Luxton JoAgricultureJO LUXTON (Chairperson of the Primary Production Committee): Thank you Madam Chair. It's a pleasure to lead off the committee stage at the annual review for the primary sector as the chair of the Primary Production Committee. As other committees have done we have considered the primary sector as a whole. Can I acknowledge my select committee colleagues across the House. We are a really hard working collegial select committee and I want to thank them for the work that they have done with regard to our annual reviews and work that they do among other matters as well.The committee met between 18 November 2021 and 31 March 2022 to consider the annual reviews. We did a lot of those meetings by Zoom as have many other select committees conducting their annual reviews. We considered the annual reviews for the following entities: the Ministry for Primary Industries (MPI) Land Information New Zealand (LINZ) Landcorp Farming Limited AsureQuality Limited Animal Control Products Ltd Orillion Crown Irrigation Investments Limited New Zealand Walking Access Commission and Quotable Value Limited. Many entities to cover off. This year we held hearings with MPI LINZ Landcorp and AsureQuality as well as hearings with the Minister of Agriculture for Biosecurity and for Land Information the Hon Damien O'Connor. I'd like to thank the sector entities that we heard from and the Minister for also appearing before the committee to answer our questions.There was a lot of information from these hearings which will be difficult to cover off in the short time that I have so I'll just touch on a few things and I'm sure my select committee colleagues will cover off other things during their time. Minister O'Connor acknowledged the Ministry for Primary Industries and their response over the last two years with regard to COVID-19 and he mentioned there is a forecast $50 billion in export revenue for the primary sector in the 2021-22 financial year. The Minister mentioned that he was also looking forward to progressing New Zealand's free-trade agreement with the UK and the committee notes that since our hearing New Zealand and the UK have signed a free-trade agreement.The committee heard that in 2020-21 the Ministry for Primary Industries had a surplus of just over $73.5 million against a budgeted deficit of just over $82 million. The surplus was a result of COVID-19 restrictions delaying projects and a reduction in the cost of the ministry's Mycoplasma response. Mycoplasma bovis was of interest to the committee as has been the case since it was discovered here in New Zealand in 2017. We heard that since the programme to eradicate bovis began in 2018 over $216 million has been paid to farmers. In 2020-21 $18000971 was paid out in compensation and ex-gratia payments. The committee heard that there were currently 50 claims still to resolve and that the average turnaround time for processing claims was 20 working days. We know that M. bovis has had an impact on our farmers and their mental health and so we were interested to hear about what support has been offered to farmers that have been affected by the outbreak.The ministry acknowledged that there was a lot of anxiety amongst farmers due to uncertainty and a perceived loss of control of their farms. We heard that the ministry has been providing support in a number of ways such as providing relief farm managers for farmers to be able to take leave. They've also been working with industry groups like DairyNZ Beef + Lamb New Zealand and Federated Farmers to provide assistance particularly in areas with less access to mental health.We also heard that National Animal Identification and Tracing (NAIT) compliance has increased. At the start of the 2019-20 financial year 70 percent of NAIT animals were correctly registered. And as it 30 June 2021 this is now at 91.5 percent. The committee was aware of the issues regarding the workforce in the primary sector and so we specifically asked MPI about this. The ministry informed us that Cabinet was soon to make decisions related to rural contractors halal workers dairy workers etc. Noting that our reviews were done in November and March I'm only highlighting the things that we heard at the time and not taking into consideration any decisions and announcements that have been made since then.As mentioned earlier there's a lot of information from the entities we heard from plenty happening in the agricultural sector. Again can I thank the members of the committee the committee clerks for their work and the entities and Ministers involved in the annual reviews for agriculture.