Guy Nathan: Estimates Debate — In Committee 
Guy Nathan: Estimates Debate — In Committee 
[Volume:632;Page:4150] 
NATHAN GUY (National) 
: 
 It was interesting to see in the last week that the Labour Party has started refreshing its caucus. I am sad to see that Mr Sutton is giving his valedictory speech next week and is to be replaced in early August by another MP. I say this because who now in the Labour Party represents the rural sector. Who on its list actually represents the farmers of New Zealand? Mr O’Connor as we all know is a washed-up tourism operator from the West Coast. Now that Mr Sutton is heading off to greener pastures who has Labour got to represent rural New Zealand? The answer is it has no one. There is no one on the Labour list with rural credentials. That is why the primary sector does not trust this Government. 
Mr Anderton had to go out and buy a pair of gumboots when he got elevated to the portfolios of agriculture and forestry. I will touch on Mr Anderton for a wee while if I may because the rural sector—after the last 9 months—has given up on him. There have been several occasions when he could have shown strong leadership for the primary sector and he has failed. When the Gisborne cropping farmers got badly hit by flooding on two consecutive occasions over Labour weekend last year Mr Anderton said the Government were just formatting policy and he was sorry but the farmers would miss out. Then it came to the microchipping of farm dogs. He worked hard with Federated Farmers. He said one thing and then delivered another way. He let them down. So the rural sector does not trust this Government; it does not trust it one iota. 
Mr Anderton has hit out with a glossy  
Primary News 
 delivered to every rural letterbox but the newsletter does not touch on the core issues. It does not touch on the impact that rates are having on rural people. All the legislation that has been passed in this House is flowing down into local government with no monetary cheque from this Government. So the rural ratepayers are propping up district councils all over the countryside. That is a huge issue for the rural and primary production sector of this country. 
It is also worth touching on the forestry sector. It has given up on Mr Anderton. Talks have broken down and the sector’s relationship with Mr Anderton is in turmoil. That is because this Government—under the Kyoto Protocol agreement that it has signed—wants to rob all the carbon credits from the forestry sector. This is a huge issue for people in the forestry sector. What are we seeing now throughout New Zealand? Very few pine trees are actually being planted. Nurseries have stopped putting them in their pots because they do not know where this industry is heading. This Government is giving very poor signals to those people. On one hand we know climate change is happening and we want to plant more trees. But the Labour Government wants to steal the carbon credits. So forestry is another sector that does not trust Mr Anderton and that relationship is in turmoil. 
I have touched a little on the demands on ratepayers out there in the district councils. Those people are propping up all the legislation being passed through Parliament. The Building Act as a result of leaking buildings costs 1 percent on the general rate. We know there are other issues flowing through from this Government in respect of food safety drinking water standards and the costly long-term council community plan process that is estimated to have cost $100 million. Where does that funding come from? It comes from all the ratepayers throughout New Zealand and is generally being propped up by the rural sector particularly out in the provinces. 
Just recently I was horrified to hear that Mr Mallard was out signalling to State-owned enterprises that they could loosen up a bit spend a bit more and diversify their portfolios. The rural sector is particularly worried about Landcorp. The sector does not want to see the corporation setting up a milk plant and to be in competition with Fonterra. The sector is concerned that Landcorp commands a higher premium than the average cocky can get right now. So I think fundamentally that policy is flawed. State-owned enterprises should stick to the knitting and drive productivity and profits back for the whole of the rural ratepayers for New Zealand.