Hughes Darren: Debate on Crown Entities Public Organisations and  State Enterprises — In Committee 
Hughes Darren: Debate on Crown Entities Public Organisations and  State Enterprises — In Committee 
[Volume:638;Page:8815] 
DARREN HUGHES (Labour—Otaki) 
: 
 What an extraordinary contribution that was from somebody who was once a National Minister in a Government that did not even have a Minister of Agriculture. David Carter used to be at the height of his political career 7½ years ago. He was the Associate Minister of Food Fibre Biosecurity and Border Control. That was the flash name the previous National Government gave to the agriculture portfolio way back then. That is how much the National Party in Government cares about the rural sector.  
Hon David Carter 
: You haven’t got one either. 
DARREN HUGHES 
: We have as our Minister of Agriculture in this Government the man who sits at No. 3 in Cabinet and leads the party that the Labour Party is in coalition with. That is how seriously we take the portfolio. We call it “agriculture” because that is what it is. We do not come up with flash management-speak guru kinds of names as the National Government did. Whenever the Tories get close to power they get so subsumed by it that they go for all these crazy kinds of names. But that was the height of David Carter’s career—Associate Minister of Food Fibre Biosecurity and Border Control; a portfolio that his good mate Mrs Shipley put him in charge of after he had been the junior whip and had ratted on Jim Bolger. I am not sure whether he turned up at the conference over the weekend and mentioned that but that is exactly what he had to do.  
The other thing Mr Carter did not mention was the National Party policy on Landcorp farms. Here we are debating the financial review of that entity in the previous financial year and what he does not have the audacity to tell the Committee is that the National Party went to the polls wanting to sell all those farms that are owned by New Zealand. National had a privatisation policy in that regard but it did not bother saying any of that. Those farms were going to be gone by milking time under Don Brash and I want to know right now whether the National Party has changed its policy. But of course there was not a word on policy because those members tell people only what they want them to hear. Those members cannot come up with anything at all apart from criticise whinge and moan. 
 Mr Carter mentioned the plight that a number of sheep farmers are facing. Of course those are genuine and real concerns. But while he was slagging off Labour for that did he offer any solution at all to the way Landcorp’s financial operations could have taken place that might have made a difference in that regard? There was not a word—and Labour says it is the serious party for rural New Zealand. Rural New Zealand towns and rural New Zealand villages and areas are much better off under the Labour-led Government than they were previously. Good times are happening around the place which were not happening previously with regard to all of the indicators we look at—particularly unemployment which has fallen through the floorboards. That is why Landcorp plays a role in owning farms in rural communities and rural areas that are part of the local economy.  
I am proud that the Landcorp farms in the Otaki electorate are owned by the Government. They make a fantastic contribution to the local area. The National Party wants to sell them. It wants to hock them all off around Whirokino and all of that area and that goes with the National Party’s responsibility. We stood at the last election and told those members that they were doing the wrong thing. I am proud of that. I am proud of the way the Labour Party has made sure we have retained a commitment there. If the National Party wants to promise to sell off and privatise farms all around the place why is it going to do that? What is the great benefit from doing that? David Carter did not mention it at all. He had nothing to say about that. Having a Minister for Food Fibre Biosecurity and Border Control in a previous epoch of New Zealand politics is about as serious as National ever got about agriculture. Landcorp has done a great job it has a fantastic chairman and I am sure that with the active support of its Minister Landcorp will continue to make a contribution to rural New Zealand. 
Report noted.