Wool Board Restructuring Bill

Wool industry participants now had an opportunity to help direct the future course of their industry, associate agriculture minister Damien O'Connor said today.

Mr O'Connor said that Cabinet had approved plans to dissolve the Wool Board and to put its assets into the hands of growers through a range of industry-good and public-good organisations.

He said a bill would now be drafted, and it would be introduced into Parliament by late November and referred to the Primary Production Select Committee. Submissions on the bill could be called before Christmas, and the Government would aim to pass the bill by early May next year.

Mr O'Connor encouraged farmers and other participants in the wool industry to make sure they took the opportunity to have a say about the proposed legislation.

"It is important for people to have a say about the future shape and direction of their industry. The select committee process enables people to have that say. When the bill is drafted, the select committee will advertise for submissions in all the major newspapers, and I would hope that many wool growers and others affected by the dissolution of the Wool Board will seize the opportunity to make a submission and have their voice heard.

"As a member of the Primary Production Select Committee, I am looking forward to receiving submissions and to ensuring this legislation is as good as we can possibly make it. The wool industry is an important one for New Zealand. In the year to March this year, wool exports earned $943 million."

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