Guy Nathan: Budget DebateText is incorporated into the Bound VolumeGuy Nathan: Budget Debate[Sitting date: 28 May 2015. Volume:705;Page:4136. Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume.]Hon NATHAN GUY (Minister for Primary Industries): Well what a great Budget it was for the National Government. It is interesting that we have just heard a contribution from the not so fresh-faced member of the Labour Party who has been here for I am not sure how long—Hon Paul Goldsmith: 22 yearsHon NATHAN GUY: 22 years Minister Goldsmith says. It is 22 years that Ruth Dyson has been here. That is the future of the Labour Party—not. Anyway let us focus on this Budget because it was such a good Budget. It was so well-received in my electorate of Ōtaki and yet when Andrew Little came in and made his contribution was it not an absolute shocker? Those members’ heads went down over on the other side of the House and they were embarrassed about their leader when he stood up and talked about roosters on heat and fiscal gender reassignment. We could call his contribution the Gene Simmons speech which went down like a lead balloon. What the Government actually did was steal the Labour Party’s thunder by making a significant contribution for beneficiaries. In 43 years this has been the most significant contribution ever made by a Government. This particular policy announcement of $790 million has been—Hon Ruth Dyson: Total lies.The ASSISTANT SPEAKER (Lindsay Tisch): Order! You cannot say that.Hon NATHAN GUY: —extremely well-received. I can handle the rebuttal from the other side Mr Assistant Speaker. In fact the members of the public would be disappointed by that comment from the Hon Ruth Dyson. But let us focus on the good news of this Budget because the centrepiece is about families. Before I get on with talking about families let us talk about the future focus of this Budget. We are indicating we are going to reach surplus next year. Of course the other side will say: “Oh well it should have been reached this year.” Well the reality is we have managed the books through the global financial crisis and we are rebuilding the large city of Christchurch. We have come through commodity price fluctuations and that is being experienced right now by our dairy farmers who will get through this because the medium to long term outlook for our dairy farmers is indeed very positive. But of course members on the other side are not interested in the dairy industry until they find that the forecast milk price payout drops and then it is all the Government’s fault. But we did not hear from anyone from that side of the House from 2002 to 2006 when the average price of milk solids was $4.20. We did not hear a whisper from them about their being concerned about our rural communities provincial New Zealand or indeed our dairy farmers.We have done well on this side of the House. We have created thousands of jobs and we are forecast to create another 150000 jobs in the next 4 years. This economy has created 194000 jobs since 2011. Wages have increased by 15 percent over the last 5 years which is fantastic. Public services under the John Key and Bill English regime are more efficient and the exciting thing is that unemployment is forecast to drop to 5 percent next year. Of course all of that is not acknowledged by the other side of the House because those members just cannot believe the fact that this Budget has gone down particularly well in places like Ōtaki in places like Foxton and in places like Levin in my electorate.But importantly what I want to focus on this afternoon is the great Budget for the primary sector. This is a fantastic Budget for rural New Zealand—$25 million is going into biosecurity my No. 1 priority. It is an extra $2 million of capital which means more dogs more X-rays and more people. And of course there is the passenger levy that we introduced under urgency on the weekend. It is supported by our support parties but importantly it is supported by the Green Party which has got a vision. It realises that this levy should be paid by users. It should be paid by the 55 percent who come from other countries around the world. This levy should be paid by users and the importance of the Green Party’s support is that those members get the fact. Those members get the fact that biosecurity is hugely important for biodiversity. They also get the fact that volumes are growing. Tourist numbers are increasing by a forecasted 3.5 percent every year for the next 6 years. With that comes extra risk so it is only fair that as passengers come across our border with them flows this money so that we can continue to increase our biosecurity and border control.Also in this year’s Budget an extra $10 million is going into strengthening the animal welfare system. I acknowledge everyone in the House for their support in passing the Animal Welfare Amendment Bill—which is now law and that is fantastic—about a month or 6 weeks ago. What we have got to do is implement the regulations. We have got to work closely with the SPCA. Some of this $10 million over the next 4 years will go into getting the regulations ready and into implementing them. We are working closely and funding the SPCA because animal welfare is hugely important. We export to about 130 countries around the world 66 percent of New Zealanders have a pet and we rely heavily on our animal exports to the tune of $25 billion so animal welfare does matter.What has also been exciting for rural New Zealand is the announcement I made this week. We are putting $25 million into the Irrigation Acceleration Fund. That is a fantastic Budget initiative starting next year—$5 million a year. This is going to mean that we can ensure that these regional water storage projects get up and off the ground and get up to the investment-ready stage. We know that there is the potential for 400000 more hectares of land that could be irrigated in New Zealand. We know that it is good for economic growth not only for our GDP but importantly for our regional economies. I have been into areas where they have told me that the school has been on the brink of closure. With irrigation the school the school has revitalised.What has also happened is irrigation projects have been good for the environment. We just need to look at the Ōpua which ran dry this summer and where Fish and Game were out rescuing fish species and releasing them in the Ōpihi River which is fed from the water storage project. Also a lot of these water storage projects flow through into regional towns and cities. The Ōpua helps to underpin the water supply for Timaru.But on the other side we do not hear any support for water storage projects. We do not hear much support for rural New Zealand. Those members did not support the border levy which I think is an absolute shocker. They do not support the primary industry. Every primary industry came out and supported the border levy being introduced. Yes we have got some consultation to come and that will be happening next month and we look forward to the feedback from everyone who is interested.Also there was an announcement made recently on the weekend about $7.5 million over the next couple of years to ensure that we are doing more in skills because we know that we need to attract more people into the primary industries. So we are going to be working closely with the Ministry of Education there. We are going to put more money into OVERSEER. We know that that is hugely important managing our environmental footprint sustainably going forward and also we are going to give farming systems a bit of a boost. We want to do some detailed data analysis to ensure that we are celebrating and saluting the best performers of our country and making that information more readily available to the average farmer because we believe if we can lift productivity by 10 or 20 percent then we can return exports into this country of about $4 billion to $6 billion of GDP. Also there was a great announcement for agriculture students—an increase of 20 percent for their tuition fees which is fantastic.I could go on. There is a long list. Minister Goodhew this afternoon was talking about the Afforestation Grants Scheme which she has introduced which has been really well-received by the foresters which is a very important exporter—No. 3 exporter—for New Zealand’s primary sector. There was $22.5 million there. Also Minister Joyce announced the regional research institutes where hopefully in the next couple of years we will have the roll-out of these happening in our regions taking science into the regions to boost them. Also we are going to be working on the Te Ture Whenua Maori Act review and importantly focusing on a new MetService forecast because we talk about droughts and things and farmers and rural communities rely very heavily on the MetService. Let us not forget ultra-fast broadband because putting infrastructure in the ground whether it is building the Kapiti Expressway—which is hugely important through my electorate—rolling out infrastructure like ultra-fast broadband or working on those black spots like Minister Adams talked about rolling it out for rural communities is hugely important.So in summary this is a great Budget. I salute and celebrate Bill English’s seventh Budget. We are on the right track. This Budget has gone down particularly well whether it is in our cities or whether it is in our provincial towns and I back our rural communities. Thank you.