Guy NathanHon NATHAN GUY (National—Ōtaki): Thank you Mr Speaker. Well that was a very interesting contribution from Mark Patterson who I note today is wearing a blue tie. I noted when I saw him at the Fieldays—and not many people were flocking to him last week—that he didn't have that blue tie on. He wanted to be seen as a New Zealand First MP but people look at him and they go Is he National or is he New Zealand First?" When he's sitting over there on the Treasury benches and he looks over here and he thinks "This is the family that I should be with but somehow I've sort of drifted up on to this family on the other side called the New Zealand First political party." we wish him well. But what was fascinating last week at the Fieldays was that as we moved around—and the Nats were there in force and we saw a couple of others. I think Mr Patterson was cruising around with Mr Tabuteau and there were a couple of other Labour MPs and the odd Minister there. What I found fascinating was the Prime Minister turning up which was great—it's great to have the Prime Minister there. She's followed a long succession of Prime Ministers who have been to one of the biggest events in New Zealand and in fact it's the biggest agriculture event in the Southern Hemisphere. What was most telling was that when Jacinda Ardern went along to the lunch with all the agriculture leaders she did a PowerPoint presentation on the Wellbeing Budget. Rt Hon David Carter: You're joking. Hon NATHAN GUY: Yes—yes. The Prime Minister did a PowerPoint presentation to the agriculture leaders not on agriculture policy but on the Wellbeing Budget. Now the Rt Hon David Carter has been here for 25 years. He came here in 1994 and I just asked him if he could reflect: has any Prime Minister in the time that you've been here Mr Carter ever used a PowerPoint presentation to get out there and sell the Budget? Rt Hon David Carter: Never. Hon NATHAN GUY: Never. So I found that moment extremely telling that the Prime Minister had to get out there and try and sell the Budget to an agriculture audience when in actual fact they've had no real bounce on this Wellbeing Budget. In fact the leaders that I spoke to afterwards said that it sort of feels like and sounds like a welfare Budget. But I'll leave it there on that regard. What I want to do is also focus on the sentiments that I picked up last week at the National Agricultural Fieldays. While export prices are actually in pretty good shape—and it's really one of the few times I've heard the Prime Minister talk about New Zealand's dairy industry and the almighty export power that it has and how it underpins the New Zealand economy. Of course lamb now gets a mention in the Parliament by the Prime Minister and the coalition Government always put Zespri up on a pedestal—and I say well done to Zespri. But let's not forget the sheep and beef farmers the dairy farmers and others that help to underpin this New Zealand economy. Now while the outlook is quite strong and positive for exporters in the primary sector sentiments are exactly the opposite. They walk around the Fieldays the whole lot of them looking at their navels and thinking "What is next?" They realise they might have dodged a bullet with the capital gains tax but I'll tell you what's around the corner—and Mr Patterson will want to know this. There are very stringent water-quality standards and regulations coming down the pipeline. Mr Patterson might also want to know this: the Government are supporting Fish & Game and Forest & Bird out there to run a campaign which they're going to launch very very shortly against winter grazing in New Zealand. They're going to have some photos of some cows standing in mud—whip-de-wow! There's going to be photos of sheep standing in mud in the snow—whip-de-wow! This is going to be an orchestrated campaign that's going to line up with David Parker when he comes out and announces very strict water-quality standards and yes there will be a consultation. So I want to know what Mark Patterson will say to those farmers in Southland. Will he get out there and stand on the stump and stand up for them and push back against Fish & Game and Forest & Bird? What will you say Mr Patterson? Silence—exactly. Exactly—silence from the member. So we know that down in Southland people will look to that MP to say something and stand up for them. Well I'll tell you what Hamish Walker is already standing up for them. He is in the media today and tomorrow in Farmers Weekly standing up for farmers because they know that this is an orchestrated campaign by the Government supported by these NGOs Fish & Game and Forest & Bird. I say it's absolutely disgraceful what is about to happen. What also occurred at the Fieldays was that farmers are worried about the fuel tax. They're worried about employment law changes that are being led by the other side. They're worried about this large—and what I think is unrealistic—methane reduction of minus 24 percent to minus 47 percent. New Zealand First slept through that Cabinet committee and Cabinet when they decided on that particular one. Then of course we've got Shane Jones out there rallying against 50 Shades of Green saying "Oh they're all National Party stooges." Well just a couple of weeks ago he was calling all dairy farmers—he said that when they're not milking their cows they're whinging or moaning. Any criticism that comes to Shane Jones he just rains on everyone's parade. So you've now got rural communities—50 Shades of Green—out there a lobby group that are really concerned about the one-billion-tree programme hollowing out rural communities. There's going to be an article in the Listener magazine any time shortly about that and what's really interesting is Shane Jones' response. What does he do? Well they get so much pressure at the Fieldays they have to call a press conference. So Shane Jones and Damien O'Connor called the press in yesterday—they have to give them a briefing—"Now media here's all the statistics. What we're not seeing is all the investment coming in from the overseas investors like 50 Shades of Green are saying it's not a subsidy for tree planting"—Rt Hon David Carter: Of course it's a subsidy.Hon NATHAN GUY: This is what they're saying. Of course we know it's a subsidy. We know Mr Carter that they've opened up the Overseas Investment Act to allow these investors to pour in and purchase land for trees. This strategy is going to hollow out rural communities—it needs a reset; it needs a rethink. But it's typical of this Government whenever anyone challenges them. I want to say now and put it on the record: 50 Shades of Green are not aligned with the National Party; these are farmers that are concerned about rural communities.I'll give you just one example: Kumeroa School in the Tararua district. A farm sold there on its way to be converted into forestry. What happens? The farmer who's working on that farm has to leave the community because trees are being planted. That's not just one job gone here's the kicker: he's in a relationship with the local schoolteacher. The schoolteacher now has to leave Kumeroa School. They've been struggling to attract teachers into the school—they've had eight in the last 15 years. So this is the impact if you don't focus on the strategy and you don't execute it well the right tree the right time and the right place—certainly we all get the sentiment of that.For the last couple of minutes that I've got to go can I also talk about the discussion document. We spent a long time on this document because it's quite easy in Opposition to ridicule the Government and people say "Well what are you going to do? What are you proposing?" Well this is a 32-page document with 40-odd questions and ideas about being tougher on biosecurity giving biosecurity officials the power to deport a passenger for knowingly bringing in and concealing biosecurity risk items lifting the fines from 400 bucks to 1000 bucks and bringing in a primary sector visa. We know it's really hard to attract enough people and enough Kiwis to get into the workforce here so we want to focus on a primary sector visa to give some certainty to employers. We think that Landcorp worth about $1.8 billion 84 farms six times the size of Lake Taupō—why not give young farmers the opportunity to lease to own some of these farms? Ring-fence the ones that we need to for the Treaty of Waitangi; ring-fence some others so that there will always be some farms that they can lease to build up the equity and move through the system into farm ownership. We're proposing a biotechnology and innovation fund. If you think about all of the issues that we collectively in the primary sector are facing: Predator Free 2050 why not have sterile possums? Think about GE ryegrass—that will reduce methane by 23 percent and is drought tolerant; have to do field trials in the US can't do it in New Zealand. Where are the tools in the tool box? They aren't there—they aren't there.Also what about rural health—600000 people living in rural New Zealand are finding it tough to get to medical professionals. We're going to propose a mobile rural health clinic to ensure that these isolated communities can go and see someone when they need to."