Mooney JosephJOSEPH MOONEY (National—Southland): Thank you very much Mr Speaker. I rise to speak in response to the Prime Minister's statement. I just want to say first at the outset that my thoughts very much go out to those who've been affected by the floodings the cyclone events around the country. I want to extend my gratitude to all those men and women who have put their own safety at risk to help others and continue to do so. I've travelled to Hawke's Bay I've travelled to Gisborne Tai Rāwhiti to see the impact and just to talk to people who've been affected by these flooding events and it is very significant. I want to really say that my heart goes out to them and thank you to everyone who's working really hard to assist them at this time of need.The Prime Minister said that he is going to set a new direction for the Government and reprioritise work streams. Can I suggest that the Prime Minister focuses on the primary sector. The primary sector has been deeply impacted in many parts of the North Island through these flooding events and we need to see a Government actually step up and realise the impacts that these events have had on them and the impact that Government policy has had over the last five years on the primary sector. We see food prices at the highest they have been in 30 years in this country—food is at the highest it's been in 30 years. This means people in our country are going hungry. We need to thank those who are working hard to make sure they produce food in this country and we need to make sure they have got policy settings that can actually enable them to get on with doing the work to produce food rather than focusing on how to deal with an endless array of changing and differing work streams that are coming from different Government departments that are often not integrated—it appears Government departments aren't talking to each other and there's about 20 different tennis balls coming over the net at farmers and other primary producers around the country.This is a time when there is a cost of living crisis and it's absolutely critical that the Government actually steps back from its work streams and says OK. What is important? What should we prioritise?" So I think the Prime Minister has identified the issue that his Government has got too much work under way. It has got too many work streams. The Government has been going in the wrong direction for five years. I would say fundamentally the only way it's going to go in the right direction is to get a new Government in October this year. But in the meantime it's critical that the Government actually reduces this workload on our producers on our orchardists on our farmers on horticulturalists on those who are producing food for New Zealand.In respect of health I'll note that the Prime Minister said the Government is committed to ending the postcode lottery for health in New Zealand. I have written on a number of occasions over the last couple of years about the disparity in rural healthcare in my region in Southland. For just one example patients in Te Ānau have to pay for their own blood tests and X-rays or travel 4½ hours return to Invercargill or Queenstown to get to the nearest hospital service where those services are free. I have asked repeatedly for this to be addressed as have the healthcare providers in that region who have been asking for about a decade for that issue to be addressed; it has still not been addressed.The CEO of Gore Health has written to Te Whatu Ora raising the issue of the rural trust hospitals of the southern region of New Zealand which have been existent for about quarter of a century and both Balclutha and Gore Health Ltd have secured their financial self-sustainability by establishing complementary health services alongside our publicly funded hospitals. However for the last 10 to 15 years Gore Health's been forced to take 5 percent funding cuts restructure staff on three occasions and reconfigure their clinical workforce given the lack of funding which has made employing rural hospital specialists unfeasible. They're running at deficits of roughly half a million dollars per year solely due to significant under-funding. I would suggest that issue needs to be addressed urgently.Another issue is workforce shortages. This is a huge issue right across the country and certainly right across my region. Although we've been very fortunate to have a great tourism season in the southern part of the South Island—the weather has been good and the people have been coming—we just don't have the workforce to address those. Frankly the immigration settings need to be urgently reassessed and looked at.And finally accommodation is a big issue. Just today I presented a petition to the House on zoning difficulties in my region. I would hope the Deputy Prime Minister who I've written to on a number of occasions about that issue pays attention to this and addresses the issue. This is very important to my region."