clarifications that I'm hoping that we might be able to get on
that piece. Thank you. I call the
honourable member David Bennett.
Thank you, Mr Chair. I would
just like to first of all thank
the Labour Party for supporting
this bill. I think it's
really important that we have support across
the House. The speeches tonight have
shown an indication, maybe through
the speaking notes, but
of certainly some of the issues that
have arisen in this bill.
Thank you. I don't give praise to the left very often, but in
this case, it is great to see that you
are actually doing the right thing
for New Zealand for once
in supporting this bill.
for New Zealand for once in
I know, I know, it's difficult for you to accept that. This
legislation is really important. It's important
for a number of factors. First
of all, New Zealand is a food producing
country. We need to have the highest
standards of food production and
for people to have confidence
in those rules and regulations that are in
this country, and that's a crucial
part of enabling New Zealanders
that are consumers to actually
have security in what they buy actually
meets the standards. And
also...
The member over there who is balder than anybody else in
this House, it is great to hear him
talking about hair loss. I'm sure as
Minister for Health, he'll work
for some Health,
Health, he'll work for some solutions in that area. But
it was really
really important for New Zealanders to
really important for New Zealanders really
really important for New Zealanders to be able to have confidence
and also for us as
an export industry and country that really exports
a lot of food products that
we have those higher standards here. So
I think it is great that we see
the government parties supporting this
bill along with the Opposition here
tonight. I think that shows that
Parliament is supportive of
the general health and well being
of all New Zealanders, but
also in supporting our export industry in a
way that I think we can all
be very proud of.
proud of. There are some changes that have occurred during
the process of this bill and those
reflect some accommodations with
our Australian colleagues, that,
you know, we've heard about the THC
and other things there that, actually,
reflect the
reflect the joint arrangements between the two countries
around food safety. That's a unique
arrangement,
arrangement, where two countries work together under the same
regulatory system. I think
that's something that's also
very impressive in our system. But
in saying that, this is not a bill that
necessarily will solve of
problems. The food safety and
integrity issue is a difficult one. There's always
going to be issues around compliance
costs and balancing that against
achieving the goals of the
highest standards of level for the safety
of our consumers. That's a difficult
balance to achieve and I would just
like to thank
MPI, personally, for the great work that they do and
their officials in supporting this
bill, but also in the way that they
actually implement this legislation.
They'll get some pressure from food
producers who think that
they are too
producers who think that they are their
producers who think that they are too regulatory. But, at the
same time, they have a
very important role to play in our system of
maintaining that integrity not
only for our consumers but also for
Brand New Zealand. So I just want
to think that we should all
thank MPI for their first great work in this
area, and it is not an easy
process. It's good to see
that the Minister is also supporting this bill passing
through. It is under
a time frame that needs to be passed, and
we recognise that. With
the contribution of all parties in this
House, I think that we can actually
work towards a food system that
is strong and maintains the values
that all political parties would
want to see in our New Zealand food
system but at the same time gives consumers
comfort and direction around some
of the issues that are involved. Is so
this is good to see it coming
through the parliamentary process.
It's not perfect. It will take some
time to work through.
But we need to be engaging and this is a very good
first step, and
with the good work of MPI and the understanding
of food producers and consumers, I think we
can all work together to getting a
very good resolution of these
issues for the
for the benefit of all going forward.
forward. I thank all members for their support. I call the honourable
Stuart Nash. Unlike the past member
I would like to talk about a couple
of issues in the bill. I just have a
couple of questions
around process, really, that hopefully the Minister
will answer. I mean, I agree
with the previous member...
Leadership bid has started already. We're going to