Walker Hamish; Rurawhe AdrianHAMISH WALKER (National—Clutha-Southland): Thank you Mr Speaker. Can I just acknowledge that previous member's speech? There was actually a bit of pro-farming in there and I think this is one of the first times I've heard that from a Green member of Parliament. So I must acknowledge you for that Julie Anne Genter.I just have a few questions around this bill. It has been around for a long time—around 20 years. I congratulate Darroch Ball for introducing it and obviously Mark Patterson for trying to get it through the select committee last year. Mark you did a good job; there just was a bit of confusion around the bill and unfortunately you didn't get it through but it's great that the Government's picked it up.Can I just start by acknowledging the banks and their support around helping farmers plagued down by Mycoplasma bovis. Take Southland the Southland Building Society have done a wonderful job of sticking by farmers in quite trying circumstances and I also want to acknowledge Ray Smith. Since coming on as head of the Ministry for Primary Industries (MPI) he's been doing a great job with the M. bovis response and one thing where he's made a real difference is that MPI have started issuing letters of assurance. A letter of assurance is basically when a farmer is under pressure he may have stock caught up by M. bovis he can't move his stock he can't produce an income the bank's putting a wee bit of pressure on him the overdraft is increasing and MPI to help out the farmer are issuing letters of assurance. So that's making a real difference.Questions around this bill are: how will they apply the definition to farms; what if you've got a dairy farm or say a sheep and beef farm or a cropping operation with large numbers of trees; what if it's an overseas-owned farm—will it apply for them? The costs involved—the officials recommend it'll cost around about $6000 per farm for mediation. How are those costs split? At the moment it's fifty-fifty but what if the mediation as it often does goes on for a number of months six to 12 months? It'll probably be a lot higher than the $6000.Really disappointed last week during the Primary Production Committee when we asked the Minister of Agriculture What have the officials told you in terms of how much the costs of the high-methane targets are on farmers?" Unfortunately he hadn't asked for that advice which is very disappointing. My follow-up question was around the Labour Party's rural proofing policy—"Show me any evidence in any of your rural policies where you've put the rural ruler over it."—and he said he couldn't point to any. That's possibly why this bill's been around for 20 years and it's needed now. Farmers are under a huge amount of pressure by this Government. We have a glut of farms on the market. Prices in some areas have dropped by as high as 24 percent. Rural business confidence is the lowest in 10 years. Job growth stalled from 12000 jobs per month when we left office to 300. Growth's dropped from 4 to 2.5 percent. Fuel taxes—the first bill after the Budget was a fuel tax. How on earth does that work?Around 3 to 4 percent of farmers are struggling with debt. This is really going to benefit them. It's usually the younger farmers that are high on the bill. They have a high loan-to-value ratio. So this bill will benefit them. That's around 3 or 4 percent of farms who are struggling with debt. It will benefit them.So we look forward to making this bill the best possible bill we can and I look forward to the select committee process.ASSISTANT SPEAKER (Adrian Rurawhe): This is a split call. I call Dr Duncan Webb—five minutes."