be a rejig of how the quotas are allocated within the market to ensure it’s actually reflecting what is being produced here in New Zealand—it’s going to be a really a good opportunity for that to happen. As others have noted, that hasn’t happened since 2007.

I will admit, like my colleague previously noted about herself, I am a big fan of dairy milk products—probably a daily consumer of, thanks to my grandmother’s influence when I was very young, making sure I had my daily glass of milk so I didn’t end up with osteoarthritis like she had. For me, the concept of goat milk and sheep milk isn’t as inspiring to me—certainly not oat milk and definitely not soy milk—but I do think that in a country like ours, where we have opportunities to grow markets and to innovate, it’s excellent to be able to look at how we can start to expand the quotas that we have so that people and farms who are producing for export markets can access those export markets and can access the benefits of the quota system. As we know, consumer preferences are changing, we’re able to grow into new markets internationally, and so it presents a great opportunity.

It’s an excellent bill, I commend the Government for picking up the work of my colleague Damien O’Connor, and I commend it to the House.

Well, it’s really interesting to be in this debate tonight and hear the other side of the House talking about aspiration for farmers and the dairy industry and talking about trade deals and innovation and all the great stuff that we’re focused on, on this side of the House, and recognising that the dairy industry is actually a massive driver in our economy. In fact, it’s worth $25 billion in export earnings and it employs over 55,000 people—55,000 hard-working people across the country that are working in our dairy industry—so it’s really, really important that we support our dairy industry and support the adding of value to our products overseas, which Damien O’Connor spoke so rightfully about. The way that we’re going to drive our industry forward is to add value to our products.

This is what this bill is all about. It is about supporting our hard-working dairy farmers out there, and I must say, my sister, actually, and my brother-in-law were the Taranaki Dairy Farmers of the Year. That was great because in the school holidays, I send my four children off over to Taranaki to work on the dairy farm with their uncle and auntie. They love getting up at 4 or 5 in the morning, getting out in the dairy shed, and producing some of that liquid gold that we export to the world, and that’s what it’s all about.

We have navigated a lot of different parts of this bill tonight. I’m on the Primary Production Committee, so I’m really looking forward to discussing the certain areas of this bill and ensuring that, you know, we are opening up more opportunity for some of those smaller exporters and some of those exporters that do add a lot of value to our products.

We have talked about the diversity that it will also give to other dairy products such as sheep milk and perhaps deer milk and goat milk. Sheep milk is actually quite a big thing in Tukituki, in Hawke’s Bay. I’ll just do a bit of a shout-out to the Craggy Range Sheep Dairy, and they milk sheep. They’re actually in the thrust of milking sheep at the moment. They produce some of New Zealand’s best cheeses and provide a very, very good export-quality product right here in New Zealand, and add value to it, and that’s the opportunity that we want to provide by ensuring that we’ve got really good practical legislation that will enable our exporters and enable our very, very important dairy sector to help strengthen our economy and get this country back on track. With that, I passionately commend this bill to the House.

Motion agreed to.

Bill read a first time.

The question is, That the Dairy Industry Restructuring (Export Licenses Allocation) Amendment Bill be considered by the Primary Production Committee.

Motion agreed to.

Bill referred to the Primary Production Committee.