Dairy Industry Restructuring Bill passes first reading

Federated Farmers looks forward to submitting on the Dairy Industry Restructuring Amendment Bill (DIRA) that has passed its first reading.

“Federated Farmers looks forward to representing farmers throughout the Select Committee process,” says Willy Leferink, Federated Farmers Dairy chairperson.

“Having heard the debate, it shows there will be robust discussion about the DIRA.  That’s not a surprise, given it’s arguably the most significant economic legislation to come before this Parliament.

“In many ways, we’ll be discovering key information as the Select Committee process unfolds.

“That’s why we are concerned to see the Select Committee process truncated to meet Fonterra’s Trading Among Farmers (TAF) timetable.  There are also some big fishhooks that we want to see resolved.

“Farmers like me voted for the principle of a shareholders fund, but that was two years ago and was based on a concept.  We also thought it was tied to the cooperative’s constitution and not the DIRA itself.

“Federated Farmers strongly believes farmer-shareholders must have a clear understanding of the value proposition involved.

“Over the next few months, Federated Farmers will work hard in the time allotted to consult our members and prepare high quality submissions.

“We need to reiterate that farmer-shareholders are the real stakeholders here.  Legislation must not lead Fonterra’s capital restructure and its shareholders must be left to determine the process without interference,” Mr Leferink concluded.

Please click here for Federated Farmers submission on the Dairy Industry Restructuring Act (the DIRA), involving the regulatory regime around Fonterra’s Capital Restructuring, Fonterra’s farm gate milk price setting and the Raw Milk Regulations.