Guy NathanHon NATHAN GUY (Minister for Primary Industries): It was interesting listening to that member. I am not sure what planet she is on because the circles that I move in have been celebrating in a very significant Budget a huge investment in the primary sector.I was at a great event last night—the Ballance Farm Environment Awards in Invercargill. Farmers were coming up to me saying: Thank you very much for the investment in the primary sector." It is probably one of the larger investments in the primary sector—$170-plus million invested in the primary sector in Budget 2017. I told this audience of about 250 to 280 people in Invercargill last night that if it was not for the strength and the growth in the primary sector the Government would not have the choices that it was able to make in Budget 2017—helping the most needy in our community helping families changing the tax thresholds and making a significant investment into infrastructure.I see the benefits in infrastructure investment on an almost daily basis with the Kapiti Expressway. It is so disappointing to reflect on Labour and the Greens how they opposed that and now of course they are driving on it. They are silent on the fact that this Government has made the investment of over $630 million and it is fantastic for my region. This Budget will be hugely important to the people of Kāpiti and Horowhenua.But importantly I want to focus a little bit more on the primary sector this afternoon. I want to also acknowledge the winners of the Ballance Farm Environment Awards last night. They were Peter and Nicola Carver from Taranaki. Mr Deputy Speaker you may well know them. They are young up-and-comers. They are focused on the environment. They are doing the right thing. They know that their land is their legacy for future generations to enjoy.While the primary sector feels that it has been under a little bit of attack in recent times last night was a night about celebration. It was acknowledging farmers doing the right thing. In my view we do not celebrate success enough. That is why this competition is hugely important. I acknowledge the late Gordon Stephenson. He was a Waikato farmer. In 1991 he mooted the idea of a farming environmental competition. In fact he was ahead of his time. So I salute him and the brainchild that he had. This competition has done incredibly well.If we think about the false perceptions that we hear from some of the environmental NGOs and some of the Greens and some of the other political parties in this Parliament about how farmers are destroying the land it really disappoints me. Of course farmers do not get acknowledged enough. Just think about what has happened in the dairy industry in the last 15 years. Cattle have been excluded from waterways and 26000 kilometres of fencing has been done. That gets you in a plane from Wellington to Chicago and all the way back again. We do not hear political parties in this Parliament saying: "Actually our farmers have done a huge amount in looking after the environment."There is a false perception in this Parliament in my view towards the primary sector. We have had numerous water reports this year and it is really interesting how quite a few people in society here in our small country of New Zealand straight away like to go and blame our farmers. In actual fact yes farmers have got challenges but we should think about urbanisation and we should think about industrial growth. We are actually all in this together. We all have to improve. I was really disappointed to see recently that kids from a dairy farm were being bullied at school because of the occupation that their parents have. That is really disappointing to me. In my view that just states that agriculture and the environment have unfortunately met a new low.But then we think about the investment that I have been celebrating in the Parliament today—[Interruption] I am not sure whether Damien O'Connor quite supports it or not—$90 million invested into water storage projects. He gets rolled by people higher up in his political party but he quite likes the thought of the Government potentially supporting Waimea in his local community and apples growing on the plains. Yeah he is sort of giving us a sort of subtle thumbs up but he cannot influence his caucus about supporting water storage projects. This is a significant investment. It is about economic growth environmental benefits and social aspects with water going into some of the towns which has benefits as well but we do not hear that from the Labour Party. Then of course we have the critics on the other side of the coin who say: "Oh we've got global warming and we've got all these issues." Yet they do not think about mitigation measures and that is investing in water storage projects so that we have greater rural resilience particularly when we think about droughts.What is also important in this Budget is the investment that is being made in biosecurity—my No. 1 priority—and that is $18 million which I am really excited about. The border clearance levy is going really well. It was taken through the Parliament about 18 months ago yet Labour and New Zealand First could not bring themselves to support that. This is an investment that is going to keep more pests and diseases offshore.We are reviewing our import health standards. We are going to be looking at technology whether it is electronics or sniffer dogs and the like because there is more to be done there. We are going to be raising the awareness in New Zealand of biosecurity. Ultimately it is about having 4.7 million New Zealanders who are a lot more aware of biosecurity. Although myrtle rust has been incredibly challenging for those small communities in Northland and now in Taranaki—where it tends to be getting more widespread—people are a lot more aware of the importance of biosecurity. It is the same as we work our way through with the oyster farmers in the South Island as well.Can I conclude by saying that this is a very important Budget. The reason it is is that there is a significant investment in the primary sector. Importantly we are also making a significant investment to do with fisheries management—$30 million. That will allow us to roll out electronic reporting vessel monitoring systems—commonly known as GPS—so we will be able to track where all these vessels are around the country at any time. Then cameras are coming on-board all of these vessels beginning 1 October next year. This will be the biggest roll-out of technology in any fishery around the world and I am incredibly excited about it. This Budget investment in fisheries will also mean that we can do more in research particularly in fine-scale research and ecosystem health as well.Just in this couple of final minutes can I also say that it is great to see the primary sector leading the charge for the New Zealand economy today. We have just had our terms of trade out which should be an opportunity to celebrate. But no one will do that in the Parliament today. Our New Zealand purchasing power against the rest of the world is at an all-time high in 44 years. That is because dairy is up for the March quarter—18 percent. Forestry is up 11 percent. Meat returns are up as well.On a final note can I acknowledge the sad passing of my father. Our family laid him to rest last week. Can I acknowledge the support that I have had across the House. When I think about the environment I can say that my father was hugely focused on the environment and we will be out as a family planting trees on our farm on the weekend and remembering him and also the late Gordon Stephenson as well.My father had a great ability to work right across the political spectrum. He had a great ability to work with urbanites and rural people. He could connect those two communities better than anyone else could. He worked with Annette King when she was the MP for Horowhenua. I had a great long chat to Darren Hughes last week because my father according to Darren was quite instrumental in getting him involved in politics at a very young age. My father had a big involvement in getting me involved in politics and I am very proud of the fact that I have had 12 years in this place. I just want to say thank you very much for the acknowledgments across the House for the sad passing of my father. Thank you."