Kuriger Barbara: Estimates Debate — In CommitteeText is incorporated into the Bound VolumeKuriger Barbara: Estimates Debate — In Committee[Sitting date: 11 August 2015. Volume:707;Page:5630. Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume.]BARBARA KURIGER (National—Taranaki - King Country): It is a pleasure to be speaking in the Chamber and taking a call tonight. I am very proud of the primary industries and the expectation for the year to June 2015 is that $35.2 billion would be brought in by primary industries. I know that at this point in time we are looking at a volatile situation in the dairy industry and I just want to shout out to my fellow farmers tonight. The falling dairy prices have been a concern but they are temporary. They will come through and we do know that we are looking for a bright future in this industry.I also want to mention and my colleague here Stuart Smith talked about it the funding that is going out to help farmers at this time—the $500000 that was actually delivered at Fieldays which has been used to train more people. There are going to be another 100 people out there working with DairyNZ and working with Beef and Lamb and encouraging those farmers to come forward. Although the industry itself is very resilient we just want to be quite careful about talking too much about individual farmers being resilient because we want them to stand up and ask for help when they need it—and they will. If they do that if they work with their banks they will be resilient and they will come through.But I want to also acknowledge that there is a whole lot more to the primary industries. We focus on dairy and I am very proud of it but over recent weeks I have had the opportunity to visit Zespri with the Primary Production Committee. You know that is an industry that has come through some very tough times. It had the disease Psa unexpectedly come in with the gold kiwifruit variety that it had at the time. It put in a huge effort around getting people through and now that is an industry that is really thriving.What was impressive to me was when we talked to those horticulturalists about what they were growing in their kiwifruit they were talking about the dry matter content the sugar content—everything to those people was important about the taste of that kiwifruit and the experience of that kiwifruit from the time it left the farm until it went to the pack-house.The people at the pack-house we visited were absolutely focused on keeping that quality all the way through to the market so that they knew that the person who picked up that kiwifruit and had it at the end of the day on their plate was having a fantastic experience and will continue to buy the kiwifruit.I have also been to Tegel which is a fast-growing chicken industry in Taranaki. What is really interesting for me and I also note is that in our estimates there is another $10 million going towards animal welfare. Often the chicken people get targeted when it comes to animal welfare. Well actually I can tell you that there are no meat chickens kept in cages. There are no hormones used. There are a whole lot of rumours out in our society about what goes on with chickens and I can tell you that when I was in one of those newlydeveloped sheds on that particular day with 35000 13-day-old chickens it was 27 degrees Celsius inside that chicken shed and it was actually 10 degrees outside. If I was a chicken I know where I would make the choice to go—because it was very hard to go back out into the cold.I also want to acknowledge that if you come into Taranaki - King Country on the way from Taumarunui—which is our esteemed select committee chair’s electorate—across in Te Kūiti just after you leave Taumarunui there is a wonderful little alpaca shop. We do not often think a lot about alpacas when we think about primary industries but these people have very very selective breeding. They have white ones they have black ones and they have brown ones keeping them very pure. They are selling the products in their shops. The wool that actually comes off these alpacas is of a very very high quality. So there it is a combination of the primary industries combining with the tourism industry and providing a product that people want to see. I can tell you that those alpacas are very very cute. They do spit but they are very very cute.I am also very impressed with the extra $7.5 million over 2 years that is being put into developing key skills and systems. I was very pleased when the Minister for Primary Industries talked before about the Ministry for Primary Industries and the Ministry of Education working together. Prior to coming into Parliament I was involved with a group called the Primary Industry Capability Alliance. As part of that group—its role is to encourage new talent to come into our industries. Thank you.