Guy Nathan: Annual Review Debate — In CommitteeText is subject to correctionGuy Nathan: Annual Review Debate — In Committee[Sitting date: 29 April 2015. Volume:704;Page:2977. Text is subject to correction.]Hon NATHAN GUY (Minister for Primary Industries):It is great to be able to talk about the annual appropriation for the Ministry for Primary Industries for 2013-14. Can I acknowledge the Primary Production Committee chair Ian McKelvie. Can I acknowledge the Minister for Food Safety Jo Goodhew who is also the Associate Minister for Primary Industries and can I take a special moment to acknowledge all of the Primary Production Committee who by and large do a lot of wonderful work across the whole of Parliament.This is a great time to be in front and leading primary industries. I know that there is a challenge in the dairy industry—that is being well talked about right now—where we have a very volatile market particularly when we look at what is happening with the four big global milk regions being awash with milk. We have product that is banned from going from the European Union into Russia looking for a new home. We have China inventory stocks reducing and hopefully soon they will be re-entering the market. I was interested to see that Westland Cooperative Dairy has downscaled its payout for this season and we are waiting to see what Fonterra does towards the end of May. Also everyone is interested in looking into the next season and what that might bring.I think we are going to be in a period of some volatility for some months to come but we have been here before. The average price for milk solids has been $5.25 over 15 years. In about 2004 2005 and 2006 it got down to a very low $4. So farmers are resilient. They have been here before. They will get through this. That is why the Government is investing in the Primary Growth Partnership. That is why we are working with industry right across the value chain—Hon Damien O’Connor: No economic benefit.Hon NATHAN GUY: —to lift performance inside the farm gate. Mr O’Connor always interjects. He hates the Primary Growth Partnership. He did not acknowledge the New Zealand Institute of Economic Research report an independent report which says that by 2025 the Primary Growth Partnership could return $6.4 billion and if you add on the aspirational stretch of targets it could be out to $11.1 billion. Also what is interesting for Mr O’Connor is he does not want to acknowledge any of the benefits of the Primary Growth Partnership or what it is delivering already.Close to Mr O’Connor’s electorate is the steeplands harvester. This is an amazing machine that was developed in Nelson and is now being sold offshore and that is reducing health and safety events and fatalities in our forestry industry working on steep land slopes and making a difference. Mr O’Conner does not want to acknowledge that. I was down very close to his local electorate the other day celebrating an investment that we have made in SPATnz for green mussels. This is going to make a significant difference for the seafood industry. Right now they have to go up into Northland and collect spat that has washed up on the shore. It is like the dairy industry whereby this is going to allow the industry to be able to select good breeding mussels indoors very close to Nelson.We should be celebrating the Primary Growth Partnership and yet Damien O’Connor and others stand up and say that the Government is not doing enough. Just the other day we announced $7.8 million for the Sustainable Farming Fund. There are 29 projects up and down the country working at the grassroots making a difference in environmental management and making a difference in supporting the dairy industry the beef industry and the horticulture industry. We are doing a lot and yet our opponents say that we are not doing enough. I cannot believe that. They do not stand up and acknowledge the investment that the Government is making with industry.Also when we refer back to the annual review of appropriations for primary industries it was interesting that when I had my officials in front of the select committee they spent a lot of time talking about biosecurity. Biosecurity is my No. 1 priority and will continue to be. It is interesting to have a look at the comments from the select committee when my officials were there. The committee was talking about how the Ministry for Primary Industries is investing more in biosecurity—a bigger budget than when National came into office. There are more people—130 front-line quarantine inspectors are working. Dog detector teams have gone from 26 to 40 in the last couple of years. As the Committee has seen and the New Zealand public have seen the Ministry for Primary Industries can set up a very quick response when we do have an incursion like we have had in the case of the Queensland fruit fly in Grey Lynn. This has been a good response. We have put a lot of resource into this and I acknowledge the people of Grey Lynn in Auckland and the people whose properties have intensive surveillance happening on them. I am very confident that we can eradicate the small localised population in Grey Lynn. I am very confident. We have done it before with the Mediterranean fruit fly in 1994 and we will do it again now.What I have also instigated in the last couple of weeks is a biosecurity strategy review looking out to 2025. Mr Prosser rightly acknowledged that and said it is timely to have a look at it. The reason it is timely to have a look is we have got Government industry agreements on board and four signatories. Some of those signatories are working with the Ministry for Primary Industries on preparedness and response sitting around the response table dealing with the Queensland fruit fly in Grey Lynn. We are also seeing an increase in passenger numbers. We are also seeing an increase in trade volumes. It is appropriate now that we do the review and we reach out to industry we reach out to the New Zealand public we reach out to the regional councils we reach out to the universities and we reach out to our international trading partners to make sure that we get a strategy that is going to look forward to 2025.Also what has been very important to acknowledge in the last 12 months over this period is we have come through a couple of significant events and they are droughts. We have had quite a significant one on the East Coast of the South Island. I was down talking to about 450 farmers in North Canterbury recently. Gosh it has been dry down there. Nearly every farmer who came up and talked to me talked about the value of water storage and the value of storing water and utilising it in those summer months. In the Government’s view we do not do enough in storing water. We only collect and store about 2 percent of the rain that falls in this country. The rest of it heads out to sea. It is not that we have a shortage of water in this country; it just does not rain at the right place and the right time. That is why we have set up the Irrigation Acceleration Fund. Twenty-eight million dollars has been invested in about 18 different projects in Canterbury in Hawke’s Bay in the Manawatū in Northland and in other areas to get investment ready to move up into the Crown Irrigation Investment fund.We know also that water storage is hugely important for the environment. We know that it takes the pressure off groundwater aquifers. Just look at the Ōpua dam which had to close down for a period of time this summer. We had Fish and Game out there collecting and rescuing fish species from nearby streams rivers and creeks that would have otherwise died because they were dry. Where were they releasing these fish? Into the Ōpihi River which is fed by the Ōpua dam. Also we have water coming from the Ōpua dam into Timaru city. So we have social benefits from water storage we have environmental benefits and let us not forget about the economic benefits—500-odd jobs in that region have been created from the Ōpua water storage and there are numerous other examples as well.Another investment that the Government is making in the environment is dealing with animal emissions. It is great that we can acknowledge New Zealand scientists who have been working hard on trying to come up with technological advances in livestock that are going to reduce methane emissions. They just had a conference earlier this week in Palmerston North where they are celebrating the success of non-toxic compounds which they have been working on for a long time changing methane emissions from livestock. Hopefully in 5 years or beyond they might be at a point where they can commercialise this product. They have done a huge number of trials and early indications from these trials are that they believe they can reduce methane emissions in livestock particularly in sheep and cattle from 30 percent as a minimum up to 90 percent.The Government is making a significant investment in a Global Research Alliance working closely with our New Zealand scientists and also the other 45 countries around the world that are partnering with us. So we should acknowledge the investment that the Government is making through the Primary Growth Partnership through the Sustainable Farming Fund through the Global Research Alliance and through other areas where we are investing as well. Thank you.