Senator FORSHAW (10:29 AM) —The opposition is aware of the New Zealand government's request or requirement for an extra representative on the board and we believe that it is a reasonable requirement and we support it. However, we cannot support this amendment. We support the principle but we cannot support this government amendment because we do not believe it is the appropriate way to provide for additional representation from the New Zealand government. The government amendments seek to increase the number of representatives from the New Zealand government from two to three but, in doing so, to offset that by reducing representation from people representing human health and safety from four to three.

We believe that that aspect is unacceptable and we do not believe that that area should lose a representative on the board in order to accommodate an extra representative from the New Zealand government. We should be able to find a solution to expanding the New Zealand government representation on the board without having to target other areas that are equally, if not more, important—without any disrespect to our New Zealand colleagues. We should not be resolving this issue by simply reducing representation from other extremely important areas. We believe that this issue can be resolved by further negotiation and by a subsequent amendment, if necessary, at a later time but we are not prepared to support this government amendment today.