Curran ClareHon CLARE CURRAN (Labour—Dunedin South): Thank you Madam Speaker. So the context of this bill is that this is a Government that's tackling the long-term challenges. Our economy is in really good shape. It's growing faster than most similar countries. Interest rates unemployment and debt are all low. We've had the highest annual wage growth in a decade. We're not afraid of tackling the big issues and that's the context. We know that farming is vital to New Zealand's growth and wellbeing and it accounts for something like I think $46 billion in exports last year. We also know that there is growing debt in the farming sector and that farmers are especially vulnerable to business downturns as a result of conditions that are often outside their control. You've heard quite a lot of talk about that this afternoon which is why this Government—as I said not afraid of tackling the long-term issues—is actually addressing it. It started off with a member's bill—I acknowledge Mark Patterson for that member's bill—which the Government then sensibly decided should be a wider Government bill. And thankfully the Opposition the National Party decided that it would support it. It sounds to me as if there was quite a lot of good work done in the Primary Production Committee with 31 written submissions and 17 oral submissions from farmers banks and mediation organisations. But this is one of those examples where good work gets done in the select committee and a lot of blather happens in the House from the National Party in Opposition that is looking for a way to justify its nine years of doing nothing in this area. We've heard that in 2019—this year—there is $62.8 billion of debt up from $49 billion in 2009. So one asks oneself what the previous Government was doing during that period. Why didn't they introduce legislation to bring in a fair farm mediation scheme that was going to guarantee that fair constructive and timely process for farmers to work through debt problems with their lenders? I heard the previous speaker talk about blocking driveways to get banks to negotiate with farmers but there's just a great big glaring gap and you've got to ask yourself what was missing during that period. Was it that the banks were seen as too powerful for the previous National Government to actually take on? Actually you've got to look and see—well what's the previous Prime Minister doing now? He's the chair of one of those banks. So here we have a Government—DEPUTY SPEAKER: I think the member needs to be a bit careful. Hon CLARE CURRAN:—that is actually introducing a fair scheme—DEPUTY SPEAKER: I think the member needs to be a bit careful. Hon CLARE CURRAN:—for the farming community to have a structured confidential and impartial negotiation process that allows for the mediator to be a neutral and independent person to help both the farmer and creditor work through their debt issues in an effort to reach agreement. So fairness is actually what this Government is about. It is tackling the hard issues and getting the economy working properly but introducing fairness for all parts of the community. A big thankyou to Minister Damien O'Connor for taking this issue on. This is why it's so hard for the Opposition to argue a position. Even though they're supporting the bill it's really hard for them to argue their position because they didn't get on and do this themselves in that nine long years of neglect period. Instead it's this Government that's been left to pick up the pieces after we've had a system where farmers are dependent on capital gains on land and not productive profit. We've had growing farm debt and no recognition of the building pressure on farmers. This is the Government that's delivering. They're delivering for all parts of this sector and we're doing it alongside all of the other joined-up policies that are making this country a better place.