Whaitiri MekaMEKA WHAITIRI (Labour—Ikaroa-Rāwhiti): Tēnā koe Mr Chair otirā e ngā mema o Te Whare nei tēnā tātau katoa. I am pleased to take a call on the 2015-16 annual review of the Ministry for Primary Industries (MPI). Can I say that when I first came to this House the Primary Production Committee was my first select committee and I miss it dearly although I am no longer on it. Following on from the contribution from the chair Ian McKelvie of course New Zealand wants a primary production system that is fit for purpose. We want it to be progressive we want it to be inclusive and we want it to be prepared for the challenges that we face as a country now and going forward. I agree that primary production is a vital component of New Zealand's economy. The primary sector earns around $30 billion a year for New Zealand's economy making it by far our largest export earner. So the question I pose in my contribution to this debate is: do we have a system that is fit for purpose?I want to make a few comments specifically because I was not there during the examination using the select committee's own report to just highlight some concerns that I have in answering that question. I do want to acknowledge that it is a large ministry—you have got about 2400 staff Minister. Roughly $558 million was the total revenue for 2015-16. It went up by about $33 million and that was mostly on border clearance levies that were contributed.But I do note that there was a saving in this particular year of about $6.8 million. Of course you could say Congratulations; we made some savings." but as we have heard just recently with the outbreak of myrtle rust in Northland it begs the question of whether we are saving at the expense of our border. That is a real live issue and many would have heard that for some of the people up in Northland particularly the iwi there were some concerns that perhaps there was a bit of a delay in information coming from MPI. So I just want to say that perhaps we need to look at that—the biosecurity systems of MPI—to ensure that we are notifying people in a timely manner.I want to touch just briefly on the new initiatives that were raised in the report to the select committee. I want to talk particularly about the economic intelligence unit. It is a new initiative with MPI this year. When I look at the description of what this unit does it says it investigates whether there are any market access issues for countries that New Zealand has a trade agreement with. I put the question: I actually thought that is what New Zealand Trade and Enterprise does. We have got a Ministry of Business Innovation and Employment and I would have thought that that was that particular agency's role. But we got confirmed at the select committee that it is not so I am just wondering where there is alignment between ensuring that MPI in terms of trade agreements is talking with our major agency which is the Ministry of Business Innovation and Employment.I want to touch briefly on the future of fisheries and just note that there is the Future of our Fisheries programme. Its aim is to review the current regulatory and legislative systems for the fishing management system. We all know that there are as many hooks in the fish industry as there are actually fish. I just want to note that there was a commitment that Māori fishing rights would not be touched through this programme so I want to go on the record on that. I also want to draw the Committee's attention to the scientific research into fish stocks and just note that there has not been any investment in the scientific research for fish stocks. It has been stagnant for several years. Again it goes towards whether we have got a primary production system that is fit for purpose if we have not invested in that area. Of course the number of observer days in snapper trawler fishing has also reduced so again there are some issues around that.Quickly: Primary Growth Partnership. I want to note that $727.9 million has gone into 19 programmes. It would be nice to know what the economy has gained from that investment from the Crown. In my closing 20 seconds I do believe MPI has a role to play in leadership around our economy particularly in fresh water and in terms of trade emissions. I am just concerned that we are not at the table leading with the information that we have got on behalf of all our sector groups that the primary industry works with so that we do have a world-class primary production system."