O'Connor Damien: Financial Review Debate — In Committee 
O'Connor Damien: Financial Review Debate — In Committee 
[Volume:624;Page:19415] 
Hon DAMIEN O'CONNOR (Associate Minister of Agriculture) 
: 
 I take the opportunity to speak on the review of the Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry. The report back from the Primary Production Committee is testament to the lack of issues the select committee exposed when going through the review. I compliment all the staff at the ministry on the brilliant work they are doing. Those main industries agriculture and forestry are of course the core of export generation in this country. As a Government we acknowledge that and I think it is important for us to acknowledge it as a Parliament at this particular point. 
I will run through a few of the operational issues that the ministry has been confronted with. Biosecurity which was raised very briefly by the Green member Ian Ewen-Street is a very important issue on which the ministry focuses. The ministry has been party to Exercise Taurus which the Green member as a member of the select committee has observed. It is very important that we have structures in place so that the ministry can react to any breach of biosecurity in this country. I think that it has done a lot of excellent work; that is supported by the fact that the select committee did not identify any problems in that regard. 
The issue of genetic modification was not raised by the Green member—I was quite surprised. He was very focused on the “clean and green” issue. The ministry and this Government is very focused on clean green food production. We are cautiously approaching the issue of genetic modification. Officials are working through all those issues and in spite of the Green member’s cynicism we will not have widespread production of genetically modified organisms. We will look at that science and investigate it very carefully as officials are doing before we move ahead in that area—we must do. 
The officials are involved heavily with trade negotiations. They are providing advice to the Minister Jim Sutton. It is very important that we break down the barriers to trading our clean green food products in the world markets. It is a very big part of the focus of the ministry and it will continue in that area. 
The Sustainable Farming Fund has to be one of the highlights of the Government’s initiative in terms of agriculture and forestry. It has committed another $10 million on an annual basis to that fund which is assisting hundreds of projects up and down the country to look at better ways of utilising land labour and technology in order to give us sustainable production into the future. Those are projects that would not otherwise get under way. They needed seed funding and the support of officials from the ministry and we have seen some brilliant outcomes from those projects. Again I compliment ministry staff the Minister Jim Sutton on his initiative in initially putting that programme in place when Labour came into Government and the Government on continuing to fund it. 
Ian Ewen-Street 
: Why didn’t the Nats speak on this? 
Hon DAMIEN O'CONNOR 
: I would just like to highlight those things for the member. He quite rightly pointed out some of the positive things that are happening and I thought I would follow on from his good initiative. 
Ian Ewen-Street 
: Why didn’t the Nats speak on this? 
Hon DAMIEN O'CONNOR 
: I am not sure why the National Party is not speaking about this. It has traditionally seen itself as the so-called champion of the agricultural sector. I know and farmers know that we as a Government have done more to focus on sustainable production into the future than the National Party has. We have not been bogged down by ideology about producer board reform. We have worked with every industry to put in place better law to assist development into the future. There are some challenges ahead of us for a number of those sectors—particularly the apple industry and horticulture—but industries are getting on with it in the knowledge that this Government will assist them. It will not tie them down or tie them back to an ideology as the National Government did. 
The issue of water its allocation its utilisation and the protection of its values is very very important. It is one of the big areas that the ministry has focused on. The ministry is doing a lot of work on that. It is in the early stages of working through consultation. As part of the Water Programme of Action it has undertaken consultation with communities in 27 centres in New Zealand. That programme of action is vital for all New Zealand—for the production of our exports and the protection of our waterways and our way of life. The ministry is also focusing on the area of access in order to assist in attaining the appropriate balance between access to waterways and the protection of farmers’ rights. 
I have every confidence that the good work the ministry did in the previous year will continue on into the future under this Government. I take the opportunity to thank each and every member of the ministry staff for the good work they have done and the select committee for being astute enough to realise that the ministry has done that good work. We look forward to working with the ministry for many years to come. 
Report noted.