Guy Nathan: Estimates Debate — In CommitteeText is incorporated into the Bound VolumeGuy Nathan: Estimates Debate — In Committee[Sitting date: 11 August 2015. Volume:707;Page:5619. Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume.]Hon NATHAN GUY (Minister for Primary Industries): Well there we heard a very interesting speech from Damien O’Connor. What we did not hear when he was talking about the border levy was that when he was the Minister of Tourism he proposed the exact same thing. He is nodding now. Did you see him nodding? He just said for the Hansard record that he did. So he did propose a border levy when he was the Minister of Tourism in the Labour Government. Now he stands up and says it is terrible that the National Government is indeed implementing in part what he was proposing. So he has forgotten what he was proposing in several speeches when indeed he was the Minister of Tourism.I was so disappointed that that member would not support the border levy when we proposed it on the back of the Budget. In fact we did not hear a squeak from that member. He could not get on a plane to the West Coast quickly enough and he hoped that no one would discover the fact that he proposed a border levy in the dying days of the Labour Government and now he has forgotten. Looking at his face over there we know that he proposed it—and look at that grin. It tells you a thousand words.We should indeed be supporting the primary sector. We support the primary sector on this side of the Chamber. We celebrate the success of an industry and a sector that generates around $4 million an hour in terms of export earnings for this country. I am the first one to acknowledge it is tough times for the dairy industry right now. It is very tough times but I will also acknowledge that the medium to long term outlook for the dairy industry is extremely bright and our farmers know that. Our farmers know that this is a period of short-term volatility.The doomsayers on that side of the Chamber just want to talk it down. Yet again we hear Andrew Little and Damien O’Connor and others saying: “It’s a crisis! It’s a crisis!”. Well we had the manufacturing crisis the day that all the parties pretty much on the other side of the House proposed that. Actually manufacturing has started to grow and has never looked back. So the dairy sector will get through this.Of course what is not acknowledged—and I was talking about it earlier in the House today—is that our red meat sector particularly beef is going incredibly well. That is also happening with our viticulture and our kiwifruit. Kiwifruit has from memory got up to $1.42 billion in export earnings. Zespri has blown through the high level of $1 billion and is almost back above pre-Psa returns which is fantastic. Also our forestry sector is starting to grow and is waiting for new opportunities in the US. I know that Minister Goodhew will make some comments about that.What we also should not forget importantly is the future of seafood. It is great to see in the outlook for primary industries that seafood is forecast to grow to $1.8 billion by 2019 on the back of aquaculture growth. Not a lot happened in aquaculture when Labour was in Government. There is a lot of potential under this Government for aquaculture to grow and prosper more so than under the Labour Government. So this Government has a focus on supporting our exporters through the tough times and actually a big part of the primary sector is growing incredibly well.The No. 1 priority for me is biosecurity. That is why we invested $27 million in this year’s Budget. We made an announcement just last week that there will be 20 more detector dog teams more X-ray machines more people on the front line more auditing of in-country audits and import health standards etc. There will be a real focus on biosecurity because you cannot grow exports unless you focus on the “protect” part which is biosecurity—and food safety where Minister Goodhew is doing an outstanding job.Also trade is hugely important—new market access opportunities—and that is why we are very optimistic about the Trans-Pacific Partnership. It is going to be interesting when those negotiations land just to see where political parties across the House actually fall. Who will actually support the Trans-Pacific Partnership? It will be very interesting to see whether Mr Little can support the Trans-Pacific Partnership. I imagine that Labour’s caucus is split. I imagine its caucus is split down the middle. You will have Sue Moroney there talking out of one side of her mouth. You will have David Shearer and Phil Goff and the guys like David Parker who have a bit of an outward focus realising that New Zealand is not going to grow our wealth unless we sell things to the world and we sell 45 percent into those 11 countries that are involved in the Trans-Pacific Partnership. There are huge opportunities there. I am delighted that Minister Groser landed a free-trade agreement with Korea and Taiwan is also proving to be a very important new and emerging market for us.We should not forget about irrigation particularly in North Canterbury where they are still battling through very dry times. I know the local member will no doubt comment on that this evening because he has been in touch. I am looking forward to visiting North Canterbury in the next week or so. It is going to be hugely exciting when stage one of Central Plains Water storage opens. That is a massive project on the outskirts of Christchurch City. Everyone is talking about the Christchurch rebuild; no one actually realises that just out there on the Canterbury Plains hundreds of millions of dollars are being invested in farming improving water quality improving the environment improving productivity and growing our exports. We should be backing water storage projects. This Government has a real focus on water storage. We collect and store only about 2 percent of the rain that falls in this country. The rest roars out to sea. There are huge opportunities to do more.In the final couple of minutes I have got I also want to talk about the regional economy. We have got four studies under way in East Coast - Hawke’s Bay Northland the Bay of Plenty and the one that was announced recently Manawatū-Whanganui which covers the whole Horizons Regional Council area. What these studies show is that there is a huge amount of potential and upside in these regional economies particularly in the primary sector—particularly in red meat sheep and beef production dairy and also horticulture expansion. So the Ministry for Primary Industries with the Ministry of Business Innovation and Employment and Te Puni Kōkiri will be working with regional leaders to lift the performance of these four regions. These four regions—Mr McKelvie talked about it before and he is well in touch with the potential of his region as is Chester Borrows the other local MP there and Jono Naylor—are all linked in with the opportunities of this regional growth study for the lower North Island.Also we have got a real focus on skills because we know that we need to attract about another 50000 into the primary sector over the next 10 years or so. About half of them will need to be tertiary qualified or have level 4 qualifications. So they will be your food safety scientists. They will be your robotic engineers. They will be your environmental planners. Agriculture is actually becoming a lot more sophisticated. So we have got to attract the youngest and brightest into a big part of the New Zealand economy. We have got to celebrate success. We have also got to retain and upskill our primary sector capability. Of course we cannot do that here in Wellington and the Government should not be doing it on its own so we are reaching out to industry. And when I say “we” we have got some work under way with the Ministry for Primary Industries and the Ministry of Education working closer together looking at pilots in the likes of Ashburton Picton and Kerikeri.There is huge potential in Ashburton for sheep and beef production and also dairying and arable and we are bringing in the local principals so that they understand that there are jobs in their local communities. In Picton it is about viticulture and it is about aquaculture. In Kerikeri it is about sheep and beef and dairying and horticulture. So it makes sense that we wrap our arms around industry and get in touch with the principals of those local schools to make sure that they understand there are jobs in their local economies.Finally we should be backing the primary sector. The Committee this evening should stand up and say that the primary sector matters. We back it more so than the Opposition parties because we know it is hugely important to the New Zealand economy.