Patterson MarkMARK PATTERSON (NZ First): What another grim contribution from over the other side of the House. I think the irony actually of the initial part of that speech was that the member criticised this Government for not getting out and selling the Budget. Well what I heard when I came in here in two question times and subsequently afterwards was the Leader of the Opposition getting up and going down a rabbit hole of someone is a hack or not a hack—something that does not matter to the people of New Zealand. What does matter to the people of New Zealand is this fine well-balanced Budget that we have put out.Of course what the members opposite do not acknowledge is that we do have a strong economy. The forecast in the Budget is for 3 percent growth next year and that far outstrips our international comparators the likes of the UK Australia—who we always love to beat—the eurozone Japan. All those economies we are performing much better than and also we have been fiscally responsible. That 20 percent debt to GDP target—we're almost there now. We're well on track as the Budget shows to be there by 2021-22. So we've been responsible with it. This is a very very well-balanced Budget looking at addressing some of the big social issues that we face as a country but also keeping an eye on the purse strings.Also of course importantly employment—it's got to be shared. What is an economy if it is not shared across the population? Of course an important part of that is that wages are actually growing significantly higher than inflation so people are actually getting ahead under this Government. A strong economy like this does allow us to invest in important areas like mental health and I think it has been acknowledged across the Parliament that we haven't been doing enough. This is a huge issue in our society and as someone coming from a rural background I know it is a big issue out there where often particularly on our farms people are isolated. So that $1.9 billion package some of it ring-fenced for our rural areas will be incredibly welcome. Budgets are about appropriating money. The thing that always interests me the most and where I'm looking is how we earn the money. You've got to be able to earn it before you can spend it. It's the focus on paying the bills and particularly in my area of interest primary industry our $46 billion that we're bringing in this year in our exports. We're looking at record exports in meat. Horticulture is absolutely booming—forestry fisheries. The dairy payout is looking particularly strong again next year and our terms of trade are at record levels. So that absolute foundation stone of the New Zealand economy—the thing that allows us to do the things that we're able to do like this $1.9 billion mental health package is being underpinned as it always has been by our primary sector. But of course in the primary sector it is a time of change. We do have a number of challenges that this Government has undertaken to address—not just pay lip-service to. We do have to address our environmental footprint. There are issues around things like animal welfare. We've got a significant biosecurity response under way at the moment with Mycoplasma bovis—and of course Psa a recent memory in the kiwifruit. We've got an active fruit-fly investigation going on at the moment. So this is an ongoing reality that we have to resource.It's great to see that package go to the Minister of Agriculture Damien O'Connor—that $229 million sustainable land-use package—as we look to address these big issues as we look to see how we can farm in a more carbon-neutral manner. We are actually resourcing our farmers and our agricultural industry to get ahead of the curve here to give them the tools that they will need to meet these challenges. Of course one of the important parts of this is the extension services. We're actually acknowledging that there are some compliance issues around a lot of this stuff. This is a new way of doing things and we're getting people out on the farms to help them with that transition: $35 million is going into extension services as part of a $122 million package which includes $43 million for the OVERSEER programme.Now everyone in agriculture is grappling with how we can improve our water quality and one of the issues that we've had is that the tool that we have measured that by—all the regional councils who are charged with monitoring these things and implementing these changes—is a programme called OVERSEER which is an old programme that has been developed and developed but it needs to be developed some more because it was never a regulatory tool. It was always a farm management package but by default it has been a regulatory tool. So the Minister is investing $43 million into upgrading it because farmers want to know what their environmental impact is but they want to know it accurately. If there's going to be nutrient limits they want to know that those limits are based on accurate data. Of course there's the $63 million that's going into biosecurity and customs. Now that is an incredibly important investment because we know to our cost—we know to the almost $1 billion that it is costing us to respond to the Mycoplasma bovis outbreak—that prevention is far far better than cure. And of course it's not just the money; it's the stress on the individuals involved in those particular businesses. So that $63 million spend within the Budget in the agricultural part of it is incredibly welcome. Also there is $200 million for vocational training. We have seen an acknowledgment that our system has been broken. Certainly in the areas that I've had some involvement with with Telford in the agricultural sector—Taratahi of course got itself into trouble. We do need to resource the vocational sector better. It does cost more to train people for those vocations and we are now through Minister Hipkins resourcing that and we need to because we've only got 16500 students in our agricultural institutions at the moment and that is down from 22500 just a few short years ago.And of course as we're growing our economy one of the things we have to do is grow our productivity. We are committed to spending 2 percent of GDP on our productivity and on R & D and this Budget again appropriates through that $1.1 billion package that will see tax credits for our businesses—something that the National Party actually voted against. That's a tax cut—for the National Party—for businesses. You guys voted against it. We're backing our business to do the R & D and get our total expenditure up to near the OECD average so that we can actually do things a bit smarter. We've got to the end of just more volume; we have to go for value. We have to go for knowledge and technology and these sorts of programmes start to address that imbalance that we've had. We just have not been spending enough.Of course there's the $300 million that's going into start-up companies that sort of second phase after the seed funding and I think Minister Parker's led that. Again that is important so we can get our businesses to escape velocity. That is a very important spend as we look to grow our economy. I've heard foreign affairs mentioned but we are doing trade deals all around the world: the Europe trade deal the EU trade deal. We are out there. We have got boots on the ground getting deals for our exporters.So this is a very well-balanced Budget. It does look to grow the pie. It does look at the drivers of our economy and how we can make it more productive and more sustainable but it also looks to the wellbeing of our people. It looks to those gaping holes in our social services particularly our mental health which I think has been welcomed across the country. It is long overdue. I commend Cabinet and the Ministers for bringing this Budget forward. It has been a fantastic very well-balanced and very well-received Budget. Thank you Mr Speaker.