O'Connor Damien; Dean JacquiHon DAMIEN O'CONNOR (Minister of Agriculture): Thank you Madam Speaker. It's been a wet few days in Wellington and I feel sorry for those who've had their houses flooded. I have to say I feel like I'm drowning in crocodile tears in this place here. Those speeches the last two speeches from the National Party talking about housing—this is a former Government that sold State houses. It ignored the crisis and then it promised to reform the Resource Management Act and did nothing. I'll keep swimming in these crocodile tears. I just want to take the opportunity in the first time to speak in this new Parliament to firstly say thank you to a whole lot of people. We are very lucky to be here. We are lucky to have had a robust election process. We are lucky to be able to interact as a country in a way that very few other places in the world can do. I have to thank firstly New Zealanders for behaving through lockdown for adhering to the rules that we asked them to adhere to. To the essential workers and we can't thank them enough—many who continue to work through into the managed isolation and quarantine facilities—thank you very very much. Can I thank the Kiwis who trusted the Labour Party to take them forward because they want certainty they want security and they believe that we are the best party to do that. We have said—as the Prime Minister has said in the speech—we will be here for all New Zealanders not just for the select few that are often the beneficiaries of a National Government. I just want to take the opportunity to thank all my colleagues my former ministerial colleagues and their oversight and the Prime Minister of course and one other person—Norm—who has been thanked actually. Norm is Sarah Stuart-Black who's been head of emergency management in our country for some time. She's moving to the Red Cross. There's a thankyou going on in Parliament now. I want to also say thank you for her work and to her family for giving her to us and her time. He tangata he tangata he tangata—Māori have taught us what is the most important thing in the world and when we get got hit by COVID that is indeed what we did. We firstly looked after the health of New Zealanders and we continue to focus on that as the number one priority for this Government because all the criticisms that we had in those times that we had to look after business and we had to make sure that people can move around and all the other things—well you can go and look around the world and see the countries that didn't put their people first. I'm proud to be part of a Government that did and still does put people first. We'll continue to work to keep people safe from COVID. The world is full of it. We're thankful that there is a vaccine or some vaccines in the wind—that's great—but until that time we have to keep our borders secure. We have to ensure that our health system is not overrun by infection from COVID. We have to prepare for a better future. It's not just good enough to think that we'd get back to where we were; we have to get ahead of the game. As a country that is now respected internationally for what we have done we have a huge opportunity ahead of us to say that we can be if not the best country in the world—and many of us think that—but the best country for the world showing and leading by example. As we move into 2021 the year of APEC we will be hosting 21 economies coming together to look at the challenging issues ahead of us not just in the areas of COVID but in trade and protectionism working through how we share the best knowledge to tackle climate change to tackle the issues of poverty and to ensure that people have security as we go forward. We are well positioned to do that off the back of what we have done. Thank you New Zealand—thank each and every one of you—for what you are doing. We will need to support small business. We need to ensure that it's not just the big players who seize the opportunities from a crisis. Crisis has impacted many many New Zealanders and we've stepped in with direct support and indirect support. The people who might benefit as we go forward must be those people who committed themselves to a better future. We have to ensure that New Zealand is positioned in a global world in a place of respect and with a reputation where people want to knock on our door to buy our goods because they want to be a part of us and because they want to understand how as a bicultural nation we can succeed through the challenges and there have been many of those challenges. I believe that the APEC year next year—300 meetings with the world's leaders and with other ministers around—will provide us with that opportunity to put us on the stage. I have to say that I'm honoured to have a couple of new areas of responsibility and the one of trade of course is a very important one for a small trading nation. We rely absolutely on trade. As Minister of Agriculture we've always been very proud of our position and our export earnings. In spite of all the best efforts of many Governments over many years the primary sectors continue to be the largest single part of our export and wealth creation. That's wonderful and what we are doing in the areas of agriculture and primary production is moving to more sustainable practices. We've seen rapid growth and we've all benefited from that but there have been pressures on the environment pressures on the workforce and pressures on local infrastructure. We need to make some improvements to ensure that those people who invest their lives and their capital and their expertise and their families in the areas of private production can see a sustainable return on that into the future. We've got to sell what we produce and so can I firstly acknowledge the former Minister for Trade and Export Growth the Hon David Parker and all the great work he did. In a very short time after taking over that role he managed to negotiate and get over the line the Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership a massive agreement that was stuck prior to his intervention and the Prime Minister's intervention in Da Nang—thank you for that work. We've continued to move forward to the point where a couple of weeks ago we signed the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership an agreement with a third of the world's population to put in place some fair trading rules that mean that those entrepreneurs who want to invest in new services or goods to export to a third of the world's population where over 50 percent of our existing trade goes to know what the rules are and can have them upheld. I think we've made some great progress. I want to thank the primary sectors for increasing their export revenue through challenging times. In the year to the end of October we've seen a 6.5 percent increase—sorry. Sorry I go back—that's just for dairy actually. Can I go back to a 1.2 percent goods increase in the October month. That is really really important because elsewhere around the world we are facing some protectionism. We are seeing countries in the face of COVID say that we've got to protect our local people—and indeed we can understand that—but when it comes to issues like food security then New Zealand plays a key role in supplementing what some countries can't produce for themselves. I'd like to acknowledge Singapore and again my colleague Mr Parker for negotiating an agreement early on in COVID that gave food security for them and pharmaceutical products for us. It's through those trading relationships that we can have more security as we move into the future. Very briefly I said about the agricultural sector moving into a more sustainable space. We over the last three years have set out a vision and planned for agriculture: Fit for a Better World. That plan is timely and it's well positioned to ensure that every one of those people who operate and work in those primary sectors can move down the same path to coordinate and cooperate all their efforts. We've put $200 million extra into New Zealand Trade and Enterprise offshore so that they can help the very people who are creating those jobs creating that wealth and those export products and sending it offshore. We have I think as a country and as a Government done very very well and I think there is international recognition of all of that. I want to round up again by coming back to the challenges that we face around child poverty around housing and climate change in our own country. We have a programme. We have a plan. The laissez-faire approach that the National Party takes—and ACT—will sit back and leave it to the market as some kind of head-in-the-sand stuff that has been disproven and discredited time and time again. What we need is a good plan going forward and this Government has a plan to tackle the issues of climate change to ensure we have a robust and a very good reputation with integrity offshore to make sure that our people in the country get good returns for their efforts whatever place they play in the horticultural sectors or in any of our industries. People need a decent income to have a decent life in this country. He tangata he tangata he tangata. This Government will always focus on what is most important first and foremost. Thank you. ASSISTANT SPEAKER (Hon Jacqui Dean): I call the Hon Paul Goldsmith—a five-minute call.