Parmar ParmjeetDr PARMJEET PARMAR (National): Thank you Madam Speaker for this opportunity. New Zealand has always punched above its weight. Despite the size of our country we have been one of the best countries in the world. But we are losing that reputation ever since Labour took office. New Zealand is no longer an aspirational destination for businesses for tourists or for students. Businesses don't want to invest here in New Zealand of course because business confidence is coming down really fast under this Labour Government. Tourists don't want to come to New Zealand. International students don't want to come to New Zealand.Actually this was their year of delivery—the year of delivery. It is already October and today is 16 October. This year is nearly gone and next year is going to be an election year and what they're going to do is throw money at people to get votes. Actually what they have delivered is embarrassment for New Zealand because their Ministers stand in front of people and ask for votes in return for grants that they give to organisations and associations. So they have delivered embarrassment after embarrassment and failure after failure.When they were in Opposition they had a solution for everything—solution for everything—whether it was housing the economy business transport mental health or victims of crime; especially sexual crime. They had a silver bullet for everything but now from the Prime Minister to their backbenchers what they say is that there is more to be done—there is more to be done. Of course there is more to be done because nothing has been done in these two years. So they have only delivered failure and embarrassment. They haven't delivered on their promises. But then there are other areas where the sectors really want them to deliver and they have not bothered to listen to those sectors. I want to commend as the Opposition spokesperson for research science and innovation the work that Royal Society of New Zealand did on biotechnology. They have been urging this Government to review the Hazardous Substances and New Organisms Act to allow biotechnology forums to flourish here in New Zealand. But do they care? No they don't because they are really stuck in their ideology. That's why they don't want us to support biotechnology here in New Zealand. But us here in Opposition have already started doing that work from the start of this term. We have put out some consultation papers through our discussion documents. The first one was in the Our Environment - Discussion Document and the second one was in the Primary Sector - Discussion Document and then again we talk about biotechnology in our Economy - Discussion Document. Based on the feedback that I've received—which is very very positive—on 8 October the Leader of the Opposition the Hon Simon Bridges and I in Auckland announced that we will review the Hazardous Substances and New Organisms Act because we want to see our biotech sector flourishing here in New Zealand. I picked that date 8 October because it's from that date that Australia has implemented their reviewed legislation. This is one bit of gene editing which is not going to be regulated in Australia. This is not a fringe sector that we are talking about; this is a sector on which the future of our environment and the future of our agri-sector will depend on. So it's a very very significant sector. This is a high-value sector that we are talking about and for this we need highly skilled people. Now because Australia has changed their legislation what is stopping our biotech sector or our highly skilled people from moving out to Australia? Nothing—nothing. This is a sector that we need to pay serious attention to if we are serious about climate change if we are serious about the environment and if we are serious about our agriculture sector. We need to pay attention to this sector but this Government will not act because they don't want to—simply they don't want to. The Ministry for the Environment has been urging and the Royal Society of New Zealand has been urging but there has been no action from this Government. Australia announced in April that they will be bringing this change from 8 October so there was plenty of time for this Government to act but they didn't. Australia is a significant agribusiness partner for New Zealand. It's important that we keep up with Australia at least. New Zealand is now behind. We have the credentials to do that work they don't. New Zealand is now behind because of that Government. Thank you Madam Speaker.The debate having concluded the motion lapsed.