Hughes GarethGARETH HUGHES (Green): Kia ora Mr Assistant Speaker. Ngā mihi nui ki a koutou. Kia ora. My heart goes out to farmers facing Mycoplasma bovis at the moment. You read the stories in the newspapers and see it on the telly—the pain and the hurt when you see your animals which you've raised from birth unfortunately having to be slaughtered because of this biosecurity crisis. My heart goes out to them.What we also know is that bankruptcy and receivership on farms occur because of results like this and M. bovis absolutely puts it front and centre in our national discourse but it's also the effects of droughts which we heard the last speaker Barbara Kuriger speak about. We know this is simply going to get worse as climate change takes more of a toll on us. What the Green Party wants to see is those family farmers stay on their farms. Now previously there's been a big debate on the role of debt mediation and if there's a special case for the agricultural sector. Because of the intergenerational nature of farms in New Zealand as it is around many other countries in the world I think it is a special case. We do want to make sure these family farmers can stay on the farms that their parents and their grandparents and in some cases multiple generations further have farmed. So I want to acknowledge the New Zealand First Party. I guess this really shows the case for persistence. I understand this was first put to Parliament back in 1999 and here we are again. It's a very persistent push from the New Zealand First Party. We acknowledge that. It's not the traditional way that members' bills get in front of this Parliament but it's good to have unanimous support of all parties in Parliament. Look it's a debate that we've debated repeatedly from Doug Woolerton's original bill through to Ian McKelvie who tried to introduce similar legislation back in 2012. The issues have always been vexed around the costs of compliance whether it's needed—arguments being put that banks have an interest in not seeing their customers go bankrupt which we understand. But look it's important that we do have this debate around the select committee table. We urge people to make sure they participate because what this Parliament is trying to do is redress the power imbalance between banks and farmers. When you've got $54 billion outstanding in the agricultural sector in 2015—was the advice New Zealand First has put forward—it's a huge amount of money. What we want to make sure is that the power balance is appropriate to encourage innovation encourage entrepreneurialism but also encourage good capital investments.We know it works overseas. Looking and researching for this debate—it appears to work successfully in Australia in Canada and in other countries. I understand from New South Wales research that Queensland farmers were benefiting with 75 percent of cases in mediation resulting in settlement which is very good.The key thing I think for us when you take it back to that intergenerational ownership of many farms is that we do want to support those family farmers. A criticism I often hear is that you see a lot of Queen Street farmers in New Zealand and there's a different farming model and a different approach. Now I was quite fortunate to be visiting farms in the Hawke's Bay on the weekend and look there's some fantastic farms doing fantastic work in New Zealand; I mean in an environmental sense and in a sustainability sense we're seeing some amazing leadership from the sector.Now I genuinely believe farmers when they say that because of the intergenerational nature because of their close connection with the land they are true environmentalists. I genuinely believe it. But I also believe there can be a difference when you've got a farm being run out of Queen Street or a corporate-run outfit versus a farmer who's literally getting his hands dirty and wants to pass it on to the next generation—his children. So we see this bill as a step in that direction to make sure that we can keep those farms being handed down the generations to their kids. We genuinely believe there will also be positive sustainability benefits as an outcome.So we congratulate New Zealand First for putting this legislation to Parliament. We look forward to hearing the debate around the select committee table and we think it's a very reasonable prudent approach.