Dowie Sarah; Tisch LindsaySARAH DOWIE (National—Invercargill): It is an absolute pleasure to rise in support of the Prime Minister's statement for 2017. Given this is my first address to the House this year let me wish you Mr Assistant Speaker a happy New Year and given the debate was getting a little bit robust before let me wish the Opposition a happy New Year. Why do I do that? It is because I am a happy motivated invigorated member for Invercargill and I belong to a very happy united invigorated driven team here on the National Government benches. We are led by a very passionate man the Rt Hon Bill English. Why is he like that? He likes to invest in people in New Zealanders to help them achieve their hopes and dreams. And why is he like that—because he is from Southland and so am I.Why are Southlanders so happy at the moment? I can report that Invercargill people and wider Southland are in such good heart after a weekend of celebration. We hosted in Invercargill—Scott Simpson: Sheep shearing.SARAH DOWIE: Absolutely—sheep shearing Mr Simpson. We hosted the Golden Shears the international Golden Shears on the weekend. We were beamed live all over the world. We hosted such a fantastic phenomenal event. Over 4000 people attended. We had participants from over 32 countries. It was a magical event. Who also attended? Well I was there. I was there on the Friday. I was there on Saturday. I was there both nights. Who else was there? Mr Todd Barclay member for Clutha-Southland was there on Friday on Saturday—on both nights. Minister Nathan Guy showed up in support of the event and so did our Prime Minister our Southland Prime Minister who is now representing New Zealand. And why is that? Because the National Party is supportive of regional New Zealand. And how did we do that? How did we do that intangible result in not only showing up in support but we swung in behind that event providing $260000 of the $380000 event to make sure it got across the line.Darroch Ball: And I wonder why you turned up—got to get your money's worth.SARAH DOWIE: And what is that called New Zealand First? What is that called? It is called regional development. Let me say that slowly: regional development. That is right. We believe in providing initiatives to bring about medium- and long-term results. So what happened? We had an influx of people to Invercargill. They stayed in our hotels. They ate at our restaurants. They enjoyed our tourism facilities and they spent money. This event created jobs for our people and all the while we celebrated in our success. Southlanders are very lively actually. When we went to the event we participated—we got behind all of the teams. It was fantastic to watch their grit their drive and their determination—Hon Jacqui Dean: Sounds like us.SARAH DOWIE: —and watch their hard work. Exactly! It is exactly like the National Party. No wonder the National Party resonates with those people.Kris Faafoi: You mean the sheep. I think you mean the sheep. Ha ha! The sheep are just like the National Party.SARAH DOWIE: We are in support of regional New Zealand and hard-working farmers and hard-working people who are involved in the primary industry. And it is not just about sheep Mr Faafoi; it is about hard work and skill. Those people who were involved in those events were amazing. Let me give a shout-out to the New Zealand team. We had quadruple success at that event in not only the individual events but the team events. It was amazing.But also it was wonderful to see our arch rivals the South Africans—so humble and hard-working—come over to New Zealand and achieve in the blade shearing events. Blade shearing is almost a lost art but they were amazing wonderful to watch and so humble as were the New Zealand team. It was a wonderful event and I celebrate that event. I celebrate the Government coming in behind us and helping with an event in regional New Zealand celebrating the success of Southland. Again I say $260000 was put into that event to help us get across the line—absolutely fantastic and I cannot wait for more events especially at our flagship infrastructure the Southland ILT Stadium. I just want to congratulate that team on the military precision that they showed in setting up that event for each different spectacle that the stadium hosted. Thank you.The ASSISTANT SPEAKER (Lindsay Tisch): The next call is a split call. Clayton Mitchell—5 minutes.