SpeechHAMISH WALKER (National—Clutha-Southland): I just want to actually talk about a few things. My philosophy is actions speak louder than words. We've heard a lot of talk from this Government over the last couple of years and let's actually look at some of those actions. I'm just referring to 18 June when the Minister of Agriculture came in and spoke to the Primary Production Committee. I think I actually feel sorry for the Minister of Agriculture. He needs to have more respect more decency from his caucus and from his leadership—to actually treat him with respect so he can actually stick up for the agricultural sector.I just want to talk about a question that I did ask him. It was around the Labour Party 2017 campaign promise of We will rural proof every single policy that goes through caucus to ensure that it works for the rural sector and whatever policy we get through we will use our lens." So I asked the Minister: "Your rural-proofing policy: where are your roads tests? Have you got evidence anywhere on any documentation to show us evidence of a rural-proofing policy?" His answer—what was his answer? "Oh where can you find that Charlotte?" who was his adviser. He couldn't even point to any evidence at all where the rural-proofing policy has been applied. He actually went on to—looking at his transcript—talk about the Mental Health Act. Well if you want to talk about mental health you only need to look at what's happening currently in Southland but I will come up on to that next.The next question I asked him after he said "Well we don't actually rural proof anything but it was a 2017 Labour Party promise." was "Are you aware of any upcoming campaigns Minister?" This was 17 June so this was a few months ago. His response to the question "Are you aware of any upcoming campaigns?": "I understand there's one being thought out about to start around winter grazing. I heard about it within the last week or so." This is extremely concerning because we know over the last two or three months there has been an orchestrated campaign by this Government on farmers in Southland around winter grazing. If you just look at the answer here look what's happened since then. A winter grazing taskforce has been established and—what do you know?—the individual driver in that has been appointed by the Minister of Agriculture to that winter grazing taskforce.I think that's incredibly disappointing. If you look at the work that farmers have done around water quality in Southland over the last 10 to 15 years yes water quality did slightly decline between 2000 and 2012 but it's improved since 2012 over the last seven years. If you only look at the Pomahaka water catchment group and the improvements they've made they've been raving about their success—Mark Patterson: Six—there's only six out of 40 swimming holes that meet the standard.HAMISH WALKER: What's that Mark?Mark Patterson: Six out of 40.HAMISH WALKER: Where have you been Mark Patterson over the last four months? Voting against a rural maternity birthing unit closing down. That's incredibly disappointing. Where have you been around winter grazing recently? The mental health concerns—where have you been with Southern Institute of Technology (SIT)? You should have crossed the floor on SIT but you haven't.CHAIRPERSON (Hon Ruth Dyson): Don't bring me into the debate please Mr Walker. Thank you.HAMISH WALKER: But if we just come back to the Estimates I think it's incredibly disappointing. Farmers have fenced 98 percent of waterways across New Zealand a distance from Wellington to Chicago and back. There's around 25 to 28 water catchment groups in Southland these groups of volunteer farmers that work together to improve water quality. The huge investment—about $1 billion of investment—farmers have made to water quality that counted for nothing last week. There was a water policy announcement.To be fair to the Government John Key always said that a good policy is in one sentence. "We want to have waterways that are swimmable."—it all sounds great but the most polluted waterways are urban centres. We know that in Auckland; the Minister even stated that in his Estimates. We know the most polluted waterways are in urban centres yet the farmers are the ones who've been making huge improvements in water. Just lastly I want to talk about the Government-industry agreements (GIAs). David Bennett is doing a wonderful job—a very fair balanced chair of the Primary Production Committee. He's doing a wonderful job. He spoke briefly about the GIAs. These were set up seven years ago by Minister Nathan Guy. Disease outbreak—farmers contribute 12 percent. The reason for this is so farmers declare early if they believe there's a disease incursion. What did the Government do when Mycoplasma bovis came along? They increased this 32 percent which cost the industry an extra to $220 million."