Sage Eugenie; Rurawhe AdrianHon EUGENIE SAGE (Minister of Conservation): Kia ora koutou. Tēnā koe Mr Speaker. Why does the National Party hate forestry so much? Our third biggest primary sector generating $6.9 billion last year. It was under National that we saw thousands of hectares of forest removed because of their hopeless administration of the emissions trading scheme failing to provide the certainty of a decent carbon price. We saw thousands of hectares in the Waikato converted to dairying away from forestry. And now all we have heard from the Opposition in this debate is a litany of undervaluing of the forestry sector failing to recognise that this bill in putting in place a registration system for log traders and forest advisers is seeking to improve the quality of advice through the sector. It is something that the four regional workshops that Te Uru Rākau organised highlighted was an issue for those small growers—which over the 520000 hectares of the forestry estate in New Zealand that those small growers have are 30 percent of our plantation estate. Yet when they go to sell logs they are often disadvantaged because they are not abreast of all of the markets. We are seeing them potentially not earning the revenue that they deserve for that investment in growing those trees and in providing logs.So what this bill does is establish a registration system. But then the National Party hates regulation. It much prefers a laissez-faire system so that the big corporates can benefit and smaller people can't. So this is about improving the protection for those small growers so that they've got access to good quality advice from people who are registered. In the current voluntary system only 10 percent to 12 percent of forestry advisers are registered through the Institute of Forestry.This bill is yet another example of this Government's belief in the forestry sector. As Tamati Coffey noted this Government has set up Te Uru Rākau to promote and advance the sector to give it the recognition that it deserves not just a small unit within the Ministry for Primary Industries as the forestry unit was under National. This Government is ambitious with the billion trees programme planting not just exotic species for timber but also native trees. It recognises the benefits that trees have for sequestering carbon for protecting our soils from erosion and strengthening protection around our waterways. So this Government has an ambitious plan for forestry. This bill is part of it because it is ensuring that those smaller forestry growers that will make up at least 40 percent of the wood supply from the 2020s onwards actually have access to registered advisers and registered traders. And one of the key things the bill also does is ensure that there is log supply going to domestic processors. A lot of those small growers are trading and having all those logs go overseas those big piles of logs that we see on each of the wharves and the ports. We need more wood processed here in Aotearoa. Red Stag Timber has shown what it is possible to do with sophisticated processing.We need more houses built. This Budget is delivering another 8000 houses. We can build those out of wood. It is a good product for sequestering carbon. This Government wants a healthy forest industry. This registration bill is about helping to achieve that. It's interesting that the Opposition criticises it but at the same time it's going to vote for it. I commend the bill to the House.ASSISTANT SPEAKER (Adrian Rurawhe): This is a split call. I call David Seymour five minutes.