Butterick MikeMIKE BUTTERICK (National—Wairarapa): Thank you Mr Speaker. On Saturday 14 October 2023 the war on farmers ended. To the 360000 people from across the country who are involved in the primary sector and who form the backbone of our economy including those from the mighty Wairarapa Central Hawke's Bay and the Tararua: thank you. Thank you to those who grow our grains our fruits and our vegetables; to those who milk the cows; to those who grow our meat. Thank you to all those that support our farmers and growers: the mechanics the vets the accountants the retailers manufacturers labourers. Thank you to everyone else involved. Thank you to the farmers—all of you—for your commitment to being amongst the most carbon-efficient farmers in the world. Thank you for taking our food and fibre to the world. Thank you for your export dollars which help to pay for the roads the schools and the hospitals we need. Thank you for keeping the farm gate open whilst members of the other side of the House vilified your industry. The reality is we need you now more than ever given the near $100 billion debt that we've been left with by those same members over there. We have the opportunity to make improvements to the Resource Management Act and slash the red and green tape as my esteemed colleague so aptly put previously. This will allow those that like I said are the backbone of the country to do what they do best and that's just get on with it.Changes to the National Policy Statement on Freshwater Management will allow us to find better ways to achieve the outcomes we continually look for. Those regulations have added cost stress and little in positive change or practice that wasn't already happening on farms across the country. This is the same for the winter grazing regulations which have never been fit for purpose and again added cost and stress without significant or positive results being seen over and above what was already happening before those regulations were introduced.We need to recognise that those who work live and play on the land want to see an improvement in the environment—and they already invest in this. There's many examples as the Minister said. The 25000 kilometres of waterways already fenced off—almost 100 percent of all waterways on dairy farms are fenced off. The 2.8 million hectares of woody vegetation that's already on our farm lands. The amazing work the catchments continue to do—close to 300 of them—and the Queen Elizabeth II (QEII) National Trust covenants are a perfect example. Let's be clear: we didn't need regulation or law for our farmers to want to do this. The 5000th QEII covenant was registered in the Wairarapa very recently.Stifling businesses that utilise the land to produce both local and export products is not in the best interests of all of the people in this country. The assumption that the environment will get worse typifies the previous administration's narrative that the farming sector are villains. On this side of the House we don't hold that view. We trust our farmers. We back our farmers. We can grow our economy. We can get Wellington out of farming. We need to let our farmers farm and at the same time continue to look after our environment as they have always done. The war on farming is over. We'll get the sector back on track. I commend this bill to the House.