6. Primary Sector—Government Policies' Effect on Rural CommunitiesHon NATHAN GUY (National—Ōtaki) to the Minister of AgriculturePrimary Sector—Government Policies' Effect on Rural Communities6. Hon NATHAN GUY (National—Ōtaki) to the Minister of Agriculture: Does he stand by all his policies and actions?Hon DAMIEN O'CONNOR (Minister of Agriculture): Yes and I stand by the specific actions that include working with industry to try and eradicate Mycoplasma bovis fixing the National Animal Identification and Tracing system releasing the rabbit calicivirus disease virus in March to control wild rabbits introducing a mānuka honey export standard conducting a review of the dairy industry—SPEAKER: Order! Order! Hon DAMIEN O'CONNOR: I've so much more here.SPEAKER: I understand what the member's trying to do and he's done enough.Hon Nathan Guy: Which of his policies have helped lead to a fivefold increase in farmer pessimism in the last 12 months?Hon DAMIEN O'CONNOR: I'm aware of a survey done by Federated Farmers—an organisation that perhaps at times has come up with such outcomes—but I have to say that while they may maintain that just less than half were pessimistic more than half were optimistic and about 30 percent of those anticipated an increase in profitability on their farms. Good luck to them.Hon Nathan Guy: What advice has he received from his $500000-a-year Primary Sector Council about Government policies impacting negatively on the primary sector and the overall confidence in the economy?Hon DAMIEN O'CONNOR: I have to say that the Primary Sector Council has met twice and is due to meet again. They have identified a few challenges for us going ahead. One was a lack of vision—after nine years of National Government there is no vision. The second thing is they said that the research and science area for primary sectors is pretty muddled if not chaotic and we need to sort that out after nine years of National Government. They've identified a skills shortage and a capability shortage because there has been no focus on that for the last nine years under a National Government.Matt King: If rural proofing is merely a guidance tool for Government agencies rather than mandatory what incentive is there for them to apply it to their policies?Hon DAMIEN O'CONNOR: Just one example of rural proofing—that is a policy designed to advise policy makers in Wellington to consider the effects in rural areas. One such example of the stupidity under the previous National Government was that those people going for licences had to be tested at a traffic light. There are a huge number of rural communities that—thank God—don't have a traffic light but that Government said that before you could get a licence you had to be tested at a traffic light. That's what rural proofing will do: ensure sensible policies for rural communities.Hon Nathan Guy: When he said rural proofing would go through a rural lens and ensure all Government policy makers would focus on easing the cost of compliance why has this not allayed farmers' fears of more red tape and anti-farming policies from this Government?Hon DAMIEN O'CONNOR: There are no anti-farming policies. There are additional costs because the farming sector realised that expectations from our customers and consumers around the world demand the best in terms of environmental management the best in terms of animal welfare and the best in terms of labour requirements—provisions and guarantees that the previous Government couldn't give. We will be in a position to give those assurances across the board so that we can sell our products for better returns and better profits for the farmers.Barbara Kuriger: Since mid-June 2018 have any Cabinet papers included rural-proofing aspects on any Government policies and what were those policies?Hon DAMIEN O'CONNOR: The Ministry for Primary Industries is leading the process of rural proofing and providing advice across all Government agencies. Our Government has gone through a proper process of ensuring that firstly there's Cabinet endorsement and then there's a wide level of awareness of this. The rural lens that we will put over that will be utilising both eyes not having one eye closed like the previous Government.