Walker HamishHAMISH WALKER (National—Clutha-Southland): I just want to talk a bit about the history—the why the what and how this bill's going to work. This bill has been around for some 20 or 30 years. I believe it was first raised by New Zealand First back in the 1990s twice and it was pulled from the ballot I believe last year under the name of Darroch Ball and transferred over to Mark Patterson. The Primary Production Committee had a bit of a dabble with the bill. The member in charge of the bill tried to basically base it off similar legislation that's currently in place over in Queensland. Full credit to the Minister of Agriculture Damien O'Connor. He lifted the bill and basically cut and pasted the New South Wales model which seems to be the way to go. Looking at the numbers in New South Wales how many have actually used this type of legislation it's very few but I think it's needed now.If you look at the amount of debt that farmers have taken on over the last 20 years it's gone up from about $12 billion or $13 billion up to $62 billion and you have to look: why is that? One of the main reasons why debt's increased so much is the nine years of a strong stable National Government a party that backed farmers a party that was founded by farmers for farmers. We backed farmers. That's why there was so much confidence. You had farmer confidence—highest levels in three decades. Now it's dropped to the lowest. The reason why you had such high farmer confidence is you had a party that was backing farmers and an environment where farmers actually had money to invest into things like the environment like over a billion dollars invested into waterways and 30-odd catchment groups formed in Southland to improve waterways. They actually had the capital to invest back into the business and grow their businesses.That confidence has been very quickly undermined by a range of the current Government's policies. A number of them—for example the proposed water policies—are causing a huge amount of fear across the rural community in New Zealand. I was talking to a farmer yesterday—it's going to cost their operation in northern Southland in the beautiful electorate of Clutha-Southland $2.5 million to fence 45 kilometres of water amongst a few other things—$2.5 million. Now this is a couple in their mid-40s. He's been working on minimum wage for the last 25 years recently invested into the business and their only option if the water policy goes through as planned is to sell the farm and they'll be left with hundreds of thousands of dollars of debt. That's because you've got a Government who have proposed water policies that are absolutely going to cripple farmers. This is why this legislation is needed.You've got the ludicrous overseas investment carve-out for forestry. I was in the Catlins yesterday—if you haven't been there I highly recommend you go down there—in South Otago. This is a small community. It used to have 35 families back in the early 1990s—farming families. They participate in a range of voluntary organisations. The school had a roll of 35. They had businesses. In the early 1990s those farms were planted out in trees. Now you've got a school with six kids. You've only got four or five families. It's actually quite devastating to see.This is why this bill is needed. You've got the lowest farm confidence in 20 years a range of Government policies—for example research and development's halved funding's halved for the primary sector industry. You've got banks circling. You've got banks putting more pressure on farmers now than ever before. Why is that? About seven or eight months into this Government's term the banks could see the writing on the wall. They had meetings. Why would the banks want to back farmers when you've got all these negative policies affecting rural New Zealand at the moment? Banks have a huge amount of data. They've seen the writing on the wall and that's why you've got the banks circling. This is the reason why National's supporting this bill. We know it's needed more than ever right now and that's perhaps the reason why it hasn't come into play now—because of all the negative policies from the Government. Take Southland for example. You've got families now who can't even birth in their local community. You've got a rescue helicopter in Te Ānau that is on 24/7.DEPUTY SPEAKER: I think we now are getting really broad. Come back to the bill.HAMISH WALKER: OK Madam Speaker. I was just—yeah I'll come back to the bill. We've also had the Mycoplasma bovis outbreak: another reason why the banks are winning.Kiritapu Allan: Now you're on to M. bovis. What's this got to do with the bill mate?HAMISH WALKER: National supports this bill because of the three or four negative policies outlined—DEPUTY SPEAKER: Actually I decide the interventions OK?HAMISH WALKER: That's the reason why National supports this bill. I commend it to the House.