Wedd CatherineCATHERINE WEDD (National—Tukituki): Well I rise to support the Māori Fisheries Amendment Bill. And it's great to see cross-party support for this bill. I mean listening to the member earlier Arena Williams talk about driving more productivity and innovation and putting more power out to the regions and creating jobs—it really did feel like she should be on this side of the House. Because for the past six years we've seen an absolute neglect from that Government that was all about neglecting the provinces neglecting our businesses and neglecting our exporters and restricting growth of these really really important industries.Which brings me back to the fisheries industry which is a very very important industry. I'm going to bring a bit of a primary-industry lens to this debate because there is so much potential when it comes to our seafood exports and we need to enable that industry to grow. I just thought it would be interesting to look at the Situation and Outlook for Primary Industries—June 2024" where we see a few of our primary industry sectors here and we see seafood here; seafood here has gone up 5 percent to $2.2 billion. So seafood export revenue is expected to increase 5 percent to reach $2.2 billion in the year 30 June 2024 and is expected to continue to grow because it's a growth export market. We need to support our fisheries industries with less red tape less regulation and actually get the wheels moving. And actually also here as we've just alluded to I often do say the fruit bowl of New Zealand because I am from Hawke's Bay but it's great to see horticulture is also up 1 percent here and it's just taken over forestry as one of our very largest primary industries. But it's great to see seafood doing so well there.I suppose that brings me back to the point of the seafood export industry. And I will speak from a little bit of personal experience actually because you know I used to travel to China and Vietnam promoting our apples on the global stage and adding value to our apples. But while I was in China you know you would go into these high-end supermarkets and you'd see the rock lobster in the Chinese supermarkets selling at an absolute premium—I mean it's just unbelievable to see how much the Chinese consumer will pay for our incredible seafood in the supermarkets overseas. So you know it's an industry that we certainly need to support.That is why I'm supporting this bill and our Government is supporting this bill because it's all about looking at practical solutions and ensuring that we are you know supporting businesses and supporting our exporters and supporting our iwi groups to ensure that they can provide good jobs and opportunities for provincial New Zealand as well. Because on the East Coast we actually have quite a large fishing industry. And just recently—well within the last year it was impacted quite severely by Cyclone Gabrielle. And I just visited a few of the fisheries businesses and MPI recently just to look at that impact and it is still recovering. So it is important that we absolutely support our fishing industry on the East Coast and our member over here Dana Kirkpatrick would support that as well because across our region there you know fisheries is very very important for the East Coast.But look coming back to the bill I mean the purpose of the Māori Fisheries Amendment Bill is to ensure iwi have a greater degree of rangatiratanga over their fisheries assets and improve the benefits to Māori and reduce the cost and improve efficiency. We've used that word a lot today in this debate and that's what we're all about on the side of the House is efficiency and action and getting things done; delivery for the hard-working New Zealanders out there across our country to ensure that we're improving the public services that we so desperately need as a country. It all comes back to our primary industry and our fishing industry because it is going to help add a lot of value to our exports over the next 10 years. And as we've already said we're very ambitious by wanting to double the value of our exports in the next 10 years. The fisheries industry will play a big part and that is why I commend this bill to the House."