Walker HamishHAMISH WALKER (National—Clutha-Southland): I enjoyed the previous member Greg O'Connor's contribution and this side of the House we thought it was a comedy fest. Often if you're watching out there in voter land in New Zealand it can appear to be a bit of a comedy fest because if you look at the guts of this bill it does absolutely nothing to reduce complexity. It increases the cost of housing. It adds a whole heap of red tape. It increases the time to get resource consents processed. But in terms of affordability what happened to the previous SHAs—special housing accords? What happened to them? You go to any mayor across New Zealand and they will chew your ear off for literally half an hour telling you how great the previous National Government's SHAs were. Go to any mayors around New Zealand and they will tell you it reduced time for resource consents. Not only making them quicker it meant reduced time—[Interruption]And listening to the members of the Government—they're coming up. They know. We've hit a sour point. We have hit a sour point because they know this bill does absolutely nothing to reduce time cost and complexity. There's absolutely nothing in here and I encourage the members across the aisle to get up and take a call and name one thing just one thing in this bill that reduces cost to the average Kiwi.This bill does absolutely nothing to make it cheaper or easier to build a house. I've had a bit of fun: I've had a look at this bill and within this bill—I spent time trying to figure out what's the point of it. But within the bill if you look at a couple of parts the first part Part 9A Freshwater farm plans" well if you go and talk to any farmer across New Zealand they have these things called environmental farm plans which most dairy farms have now. In the environmental farm plans it covers basically anything across the farm. And section 217A "Purpose" all this does is add another complex process to what farmers already do. So now we're asking farmers to do more red tape more regulation which is already happening.Then if you go for a bit of a deeper dive if you go to Part 9B what 9B is basically saying is the Minister of primary industries wants to introduce a fertiliser tax. That's what Part 9B covers. So under cover you think this bill was supposed to reduce costs but if you're a farmer this means there is another target on your back from this Government. A fertiliser tax—a fertiliser tax—is hidden in this bill. [Interruption] What's that?Angie Warren-Clark: Have a look at the quantities of nitrogen. HAMISH WALKER: Exactly. The Government member's just admitted there will be a fertiliser tax in this bill so post-election there will be a fertiliser tax. I acknowledge the member for announcing that.Now if we dig a bit deeper inside this bill which absolutely does nothing to reduce cocks—costs time and complexity—Andrew Bayly: What was that?HAMISH WALKER: —if you look at National's—sorry Andrew Bayly I was looking at you for too long there.If you look at what National did in the previous Government the RLAA—National's Resource Legislation Amendment Act—this was passed in 2017 which basically reversed subdivision presumption saying unless specifically restricted by a district plan you can subdivide. For anyone out there watching Parliament TV tonight—I'm sure you're enjoying it—if you've gone to build a house at the moment it's a complete nightmare. Often to get through resource consent it not only takes months but it takes years and the cost involved is absolutely horrific. If you look at this bill it only makes it harder and slower for people to subdivide to build homes. The repeal of the fast-track provision will only slow down resource consent.I urge any Government Minister or MP to get up and tell this House one aspect just one aspect of this bill that will make it easier. [Interruption] Angie Warren-Clark what's one thing? Name one thing—one thing. Deborah Russell—one thing. Greg O'Connor you're a smart man—one thing. See none of them can name one thing across the House to make it easier. Chlöe Swarbrick the Hon James Shaw—one thing.Hon James Shaw: Protects the environment.Chlöe Swarbrick: Protects the environment.HAMISH WALKER: Protects the environment. At least the Greens members can answer—at least the Green members can answer. But what's concerning is in here Part 9B fertiliser tax. So the Green members said it protects the environment aka "Farmers we're coming after you". If you look at the good work that farmers have already done you only need to look at the 29 water catchment groups across Clutha-Southland—they're voluntary. Farmers give up their own time to improve the waterway and if you look at the quality of water in Southland yep it did degrade from 2001 to 2012 but it's improved quite a bit from 2012. That's because farmers work together.This is an example of the difference between the Labour Party and the National Party. The Labour Party prefer to work at farmers have targets on farmers' backs as opposed to the National Party; we like to work with farmers. So farmers out there Part 9B the fertiliser tax is very very concerning. [Interruption] The Labour Party members all of them there yelling out are city dwellers—they're all from city. What about the most polluted water in New Zealand? That's in the Auckland CBD. They're yelling at me over there and they know that the most polluted water in New Zealand is in the Auckland CBD. What about your fellow city dwellers dumping rubbish which is more often deliberate than the case of say cattle breaking through a fence? But we know this Government has farmers in their eyesight and that's why Part 9B the fertiliser tax is another example of the Government coming after farmers. This bill is a dog with fleas and it needs to be put down. It needs to be put down as opposed to debating it in here tonight. We are wasting the House's time with this bill. This bill adds cost time and complexity; it does simply nothing to improve the process to make it more affordable for housing. Chlöe Swarbrick: I'll tell you what's delaying this process is this speech.HAMISH WALKER: I encourage any Government member to take a call. [Interruption] You going to take one?Kiritapu Allan: I could just to respond to this—it's wonderful.HAMISH WALKER: I'll sit down if you take one. Kiritapu Allan: I almost feel like it.HAMISH WALKER: Are you going to take one? They're tempted. They were thinking about it. They're over there looking through the notes. They're looking for one thing that's going to help the punter out there. They're looking through their notes and they can't find one thing that reduces the cost of housing. For those reasons we don't support this bill. Thank you."