Guy Nathan: General DebateText is incorporated into the Bound VolumeGuy Nathan: General Debate[Sitting date: 26 August 2015. Volume:708;Page:6165. Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume.]Hon NATHAN GUY (Minister for Primary Industries): I move That the House take note of miscellaneous business. Yes well what a week it has been for the primary sector. Just today Statistics New Zealand is out there saying fruit exports are up 51 percent over the last 12 months meat exports are up 24 percent and also beef leading the charge is up 40 percent. Is that not fantastic? Is it not fantastic that the New Zealand primary sector is helping underpin economic growth in this country?Of course last week and the week before that we had Labour out there saying it is a crisis in the primary sector we should be moving to plan B and that we are not doing enough to help the dairy industry. We had the Green Party over there confused. It was really confused. James Shaw was saying that we should be out there doing more to help dairy farmers then of course we had Catherine Delahunty saying we should be having a moratorium on dairy farming and we should stop the expansion of dairy farming and then we had Steffan Browning up the back there talking about how we are not doing enough to support organic dairy farming. So I suggest they get together in a bit of huddle up there in Bowen House and gather around Mr Browning’s vegetable patch and get their lines correct.But let us focus on one thing. It is right to raise in the House this afternoon that it is a pretty tough time for the dairy industry but we have been through this before. The average price from 2002 to 2006 was $4.14. Of course then when Labour was on the Treasury benches on this side we did not hear anything from Labour members—not a whisper from them—but of course now it is a crisis. Well of course it is not a crisis because our dairy farmers have been there before.We on this side of the House realise it is tough for our dairy farmers but this is a worldwide issue. There is more milk in the world more milk being produced and exported from the US Russian sanctions are meaning the European Union products are looking for a new home into some of our modern traditional markets and of course the China slow-down and a little bit of stockpiling of product. But the positive was that last week the global dairy trade increased by 14 to 15 percent.Our farmers are out there doing the hard work at the moment in the mud collecting their calves producing a fantastic product—Hon Steven Joyce: They don’t know what work is.Hon NATHAN GUY: The Opposition members are still working out what the definition of work is—you are right Mr Joyce. They will need to go and cut and paste a few other reports from around the world on that one. We realise what work is all about. Our dairy farmers realise what work is all about and we back them.What is also important is that our horticulture industry is growing fantastically. Let us think about kiwifruit. The industry has grown on the back of Psa which nearly crippled it. Now its exports are about $1 billion. Think about the wine industry—$1.42 billion of exports. That is absolutely fantastic. Also we should not forget forestry as well. It is pretty tough for the industry with the China situation at the moment but there are some bright lights on the horizon for it to export into the US. And of course we should not forget about the boom in housing in Auckland and also in Canterbury as well. So we are doing a huge amount to support and promote our primary sector.This article was handed to me by Anne Tolley today. Look at this. In her local paper it says: “Gisborne economy looks up”. The second line says: “Beef prices drive improved income forecast”. Beef prices in Gisborne on the East Coast are underpinning that economy. That is not acknowledged by those on the other side of the House. It is all about a crisis—it is all about a crisis—and a confused message from the Green Party which just cannot work it out.Then we think about what those on the other side of the House want to do to the primary sector. They want to bring in an irrigation tax. They do not support the Primary Growth Partnership. We hear that every day from Damien O’Connor. What they also want to do is bring biological emissions into the emissions trading scheme which means animal emissions going into the emissions trading scheme quicker than they would anywhere else around the world. They do not support the Trans-Pacific Partnership. Labour cannot work out at the moment whether it does or whether it does not. Of course we on this side of the House know that that would mean a huge amount to the primary sector and regional economies of New Zealand.On this side of the House we back the primary sector. Just in the last couple of weeks we opened the Central Plains Water irrigation scheme. That is a fantastic initiative with about $1 billion of stimulus into Canterbury. That side of the House does not support water-storage projects. We will do what we can to support regional economies and support our primary sector.