Bennett DavidHon DAVID BENNETT (National—Hamilton East): Thank you Mr Assistant Speaker. This is an interesting bill because generally you wouldn't expect farmers to be treated any differently from any other business. If someone borrows a lot of money and then gets into trouble well then what about other businesses in the community and why aren't we advocating for them as well? There is a certain aspect of that and New Zealand is a very high agricultural and horticultural producing country and there is high debt. But that's a result of the business approach—you know New Zealand farmers have been very efficient in being able to cover that debt in the past. It's not so much about drought or even biosecurity issues like M. bovis that will actually cause this issue. It's more around a high amount of debt that a farm may have their profitability being reduced by reduced prices from overseas. Actually the biggest issue would be interest rates. You see Argentina just hitting 40 percent interest rates today; that happens if you have got a very poorly run economy. For farmers the best thing you can do is actually have a stable economic base that actually enables them to make the investment decisions like anybody else.But this bill does have an area of interest that this Parliament wishes to see pursued through to select committee and it'll be interesting to see the submissions there. And some very strong points have been raised by people like the Hon Gerry Brownlee—that if you are in receivership it might be too late at that point. There is also the point that my colleague Barbara Kuriger made around the need for certainty and support and that if there are going to be Government responses to issues farmers need to know those responses are timely and they are important.There also have been a number of farms for sale in regions like the Waikato and that has shown a change in the land price. I think you're seeing that they are selling but at different land prices dependent on location and profitability. So I think farmers generally are very efficient in that regard. Many have multiple bank lending arrangements so they do play off banks against each other and so they're not sometimes as innocent in that as they may wish to be seen.But we need to actually look at the fundamentals that drive an economy that actually enable farmers to succeed and although New Zealand First has brought this bill towards this Parliament and I appreciate that you know when you support a Government that is against international trade; is against overseas investment; is going to put interest rates up by poor Government spending as we'll see tomorrow; is going to bring in new taxes on farmers from capital gains taxes to higher income taxes; hasn't supported farmers and the labour relations reforms that you're going to see come through; hasn't supported farmers and the Dairy Industry Restructuring Act reforms; seeks to bring agriculture into the emissions trading scheme—all those factors together if you put all those Government policies that New Zealand First is supporting in with higher interest rates that will come and then potentially if there were a drop in income for farmers then that is a mix where farmers really do have a disaster. That is the problem that farmers face going forward: poor economic management coming out of this House. And if we really want to support farmers we have strong economic management here and don't make those silly decisions that the Ardern-Peters Government wishes to make.This is a bill that will progress to select committee and there will be submissions on it. I believe there will be submissions from other sectors in our community that wish to have the same opportunity for mediation at a stage in their business and that's something for which there is going to have to be a reasonable reason given in terms of why farmers should be treated differently from others. But with the nature of the agriculture industry and the huge role it plays in the New Zealand economy how it is split into a number of smaller businesses that actually work together through a co-operative structure there may be cause for having a good look at this and seeing what opportunities there are to provide that kind of incentive or structure for farmers and potentially for other businesses as well. Thank you Mr Assistant Speaker.