Guy Nathan: Debate on Prime Minister’s StatementText is incorporated into the Bound VolumeGuy Nathan: Debate on Prime Minister’s Statement[Sitting date: 11 February 2015. Volume:703;Page:1472. Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume.]Hon NATHAN GUY (Minister for Primary Industries):Happy New Year to you Mr Speaker and to all of Parliament. Welcome back for an exciting 2015. I look forward to debating some of the issues with regard to the Business Growth Agenda that the member just resuming his seat from the Green Party has talked about. Importantly this is about confirming the Prime Minister’s statement which was given to the House yesterday. When we look back we have just come through a very successful election on 20 September. It was successful for us in the National Party; not so good for those across the House in the Labour Party. It was its worst result since 1922 I think it was. It was the worst result for 92 years. Of course it was the best result for the National Party since 1951.We look forward to providing a very strong and stable Government for the next 3-year term under the leadership of the Prime Minister the Rt Hon John Key who started the year extremely well. We are excited about Treasury’s forecast of economic growth of around 3 percent for the next 3 years. Of course on the other side of the House they do not like hearing that in the last 12 months 80000 jobs were created. We have positive net migration low inflation and pretty stable interest rates and ACC reductions of around $135 for the average car registration are coming. Of course we have low fuel prices giving every family in New Zealand a lot of confidence.We are expected to be one of the first countries in the OECD to achieve surplus since the global financial crisis which is fantastic. I need to acknowledge the leadership of our Minister of Finance Bill English. It has been a great start to the year. I was with the Prime Minister at Waitangi. A fantastic speech on the lower marae was well received. Just prior to that I was with Minister Flavell and Minister Joyce when we released the Northland Regional Growth Study. I know that the Green Party member Mr Clendon was talking a little bit about that previously. He was talking about the things in that study that the Green Party agreed with but the Greens do not agree with providing roads so that we can get our goods to the ports and to the airports and of course the Greens do not agree with any offshore drilling and job creation.Importantly this report—and it is well worth having a look at—talked about the potential of the Northland economy. It is a region that offers so much potential in agribusiness and a region that offers potential for Māori agribusiness. There are 116000 hectares of land owned by Māori and they are offering a huge amount of potential. Dairy capability in Northland is huge. Dairy is an important industry for Northland and one of the leading lights with more potential. If we can move the average dairy farmer up into the top 25 percent that is worth $50 million in Northland. There is an opportunity for more technology transfer in the dairy industry working closely with Dairy New Zealand. There are opportunities in forestry up there as well—exciting ones. At Ngāwhā there is an opportunity for geothermal power and potentially a new mill creating it is believed an extra 450 jobs.In this term of Government a focus on skills in the primary industries is also going to be important. It is hugely important in Northland. We have got to attract the youngest and brightest into our primary industries. There are opportunities with kingfish in Northland as well. There is a study being done with the National Institute of Water and Atmospheric Research Ltd at Bream Bay. Some capital is required but it is an opportunity to grow more kingfish and particularly to grow onshore aquaculture opportunities. Opportunity is pretty topical at the moment such as the opportunity for water storage in Northland and actually up and down the country as well. The Ministry for Primary Industries and I will be working closely with the regional council exploring some greater opportunities for Northland which came through pretty severe droughts in the last couple of summers.Also there are opportunities to develop mānuka honey at about $35 a kilo. Extra tonnage there means more money for the Northland region economy and importantly more jobs. And we should not forget horticulture in Northland because it is the best producer of kumara. In fact it produces all the kumara for all New Zealand. It produces about a third of the avocado crop and about a quarter of the citrus crop comes from Northland. So this study is well worth picking up for any candidates who have an aspiration of standing in the Northland by-election. They should make sure that they read this study. They should get on board and support the Ministry of Business Innovation and Employment the Ministry for Primary Industries and the regional leaders to deliver greater prosperity for the Northland economy. But importantly part of ensuring that we support the regional economy is the Primary Growth Partnership.The Office of the Auditor-General released its report today. This is a review that covered the last 14 or 15 months. It was a 40-page report with three recommendations. The Ministry for Primary Industries agrees with those recommendations and will make those necessary adjustments. They are: a more easy to follow trail of how criteria is applied for each programme; ensuring that work already under way on tracking and evaluation of long-term outcomes continues; and an easy to understand format to publicly report the progress and achievements of the Primary Growth Partnership.There is no shortage of public reporting with the Primary Growth Partnership already. There is a detailed website. There are quarterly reports. There are financial reviews. There are regular newsletters. There are annual expos. Even at the national Fieldays at Mystery Creek last year the then leader of the Labour Party David Cunliffe came on to the Ministry for Primary Industries site. It had an audiovisual running of the Primary Growth Partnership programme. There on the screen was Precision Seafood Harvesting a fantastic net design that is allowing fish to be caught alive. Sustainability and economic considerations are to the fore allowing the fishing industry to export fish alive. David Cunliffe came on to the Ministry for Primary Industries site and said it was a fantastic programme.I hope that now that this audit is out of the way the Labour Party gets on board and supports the Primary Growth Partnership and supports the investment that is being made in research and development in the primary industries but we will wait to see whether that occurs or not. The Primary Growth Partnership is delivering and will continue to deliver. The New Zealand Institute of Economic Research did a report on the Primary Growth Partnership last year and confirmed there is a potential $6.4 billion a year by 2025. That could stretch to $11.1 billion as well. Because politicians like us love talking in big numbers let us break that down for those who might be interested. That is $270 a hectare for the average hill country farmer. That is $600 per cow $370 per tonne for the seafood exporters and $190 per hectare for forestry.Importantly we are coming through what has been a very dry period particularly for the east coast of the South Island—Otago North Otago through Canterbury and Marlborough. That just goes to show the importance of water storage projects. Across the House the Greens are not too sure about water storage projects. They are not too sure about irrigation. The Labour Party would prefer to have a tax on water. So on the other side of the House they do not care that we store only 2 percent of the rain that falls in this country. They do not care about managing our streams more efficiently—and that is of course good for the environment. We know that there is a huge amount of upside from water storage projects in this country. Everyone feels for our farmers who are going through a bit of a tough time right now but more water storage projects have to be encouraged and I will be working hard with my officials to ensure that we can deliver more in this space.Also the Prime Minister in his statement outlined the importance of infrastructure. Roads of national significance are delivering for many regions up and down the country. In my local electorate they are making a huge difference. The Kāpiti Expressway is providing 400 to 500 jobs. It is a $630 million project that is going to mean that we can get our exporters’ produce into the port into the airport and into those very important export markets. I endorse the Prime Minister’s statement. I look forward to the work programme. It is going to be hugely exciting for 2015 and beyond.