Carter David: General Debate 
Carter David: General Debate 
[Volume:678;Page:902] 
Hon DAVID CARTER (Minister for Primary Industries) 
: 
 I am quite happy to compare the first 100 days of the National-led Government and its performance with the performance of that member as the Leader of the Opposition. Every question time you see the dejected looks coming over all of the faces of the Labour caucus as they know they have a problem. The only one who is happy is Grant Robertson. He cannot wait—he cannot wait—to see Mr Shearer take another question because it is only a matter of time. It is only a matter of time. Mr Robertson is knocking close on the door. 
But today I want to talk about the New Zealand primary sector and its contribution to the economy. What we see with the huge performance of the whole of the primary sector is that it makes a contribution of 72 percent of export earnings. I want to compare what National does with the primary sector with what those guys in Labour did. It was David Lange who called agriculture a sunset industry and the Labour Opposition still considers that agriculture is a sunset industry. It is the very saviour of the New Zealand economy. 
I want to take the opportunity to talk about what National has done for the primary sector. We have set up a focus on water and the development of irrigation: $35 million has gone to the Irrigation Acceleration Fund and we have made a further contribution of $400 million to make sure that the infrastructure gets built. We have put a focus on innovation. We now have over $500 million worth of investment in primary sector research through the Primary Growth Partnership. We have led the world with the Global Research Alliance on Agricultural Greenhouse Gases and we are recognised right throughout the world as making real attempts to find solutions to the global greenhouse gas emissions from agriculture. 
We have streamlined the Resource Management Act. Only yesterday in the House we were making sure we got the rental system right for the high country leases. We have invested around $450 million in rural infrastructure including broadband. We have doubled the infringement fine for people breaching biosecurity at the borders. We have brought through a TB strategy committing $30 million each year for the next 5 years. There is so much that we can talk about including the immediate response to the  
Pseudomonas syringae  
pv.  
Actinidiae 
 infestation of $25 million. Compare that with the way the Labour Government sat on its hands when the varroa bee mite first arrived. 
But there is plenty more that needs to be done. We have got to make sure we initiate an emissions trading scheme that does not saddle agriculture in an uncompetitive position. We have got to make sure we never see Labour coming to power and initiating a capital gains tax. We have got to make sure we never see a Labour Government coming into power fiddling with the Reserve Bank of New Zealand Act and driving up interest rates because the confidence of New Zealand farmers has never been higher and one of the reasons for that today is the fiscal responsibility of this National-led Government. We deliver the lowest interest rates we have seen for the last 40 years. 
So out there in rural New Zealand there is a level of confidence. That confidence is delivering right throughout the New Zealand economy and the rural hinterland of this country knows the value of a sympathetic Government that understands its concerns. The last thing it ever wants to see is the election of a Labour-Greens Government because that will mean that irrigation will not get developed. The Greens even talked about putting a tax on water. It will certainly mean that with the expenditure on any proposals Labour makes interest rates would increase and increase markedly. This country relies on agriculture. It is the absolute backbone of the economy and that has stood New Zealand in great stead over the last 4 years.