Dowie SarahSARAH DOWIE (National—Invercargill): I am delighted to take a call in this appropriations debate and delighted to take a call after the last speaker Fletcher Tabuteau. I will endeavour over the next 10 minutes to educate him about the regions and about what this Government is doing to support our economy moving forward but not only that but also to support our families and the most vulnerable in our society to move them on to independence and to achieving their hopes and dreams.I am going to start by congratulating the Hon Bill English on delivering his eighth Budget. I think it was a very very good Budget and one that builds on this Government's record of responsible sensible pragmatic and compassionate governance of this country. So not only is this Government supporting businesses to do what they do best—to grow the economy to grow their markets and of course to take those risks to take on extra staff and to employ the extra person so that they can grow their own skill base and support their own families—but it is supporting the vulnerable as I said earlier. This is evidenced by the statistics. We have heard that statistics do not lie and there is forecast growth of about 3 percent over the next few years and unemployment is forecast to drop below 5 percent in the upcoming year. So we are the envy of the OECD.Not only are we in Government going to continue to deliver on our fiscal priorities to maintain surpluses and to our reduce debt by 2020 but we are continually looking at the economy as a whole. So yes I acknowledge that we do need to focus on our larger centres. Auckland will always beat the likes of Invercargill in GDP and the money-go-round but we have a lot going for us down South as well and this is a Government that looks to the regions to support our economy and assists the regions to do well.Dr David Clark: Neglecting the regions. The Southland economy has shrunk 10 percent in the last year—shrunk 10 percent.SARAH DOWIE: The Southland economy is doing exceptionally well. It is still producing 14 percent of New Zealand's total exporters' receipts and boxing well above its weight—and I will continue to educate you David Clark along those lines.Hon Michael Woodhouse: Speak slowly.SARAH DOWIE: Ha! I will—I will Mr Woodhouse. I will speak very slowly so that the Opposition can pick it up. With regard to regional economic development I am very very pleased that this Government has come up with the Innovative New Zealand fund. The Innovative New Zealand fund is a whopping $761 million that is going to encourage entrepreneurship and business growth and that has three parts.The first is $411 million—and that is over 4 years—designed to develop and promote high-tech clever ideas so that people can expand in that science sphere and come up with new ideas to commercialise build markets and do well.The second is $257 million and that is in respect of building apprenticeships in the areas that we need. We are looking at sectors like science engineering and agriculture—and certainly down in Southland we need more of that. We need more agriculture and engineering experts down in Southland to help support our primary industry.The final one—which I am really pleased about—is supporting regional economic development with initiatives that are going to unlock business opportunities and have real tangible benefits for our regions. These are tailored to our regions to build on each region's individuals strengths so that each region can continue to diversify its economy create jobs for its people and do well.In that regard I want to talk about our SoRDS group—the Southland Regional Development Strategy otherwise known as SoRDS. Some regions are more developed than others in respect of taking the lead and owning what goes on in their region and with the SoRDS group Southland is one of those. It is a 2-year programme of a group of business people coming together to develop an action plan for Southland and its target is to attract 10000 more people to Southland by 2025. Funnily enough migration plays a really big part in that. So the Opposition talking about reducing immigration leaves a bad taste in Southlanders' mouths because we are crying out for skilled migrants in Southland. We are crying out for skilled people to come to our regions and take up our jobs that exist. We have a very low unemployment rate. We have a very high labour participation rate—74 percent—Dr David Clark: Unemployment's doubled since 2008.SARAH DOWIE: —when the national average is 64. We have an unemployment rate of 5 percent which is still below the national average. So we are doing very very well but we need more people to increase our production and keep our production up. So yes we need to look overseas for those skills and we were very happy to have our Minister of Immigration Mr Woodhouse come and visit us recently so that we could talk about the challenges that we face.Hon Michael Woodhouse: What was business asking for?SARAH DOWIE: For more people—for more skilled people. So I think that our point system that we have at the moment and the changes to the point system to encourage people to the regions is going to stand us in good stead moving forward.Along with that goal of attracting 10000 more people to live in Southland by 2025 we are looking at new industries and at expanding existing industries. Currently we have 20 percent of New Zealand's aquaculture in Southland producing salmon and of course oysters on Stewart Island. We want to expand on that. The Government has thankfully come in behind that in a partnership with the Ministry for Primary Industries our SoRDS group Ngāi Tahu and local government and we are undertaking preliminary research to look at the Southland coastline as to where aquaculture could be viable. It is very preliminary at this stage but we need to undertake some good science so that we can establish where there is potential and then look to invest in that potential. If you look at some of the statistics for every hectare of space in aquaculture there are 22 jobs and around about $13 million in revenue. That is going to support our families moving forward it is going to create more jobs and more revenue for our region and I am pleased that the Government has come in behind that and is supporting Southland.The other thing that Budget 2016 has done is invest in infrastructure—$2 billion in faster better internet across the country with a goal to connect 97 percent of people on the Rural Broadband Initiative or ultra-fast broadband by 2019 and that is so important for Southland. Schools were some of the first to be connected and I want to talk about Stewart Island again because the students at Halfmoon Bay School get to enjoy a wonderful island lifestyle—out recreating in the natural bush enjoying an island lifestyle—but they want to go school they want to learn and they want to have a well-rounded education. With that connection to fibre they can Skype to learn different subjects. What they do at this stage is that they Skype a teacher in Blenheim to learn music and I think that that is fantastic—that these young students can stay on the island and enjoy an island lifestyle but still learn and have a well-rounded education.I want to end with Battle for our Birds—$20 million invested into Battle for our Birds. You only have to look again at Ulva Island. It is pest free and the birdsong on Ulva Island is absolutely fantastic. Having Battle for our Birds and keeping our conservation efforts up increases tourism. Tourism has now overtaken dairy. It is one of our largest earners in the country and we want to continue to promote ecotourism in Southland to grow that pie for our people and again to create more jobs and more wealth for our families. This is a Budget that is growing the economy but it is also supporting our families and I am very very pleased to be part of a Government that is doing that.