Kuriger BarbaraBARBARA KURIGER (National—Taranaki - King Country): Thank you Madam Deputy Speaker. This Budget was an absolute flop. Every so-called crisis that this Government called when they were in Opposition has been given a pittance—an absolute pittance. Thank goodness we had a royal wedding and a bit of excitement at the weekend because the public was waiting for something and no one can actually stand up and say what they got from this Budget—everybody's disappointed.I think the line of the weekend—that came in the news—that the Prime Minister used was that It's better to be a Prime Minister that tried and missed than a Prime Minister that hadn't tried at all." Let me tell you from the public's perspective it missed. And now we have Minister Hipkins telling us that "We didn't break our promises; we just haven't delivered." How true—how true.The first thing I wanted to focus on was Waikeria Prison. Now I've got a community in the King Country and Waipā who have spent a lot of time and effort and cost on the development of the extension of Waikeria Prison. They are sitting and they are waiting and they are waiting and they are waiting. I can tell you that patience is running out. For goodness' sake please Hon Kelvin Davis please front up to this community and tell them what you're going to do. We've not seen anything in this Budget. An extensive amount has been put into it.Now I know that this prison is an archaic old prison because I went to visit it for about four hours last year and it is a very archaic old prison. While none of us want to see more people in prison I can tell you that the plans for that prison were—we've seen the farm there's a trade training centre planned. It's all very well to talk about catch and release but if you don't let people out with the skills that—DEPUTY SPEAKER: Not me—not me.BARBARA KURIGER: Sorry Madam Deputy Speaker. If people are not let out with the skills to develop their lives going forward then we all know what's going to happen. We're not giving them a first-class chance at rehabilitation. It's really interesting for me reading in the New Zealand Herald of 18 May that even the unions wanted the Government to urgently improve an expansion of Waikeria Prison and that's the Corrections Association of New Zealand. So there you go.Now another thing that this Government has done with great vengeance is drop the oil and gas bombshell on Taranaki. It's really interesting for me that weeks and weeks ago when the announcement was made we were there and we were listening to the absolute disappointment of the Taranaki community. Guess what? It's taken till this week for the Prime Minister to show up in Taranaki. That is extremely disappointing. That is a major decision. It's all very well for this Government to be over there talking about how we've got 30-year permits. Well that's fine but actually let me tell you that the world will lose confidence pretty jolly quickly. They're starting to work out where they're not welcome.It's really quite alarming to see how fast those gas supplies are going to run out and I am prepared to stand here and say with the figures that I've seen that that gas is going to run out far more quickly than this Government expects. We are going to be buying in gas from other parts of the world where they are welcome and other countries are going to be starting up coal and we're also going to be using coal when it starts to snow. So that's going to be the result of that policy.The other thing that's really interesting for me—and we all have to take care of the environment. I've just read an article this week which has really fascinated me because I've lived in Taranaki pretty much all my life and I've just read that "A group of 700 blue whales have been discovered in the South Taranaki Bight which is due to be the site for seafloor mining operations … The significance of the discovery is huge considering the area is about to be home to oil and gas rigs". Now I watched that pipeline come into the country in 1976. Where I farm is about 2.5 kilometres from where that came in in 1976 and—hello—we can't disturb it now because some blue whales have been discovered. Well actually maybe the blue whales aren't that turned off by what's been going on in Taranaki for the last 40 years.Now we're going to get on to the rural front and the farming front. So we had Minister Damien O'Connor stand up before with this article that says "Budget gets tick". Well I think that the Hon Damien O'Connor has a different paradigm to me because I think he took a rather slim view and looked at this version—and it's about perspective. It says "While not catching a windfall … [there are] some gains". So it's not a windfall. So while it might have got a tick it is definitely not a windfall. It talked about the $85 million for Mycoplasma bovis being only a deposit and I want to give a call out tonight to those farmers out there who have been worried—who have been extremely worried particularly with 1 June coming up. We don't know where it is we don't know how far it's gone and that is likely to be only a deposit.I'm looking forward to that decision that apparently Cabinet is going to make—that decision next week—because everyone has been quite frightened out there. The $9.3 million is described in this article as something that will barely register. So it's all very well to say "Budget gets tick" but $9.3 million is something that will barely register. So I think with all the talk around biosecurity it's very important that we might be looking forward to some more money to come for M. bovis.The next thing that's talked about is National Animal Identification and Tracing (NAIT). We've had a huge discussion about NAIT and I was very pleased to see the other day that these recommendations have been released because there have been 38 recommendations released and 23 can be implemented promptly by the agency Operational Solutions for Primary Industries New Zealand. So while some farmers perhaps could've improved the way they did things we have actually got NAIT here with 23 recommendations which can be improved promptly and I hope to see them improved promptly.The next thing was OVERSEER. Now OVERSEER is described as something that you almost need a degree to use yet it has a big impact on how we do things in farming. So it's great to see that there's money—$5 million—gone into OVERSEER. It's a great tool for a general tool but by farm by farm and on per farm it's been very very difficult to use. So I do want to note that one of the things I agree with the Minister is that the Sustainable Farming Fund money is a real bonus and it will go some way to help drive better behaviour change based on research rather than bear the expense of trying to clean catchments up afterwards. So I do agree on that one. It's very important that we put money into finding out answers.The thing that I really want to finish on this evening is rural communities. Yes some money was given to the midwives but reading in the headlines we still have midwives saying "That was the final straw I can't do it anymore". I just want to say that this blue piece of paper—this is the blue-sky advantage that the Government gave to rural communities. I've had high hopes for the rural communities portfolio and I looked high and hard—there's nothing. There's absolutely nothing for rural communities. I'm really disappointed.I've got an Official Information Act request here that came back today from the Hon Damien O'Connor and asked for a delay on the communications regarding Rural Health Alliance Aotearoa New Zealand and all communications between them. We were talking about $1 per person who lives in rural New Zealand. I've got a petition going and I would like to challenge the Hon Damien O'Connor to come and sign my petition to help get some funding for the Rural Health Alliance because they missed out. Thank you Madam Deputy Speaker."