Dean Jacqui: General DebateText is incorporated into the Bound VolumeDean Jacqui: General Debate[Sitting date: 07 August 2013. Volume:692;Page:12450. Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume.]JACQUI DEAN (National—Waitaki):On the Ministry for Primary Industries receiving notification from Fonterra about a potential contamination issue relating to whey protein concentrate that had tested positive for food poisoning bacteria that could cause botulism officials immediately swung into action. We in the Government established a ministerial response team and a number of briefings meetings and teleconferences have been held over the past couple of days since the issue first came to the regulator’s attention and was brought to the Government’s attention. The Ministry for Primary Industries had staff atFonterra’sHautapu plant which is the site of the contamination conducting testing and also inNutricia’s offices assisting with the tracking of infant formula that may contain the contaminated whey protein. The ministry has also put officials intoFonterra’s data centres with its agreement and full cooperation to assist in getting absolute clarity on the situation as it has unfolded. The situation continues to remain fluid. Ministers in this debate and speaking previously have outlined their response and reaction. The information changed a number of times. That is why officials and the Government have been taking and will continue to take a conservative precautionary approach until we can get absolute clarity over this situation.Prices dipped overnight atFonterra’s international dairy auction the first to be held since the dairy giant’s milk formula contamination scare—the first time since it became public—but economists have noted that there should be no cause for alarm. Prices dipped a modest 2.4 percent compared with the previous sale 2 weeks ago. The total volume of products sold at auction did increase however to a record 60587 tonnesand that was up slightly. So the results confirmed that there has not been a material market impact onFonterra’s prices from the contamination issue and that international demand for our dairy products remains strong. That does not let us off the hook in any way but it does remind us of the importance of the agricultural sector to the New Zealand economy.I will be unashamedly parochial in my next few comments because the lower South Island—in particular the Waitaki electorate—is one of the major contributors to New Zealand’s economy based on the agricultural sector. The ongoing economic impact of farming activities in South Canterbury North Otago and Central Otago which are all areas within my electorate is significant. Close to home if I think about my house it looks down on the Fonterra milk transfer station. When the milk season is under way there is a continual stream of milk tankers from the south and from the north converging on this milk transfer station inŌāmaru. That continual stream of milk tankers is running day and night 24 hours transferring the milk to the various milk treatment stations.If I go up the valley a little bit the Waitaki Valley 30 years ago was a place of baron dry stony waste. With the introduction of the Upper Waitaki and Lower Waitaki irrigation companies’ activities that landscape has now been transformed. It is green. There are still sheep. There are still deer. There is still cropping. There is an awful lot of dairying. With that dairying come things like houses up roads. Where there was one house there are now 10 houses. With those houses come kids. Those kids go to school. Their parents go into town. They go to the supermarket. They go to the rural supply stores and the vet. The vet comes to them and they go to the vet. The economic activity that is associated with our dairying industry should not be underestimated.If I look at the North Otago Irrigation Co.—10000 hectares under irrigation—in 5 years under irrigation farm expenditure has increased 310 percent. There have been—