Bennett GlenGLEN BENNETT (Labour—New Plymouth): Kia ora Madam Speaker. I just want to remind the previous speaker Chris Baillie that New Plymouth is actually the sunniest city in New Zealand—I hate to bring it up but it is—for the second year in a row. Nelson I think hasn't been for a long time. We're talking local issues this afternoon and bringing it into my electorate of New Plymouth I often sort of think more about the local possibilities and the issues that arise but also the possibilities that come with that. So I want to talk this afternoon around branching out to a low-carbon economy. In our rural sector in Taranaki it's about looking at ways and means to do things differently. Taranaki is an awesome place to live to work to play and to create. It's a place where our economy and our businesses thrive and grow and as we have to work and shift to a low-carbon economy and shift to a low-emissions future we need to be at the ready and at the forefront. That is the issue but that is the possibility that we have for our region.Now as part of the Taranaki 2050 Roadmap we were looking at how we co-design with our local people for our local region. There were some key things that came out of that for us to explore and I'm grateful that as a Government we've taken note of that and we're implementing them. I'll shortly mention the Hon Damien O'Connor and the work he's done for our region and continues to do but those key themes were things such as a strong and sustainable environment. They were around education options that move and flow with our changing world. They were about attractive jobs around the lifestyle that we love in the sunniest place in New Zealand and also about leading the way in sustainable low-emissions energy and a region that looks out for each other and cares for its people—those were things that we as a community said were important as we move forward. We have the issue of decarbonisation we have the issue of looking at how we diversify our agricultural sector and we are on the game and moving forward with our Taranaki 2050 Roadmap. Now Branching Out has been a big part of that and I was really grateful back in 2020 for the Hon Damien O'Connor the Minister of Agriculture to put some money into our region and to look at what Branching Out could do—how do we look at our food and fibre sector and its future and how do we diversify it? Currently we have such fertile and wonderful land but so often it's only in just one thing and that's our dairy industry so we looked at ways and at the opportunities and what we could do to diversify that. It's saying yes to our agriculture yes to our farmers but also yes to how we can look at different ways of using the lands that they have. We engaged catchment communities funding more than 200 of them around Aotearoa but also in our own region ensuring that we had support from catchment communities and where they could share ideas they can innovate they can improve their waterways and they could continue to build their communities. The aim of the Branching Out project—and we've now honed it down; we were grateful at the last Fieldays last November to have the Minister of Agriculture Damien O'Connor again put another $2.17 million of funding into Branching Out looking at what the challenges and issues are to say Look how can we find possible opportunities to move forward?" So we're focusing on hemp fibre on medical ingredients on indigenous ingredients on hops on gin botanicals and on high-value fruit crops. It's exciting when I get out and about and I talk to farmers and I talk to industry and I talk to those who are developing new ways of utilising their land new ways of developing their businesses—whether it be around trees whether it be about using sheep for dairy whether it be about developing avocado or kiwifruit on dairy farms and whether it be about grains and legumes and vegetables or hemp fibres—we've got our wonderful industries like Shining Peak Brewing like Juno Gin who are all part of this plan to take an issue which is decarbonising take an issue which is a challenge for us but then to find a possibility and a way forward. We have fair-trade agreements in place. As a Government we have four new agreements in the last five years and three upgrades. We need to be competitive. We need to be competitive on the international market and they are demanding green and sustainable products and green and sustainable farming practices. That's why I am encouraged and grateful to be the MP for New Plymouth who has seen an issue and a challenge and is now embracing the possibilities of the future. We are branching out to a low-carbon economy and I am excited."