Patterson MarkHon MARK PATTERSON (Minister for Rural Communities): I rise on behalf of New Zealand First to continue to support this New Zealand Productivity Commission Act Repeal Bill. I'm kind of listening to the crocodile tears across the aisle and essentially well what is the Productivity Commission? Essentially it's an independent statutory body that writes reports about productivity. I think the Minister's made the case that we actually haven't been actioning the reports that they have been producing no matter how meritorious they may have been and I think that's the core thing here. We're a Government of action; we want to actually put some of these reports and some of these recommendations—actually get some stuff done and there is a repository of advice that sits there that we can refer to in our endeavours.The other thing that has perplexed me a little bit about the protestations over the aisle is that we actually have a massive army of bureaucrats sitting in our—particularly Ministry of Business Innovation and Enterprise; how many are in there now? There's 6500 fine skilled and capable New Zealanders over there highly qualified that give us exactly this advice. We have the capacity to do that within—and it's free and frank. It is totally apolitical; they are free to give us exactly what advice they choose based on a very very well-resourced bureaucracy over there. In my own capacity as the Minister for Rural Communities and as associate agriculture Minister we have the Ministry for Primary Industries that also have significant capacity; some 3500 people over there. Hon Scott Simpson: A lot of talent.Hon MARK PATTERSON: A lot of talent; a lot of very good people and I've enjoyed engaging with them. I've been learning about a lot of the work they've been doing reading the reports. There's some very good stuff in there. We do not lack the capacity to write reports. What we lack is the capacity to actually enact anything and get some productivity going as Stuart Smith has just pointed out in his previous contribution. Our productivity is woefully lacking. It's been an Achilles heel of this country for as long as I can remember following politics. It's always been the thing that's been wheeled out as being one of our impediments and why we've continued to slide down the scale of OECD economies. It's why we can't deliver the Government services that we'd all like. We have to make some pretty hard choices and we're in the process of having to do that right now over on this side of the House. It's because we're not generating enough income as a country so we've got to prioritise and make some fairly tough decisions and that does come down to productivity but that actually comes back to some action and acting on some of the advice that we've had in the past. Again Stuart Smith—and Catherine Wedd when she spoke—referred to the primary sector—Hon Scott Simpson: Backbone of the country.Hon MARK PATTERSON: —the backbone of the country—and just the absolute frustration at the regulation that is holding them back. They're spending so much time in the office and there's uncertainty around what they're going to have to do rather than being actually out on their farms farming and putting up the fences and doing the riparian planting and the like. Hon Scott Simpson: Strangled by red tape.Hon MARK PATTERSON: They're strangled by red tape as the Hon Scott Simpson mentions beside me and it is a real problem. We've had tractors in the street. We've had as Miles Anderson of course pointed out in his maiden speech today sentiment at an all-time low. And these are incredibly productive people. Actually one of my favourite statistics from the agricultural sector—and as I might point out National Lamb Day is coming up on 15 February. What an important industry that's been for New Zealand but the red meat sector has—we were at nearly 80 million sheep in the early 1980s; we're down to about 25 million now but the actual amount of red meat we're producing from those sheep is actually very similar. That is productivity above and beyond almost any other sector in New Zealand and it's been done at a time when most of the best land has been converted to other land uses either dairying or horticulture. This is a sector that knows a lot about productivity; they know how to do productivity. What they can't handle is the regulation and I think that's what the honourable Minister is really trying to get to here and I note that farming regulation is one of the higher priorities on his list. So they haven't needed the Productivity Commission to tell them how to farm but they do need the Government to get out of the road in terms of the regulations. So New Zealand First does continue to support this bill and—Hon Member: For very good reasons.Hon MARK PATTERSON: For good reasons and also as a Government and as an incoming Minister you're not short of advice; not only the official advice and the excellent advice you get from your ministry and obviously your constituents but there's an absolute platoon of economists and sector groups out there. There's the unions there's a lot of information there's a lot of reports there's a lot of advice coming from different angles from different sectors from the NGOs that side of things. So we're not short of advice. What we're short of is action and a clear pathway to cutting red tape and getting stuff done because we're just not getting stuff done as a country. I think Miles Anderson made the point that the Clyde Dam was the last piece of major infrastructure in the region. So that's the stuff that's going to get this economy moving that's the stuff that's going to grow our GDP that's the stuff that's going to grow the tax take that's the stuff that means we'll be able to deliver some of those extra public services that we know we want to do over time. So we think this bill is eminently sensible. It's taking out a group that has done some good work. Their work is going to be subsumed into the ministry of regulation under Minister Seymour but there is inordinate capacity within the public sector to give us the advice to look at various issues as they come up. I know we've got I think the Rt Hon Bill English looking at Kāinga Ora—Homes and Communities about why it costs something like $6500 a square metre for them to build a house—a public house—when the private sector is doing it for about half of that. So we can still do those things; we're not restrained in our capacity as a Government to pick issues to look at and to respond to.So New Zealand First continues to support this bill and we look forward to the committee stage. Thank you.