McKelvie Ian: Estimates Debate — In Committee 
Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume 
McKelvie Ian: Estimates Debate — In Committee 
[Sitting date: 14 August 2012. Volume:682;Page:4352. Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume.] 
IAN McKELVIE (National—Rangitikei) 
: 
 I will eventually take up the roads of national significance but first of all I want to congratulate the Minister for Primary Industries and his Associate Minister. In fact I want to congratulate also the Primary Production Committee which drives this sector. We have listened tonight to the debate on Vote Social Development and the investment that the Ministry of Social Development needs to make in this country. Well I can assure you the investment is going to be driven by the Ministry for Primary Industries. 
I want to touch briefly on the roads of national significance. I also want to touch on the railways because both of those are critical to the success of the primary production sector in New Zealand. In fact the roads of national significance are how we get our exports to the port. The fact that there are very few roads of national significance in Mr Ardern’s electorate has got nothing to do with it because in fact once he gets them on to those roads of national significance they get to the port much more efficiently. 
I also want to talk briefly about the railways and the significance of the railways to New Zealand. For anyone who observes the railways running through Palmerston North you will see that on a daily basis there are a significant number of milk trains fertiliser trains and indeed other trains carting products logs and whatever else from the agricultural sector of New Zealand to the ports. So the railways too are critical to our future. 
I want to talk also about the investment the Government has made in science and technology. I want to go back in history a little bit in doing so because for a while the agricultural sector has struggled to keep its share of investment in the development of science and technology—in fact in the development of its future. It has become extremely critical to agriculture that we continue to invest heavily in science. I want to speak briefly about the Riddet Institute which is a part of Massey University and of course based in my electorate. This institute is led by Professors Paul Moughan and Harjinder Singh. They come up with all sorts of new strategies and new innovative ideas for boosting the production and use of our agricultural products. I think it is very exciting. It is a very exciting institute and it is the future of New Zealand’s export industries. I think this type of development is certainly the future of this type of new product and new development that is going to take place in the food and agricultural production sectors. 
A lot of attention has been paid over recent weeks to the declining rural population in New Zealand. This Government takes this issue very seriously. The demise of services suffered in the first 10 years of the 2000s and before that around education health and other factors—and indeed of investment in our roading infrastructure in those years—has caused issues in rural New Zealand that have certainly incited the lowering of population in some of the towns and villages in rural New Zealand. It is a problem that we need to reverse the trend of and this Government will reverse that trend by continuing strong investment in education the health sectors and maintaining a strong hand in our economy in times of significant difficulty around the world. 
So I am very impressed with the investment this Government is putting into the primary production sector. I am very impressed with the leadership the primary production sector has from this Government and I think we are in very good hands. Thank you. 
Vote agreed to.