confirm New Zealand First's support for this bill and commend it to
the House. Thank you. The Rt
Hon David Carter. Mr Speaker, I
first of all want to thank Stuart Smith. He
was due to take the next call, and
I asked whether I could
go first, because I wanted to respond to
the speech that's just been given by the
New Zealand First member,
Mark Patterson. In my mind,
he summed up the issue very well. He gave the
best speech that's been given by any
Government member, proving to me
he understands the situation. The
point he made was he feels a bit
sorry for the situation that the Hon Damien
O'Connor has inherited
with NAIT. I agree with Mark Patterson. It
is a bit of a mess. We did have
the opportunity of having NAIT before
the select committee for
30 minutes this morning, and the answers
given by the chief
executive, particularly, left me with no
more assurance that NAIT
was working correctly. The real issue for me
and why I wanted to be at that select
committee presentation this morning,
Mr Speaker, was New Zealand is
about to make history with potentially
eradicating bovive TB
from this country. Who is in charge of that
organisation who's actually in charge of NAIT.
organisation who's actually in charge of NAIT. And I
think what we've learnt over the last 24 hours
through this debate is that NAIT
hasn't been run well by an
organisation called OSPRI. And
I think there's a lot more work for
this parliament, and particularly
members of the Primary Production
select committee, to do to satisfy
itself that the NAIT system
within OSPRI is working well. So I commend
the words of Mark Patterson, and I
member of the Primary Production select
member of the Primary Production
my colleagues who are members of the Primary Production select committee.
They share my
concern about the potential breakdown of the progress
we're making around
TBfree New Zealand, and I think that select
committee has a significant
amount to do, and to do
quickly, particularly in light
of the fact we've now got a new chair of OSPRI
the previous one's run away, as soon as the challenges appeared. We've
got a chief executive of OSPRI who's
about to run away as
the challenges have appeared. And I implore that
select committee to take the
opportunity and accept the
invitation that was
accepted by Barry Harris, the
new acting chair, to get them back before that
select committee before Michelle
Edge leaves and
leaves and goes and apparently departs to go to Australia. I
implore the select committee
to do it. But that's not the only shambles
we're dealing with. It's
the shambles of the way this
legislation's been handled. What a
shambolic position for the Leader of
the House to come begging to
the National Opposition at about
the House to come begging to the
this afternoon, asking it to do a deal so that urgency could
be concluded by
deal so that urgency could be
here to test the Government. We were doing our job. And then, the way
that urgency was broken. The
Government has every right to break
urgency if it decides it's
got another legislative agenda
to get through. Every right to do so. And
I've seen many ministers
and leaders of the House come in and do so.
Never have I seen a
cowardly way, the way it was done today, where
a piece of paper was given to
the presiding officer at the time
who, at 30
presiding officer at the time who,
House to inform the House that urgency was broken. What a shambles.
What a shambles, Mr Hipkins. Not
the only time that he's lost control. I
wasn't here for the vote of the
Speaker, but they tell me that was
the most exciting
Speaker, but they tell me that was
Mr Hipkins has got to learn to run the House properly. I know he's a
relatively inexperienced member, but
the shambles of the last 24 hours
in this House will be noted by
upstairs, as the Rt Hon PM
considers her
It will be noticed, Mr Hipkins. I want to move now to the issue of the
NAIT legislation itself. As I said
in the House, it'll be with a heavy
heart that I finally vote for the
third reading. And I say that
genuinely, Mr Speaker. 'Cause
I am worried
genuinely, Mr Speaker. 'Cause I am
rushed through without due process on the powers that have been given
to an MPI NAIT officer. I
accept, particularly the way it was put
by Mark Patterson, this
legislation needs amending. It's not about
fixing drafting errors. And I know
that that's the reason
the Greens said they were supporting it.
Eugenie Sage took a call, and I see
Gareth Hughes nodding
his head. They had been led to believe the only
thing we were doing with this
legislation was fixing drafting
errors. Well, that's what the
officials tried to tell us
as well. But we have a bit more experience.
We delved into the issue. The big
issue here is aligning the NAIT
legislation of 2012 with the
of 2012, giving extraordinary powers
to an MPI NAIT officer. as anything else
to an MPI NAIT officer. as anything
now when this legislation is passed, MPI can come onto my
farm unannounced, they can then
seize whatever
unannounced, they can then seize
all my records, all my computer, all my bank statements, they can
seize that without giving any reason. The
police don't have that power. When
it was debated, the search
and surveillance was debated in the
House, the Greens talked about a
complete breach of human rights, a
breach of civil liberties and yet
they have supported it today
giving an MPI officer more power
than the police.
an MPI officer more power than the police. What that means is
that the police suspect
police. What that means is that the
drug importation, a drug dealership, they have to go to the courts
and they've got to get a warrant. That's
the way it should be. So what the
Government is doing is saying a drug dealer gets more rights than I
get because I'm afarm.
dealer gets more rights than I get
It's use! Look the body language tan other side of the House. We used to
care ah civil liberties. The only
one who has lifted his head
is Aupito William
Aupito William Sio who is laughing about it. He thinks it is fun that
an MPI officer should have the right
on Monday morning to come
up my drive, onto my farm, with his new
powers and without even engaging in
conversation, take my computers,
take my vehicles, take whatever
he or she wants because that's the
or she wants because that's the
That's an exaggeration. It's not an exaggeration. That is the point
we have been making for
the last 24 hours. We have been saying it's
not an exaggeration. Read the bill! The
police have to go and
get the police have to go and get the
warrant. This is about search
powers being imposed, being
given to MPI officers without them having to
get a warrant. So, Mr Sio, I
say to you, it is not an exaggeration. I heard
Mark Patterson
it is not an exaggeration. I heard
they'll have those powers. They'll never use
they'll have those powers. They'll
before too long there'll be a case of a crying farmer on
TV1 or TV3 claiming that the jackboots have
claiming that the jackboots have
arrived on their farm and they have
been treated unreasonably. Can
I conclude by making
comments around conclude by making comments around
the politics of mycoplasma bovis. We
on this side pledged our support to
the eradication of
mycoplasma bovis. We, on this side of
the House, offered to take the politics out of
the situation. I'm aware
that our leader Simon Bridges personally
phoned the PM, and said,
want politics in this, we want a whole of Government approach to the
opportunity of ridding this country
debate over the last 24 hours has done is
done is actually brought politics back into that response. Didn't
have to be like that. If the Leader
of the House could only have
organised the agenda of this House, he could
have introduced this last
Tuesday, we could have had
24 hours at the select
select committee being Wednesday, and we could be back in the House at
this stage meeting exactly the same
timetable. That's proper process.
It's that sort of arrogance from
this Government that has
brought, unfortunately, politics back
into the response. I now pledge that we
will do our best to work with the
Government but don't spring
this sort of process on us again.
Government but don't spring this sort of process on us again. Gareth
Hughes. National can choose to
take the low farm road but
we will choose to take the high
farm road. We won't be bogged down by petty politics,
exaggeration,
exaggeration, scaremongering, grandstanding. Most of that
last contribution was about politics
and parliamentary procedure, not the
issues. The issue is we are