6. Question No. 6—AgricultureTEANAU TUIONO (Green) to the Minister of AgricultureQuestion No. 6—Agriculture6. TEANAU TUIONO (Green) to the Minister of Agriculture: Does he stand by his statement that Extra monitoring and a range of practical support is being rolled out to help farmers achieve immediate improvements in intensive winter grazing practices"; if so what monitoring of intensive winter grazing practices is being done this season?Hon DAMIEN O'CONNOR (Minister of Agriculture): Yes. Extra monitoring and a range of practical support is being rolled out to help farmers implement good intensive winter grazing practices. Since late May 2022 this year the Ministry for Primary Industries animal welfare compliance team has been undertaking a programme of monitoring winter grazing in Southland and Otago known as Phase Two of Project Poharu. This includes firstly proactive visits to many operations undertaking winter grazing; weekly meetings with Environment Southland and Otago Regional Council who have responsibility for environmental issues such as water quality potentially arising from winter grazing; and attending to any complaints received regarding potential animal welfare issues arising from intensive winter grazing. This is a follow-up to the equivalent programme Project Poharu undertaken in 2021 and in addition MPI staff have been working with industry groups such as Beef + Lamb to provide guidance to the primary sector on good intensive winter grazing planning and practice. Teanau Tuiono: Does he stand by his statement in response to a question on 7 June that the "Ministry for Primary Industries people will be out on the ground ensuring that best winter grazing practice occurs this winter" and if so what specific steps are being taken to deliver on this?Hon DAMIEN O'CONNOR: As I just said in the previous question we've had a project task force team out now assessing what is going on. In fact I've been very pleased with the reports that I have been getting. Indeed Environment Southland and I think the Otago Regional Council have been overflying some of those areas and at this stage in spite of a terribly wet winter and some really challenging times for farmers the reports are that most farmers are managing the situation very very well.Teanau Tuiono: Does he also stand by his statement in response to a question on 7 June that "for those farms and farming operations that don't meet those high standards we have to check up on and prosecute where necessary" and if so is he confident that checks are sufficient—Mark Cameron: That's right. The Greens hate farmers—we know it.SPEAKER: Order! Who interjected then? Teanau Tuiono: Another go?SPEAKER: The member will start again and I'll think about what I'll do. Teanau Tuiono: Does he stand by his statement in response to a question on 7 June that "for those farms and farming operations that don't meet those high standards we have to check up on and prosecute where necessary" and if so is he confident that checks are sufficient to identify issues requiring enforcement action?Hon DAMIEN O'CONNOR: Yes and to expand on that a little bit look the process that we have gone through in conjunction with my colleague the Minister for the Environment the Hon David Parker—we have been focused on this primarily from an animal welfare perspective first and foremost but then of course the effects of intensive winter grazing on potential water quality issues. The task force that we had the action team that we appointed and indeed the actions of both as I say the councils and MPI have shifted the behaviour and I believe that we're in a far better position than we were five years ago.Teanau Tuiono: Can he give us specific progress if any that has been made on including animal welfare considerations as part of farm planning alongside environmental management in line with recommendation 6 of the Winter Grazing Taskforce final report?Hon DAMIEN O'CONNOR: As I say I appointed a task force and then an action implementation group. They came back. Of the 11 recommendations that came from the task force all but one of them have been implemented including the one he refers to. There is good coordination between the shared objectives of better animal welfare and better environmental management through water quality.Teanau Tuiono: Is he committed to implementing all 11 recommendations of the Winter Grazing Taskforce on how animal welfare can be improved and if so how?Hon DAMIEN O'CONNOR: [Drops notes] I was going to read all 11 out but I won't. Yes I am committed to all of them. The only one that has not been implemented is: "Work is needed to establish baseline animal welfare performance of intensive winter grazing systems in order to monitor the progress of improvements." We consider that actually most farmers and most regional councils know what good practice is and so we considered that that was not necessary. All the other 10 recommendations have indeed been implemented."