Ardern Shane: Meat Board Amendment Bill — In Committee 
Ardern Shane: Meat Board Amendment Bill — In Committee 
[Volume:633;Page:4721] 
SHANE ARDERN (National—Taranaki-King Country) 
: 
 It gives me great pleasure to follow on from my good colleague—my good farming colleague I hasten to add—Nathan Guy. Is it not an indictment on the Government that the Minister in the chair David Cunliffe is a Japanese sheep station owner from west Auckland? Does that not demonstrate to us the depth of rural support that this Government now has? For sure the Minister in the chair is learning very quickly about issues of immigration but I am sure he has learnt very little about issues concerning the Meat Board Amendment Bill at this point in time. 
My good colleague Colin King made some very good points. The meat industry is very important to the economy of this country. A total of 240000 tonnes of beef goes to the US. I say to the Government while I have this opportunity that it would be absolutely marvellous if it could focus for more than 30 seconds on what is important in this country and do some work to build relations with the US rather than doing what it has been doing recently which is to destroy what has taken years to build up. Would it not be absolutely marvellous in terms of health funding education funding road building or even God forbid some spending on biosecurity if we could secure a free-trade agreement with the United States of America? Would that not be wonderful? This bill is all about quota access but we would not need quota access if we could get a free-trade agreement with the US. These amendments would be redundant if we could achieve a free-trade agreement and get access to that lucrative market where we export so many of our products. 
The Minister in the chair who is from west Auckland and is struggling a bit with immigration issues at the moment does not even know that. This Government does not even know that. Aha the Minister in the chair has been replaced! We now have a much more learned earthy Minister in the chair Mahara Okeroa. It is good to see yet another farmer—from somewhere down in the deep south—occupying the chair. He is a good Naki boy at heart so I know he has been on a farm at least once in his life—somewhere around Parihaka. It is good to see a replacement Minister in the chair who is closer than David Cunliffe is to the farming sector. 
I also say to the Government that it would be absolutely marvellous if it could focus for more than 5 minutes—like the very good Primary Production Committee which has done the work on this bill—on the issues that are important to the economy of New Zealand. The Government should focus on things like for example biosecurity. The same department advises the Minister on that as on the meat industry but the Minister himself is not a farmer and would not have a clue about farming. He knows nothing about the effect that some of his silly nonsense has on this economy. I say to the Minister—wherever he may be; I am sure he will be listening in to this debate because it is very important to New Zealand and to that Minister—that he does go out and he does say the right things. In fact when we hear that Minister from the hard left give a speech to farmers we would think he has had a road to Damascus experience because he sounds as though he has moved over to the right of centre. But I can say to farming folk out there—and they are starting to know this already—that that Minister talks big and does nothing. 
The Minister told the bee-keepers and the farming sector in the South Island which depends on pollination from the bee industry that the Government would look at eradication of the varroa bee mite. Then his associate the Minister for Rural Affairs Damien O’Connor said he thought we should attempt eradication and we should do it now. But no the Minister got on a plane and went overseas on a leftist little junket around some of the socialist countries that the Minister currently visits. While he was away Damien O’Connor’ big words and the Minister’s big words all went into hot air and what did we hear last night? We heard this Government say there was no point in trying to eradicate the varroa bee mite in the South Island. That opportunity has gone; we are to give it away and forget about it. 
I guess we can say to all of the recreationalists fishers hydroelectricity producers and other people like that out there that that is what will happen with regard to didymo as well. It will be in the North Island before we know it. It is no use going to the Minister. If people in those industries are listening out there and are concerned about that issue they will have to front up and eradicate didymo themselves because there is no point in going to this Government. It will do absolutely nothing to protect the borders with regard to biosecurity. There have been 229 new incursions in the last 5 years and that Minister stands up and says we have “the best biosecurity in the world”. Well I can say to the Minister that with 229 new incursions in the last 5 years God help us if we had had a poor biosecurity system. I say to the bee industry and farming folk out there at the moment that that is what they will get from this Government. To the meat farmers out there who are actually earning the income for this country I say does it not—