General policy statement
This Bill amends the Dairy Industry Restructuring Act 2001 (the DIRA) to prevent the expiry of certain provisions in May 2018 and provide for future periodic reviews of the need for regulation to promote the efficient operation of dairy markets in New Zealand. It also removes an element of the regime that contributes least to the DIRA’s efficiency and contestability objectives.
Part 2 of the DIRA regulates 4 key aspects of the New Zealand dairy industry: the dairy export quota management system (subpart 3), herd testing and the New Zealand dairy core database (subpart 4), the activities of Fonterra, to promote the efficient operation of dairy markets in New Zealand (subpart 5), and the monitoring of Fonterra’s farm gate milk price (subpart 5A).
The need for the DIRA regulatory provisions on Fonterra in subparts 5 and 5A of Part 2 is contingent on sufficient competition developing in New Zealand dairy markets. If or when sufficient competition develops, competitive pressure will drive the efficiency of New Zealand dairy markets, removing the need for the DIRA regulatory provisions to do the same.
An automatic expiry of key provisions in subpart 5 and all of subpart 5A in the South Island was triggered in 2015. A statutorily required report on the state of competition, undertaken by the Commerce Commission, found that competition is not yet sufficient and that subparts 5 and 5A should remain in place for the time being. The report also recommended that any transition pathway to deregulation should take a staged approach and initially involve removing elements of the regulatory regime that contribute least to efficiency and contestability.
Removal of default expiry, and future reviews
To ensure the efficient operation of New Zealand dairy markets, the Bill prevents parts of subpart 5 and all of subpart 5A from expiring in the South Island, removes the automatic expiry provisions and the market share thresholds that would trigger them, and establishes a process for periodic reviews of the state of competition and the need for regulation of dairy markets in the future.
The Bill requires that the Minister must, during the year beginning 1 June 2020, commission the next report on the state of competition. Following receipt of the report, the Minister must publish a response in the Gazette and on the Internet site of the Ministry for Primary Industries. The Minister’s response must include a statement as to whether the Minister intends to promote legislation to repeal or amend subpart 5 or 5A before requesting another report. If subparts 5 and 5A are not repealed or amended, the Minister must request a further report on the state of competition no later than 5 years following his or her response.
The Bill also enables a more flexible process for future reviews of the state of competition. Future reviews will allow the Government to assess whether competition is sufficient to ensure the efficient and contestable operation of dairy markets in the absence of the DIRA regulatory regime, and to determine the appropriate regulatory response.
Allowing Fonterra discretion to accept supply from new dairy conversions
The DIRA requires Fonterra to accept all applications to become a shareholding farmer (with limited exceptions that relate to minimum volume to be supplied and transport costs). This is the “open entry”
provision. The “open exit”
provisions of the DIRA require that Fonterra must allow shareholding farmers to withdraw without unreasonable restrictions or penalties.
The open entry and exit provisions reduce farmers’ switching costs and risks by enabling them to freely enter and exit Fonterra. This lowers the barriers to entry for independent processors by enabling farmers to leave Fonterra and supply someone else, with the confidence of being able to return to Fonterra in the future. This ensures contestability of the market for farmers’ milk and simulates the competitive pressures that Fonterra would face in a competitive market.
The Bill establishes a third exception to open entry, which allows Fonterra discretion to accept applications that pertain to new dairy conversions. This exception applies only where an application relates to a new collection point that has not been used to supply milk in the 5 years immediately prior to the application being made to Fonterra. In some situations, a new collection point may be established on existing dairy land. The Bill provides that these situations are not captured by the new exception.
The effect of the provisions for the third exception is that Fonterra has discretion to accept an application to become a shareholding farmer that relates to a new collection point if less than 50% of the land used to supply milk to that point has been used as dairy land in the previous 5 years. The exception allows for existing dairy farms to expand and the references to 5 years allow for land use to change over time to the most efficient use.
To facilitate the application process for Fonterra and farmers, the Bill requires entering farmers, who are not already Fonterra suppliers, to provide evidence that their farm is not a new dairy conversion. The Bill establishes several types of commonly held information as being conclusive evidence that must be accepted by Fonterra.
Other minor and technical amendments
The Bill establishes a new regulation-making power to enable monitoring of the factory gate market (processors selling raw milk to other processors). This mirrors an existing regulation-making power that allows the Government to monitor the farm gate market (farmers selling raw milk to processors).
The DIRA provides that Fonterra pay a levy to cover the Commerce Commission’s costs of enforcing the DIRA. The Bill simplifies the existing Fonterra levy process to no longer require the Minister for Primary Industries to make annual regulations to recover the levy from Fonterra.
The Bill also makes amendments to reflect changes in responsibility for the management of the New Zealand Dairy Core Database.