van de Molen TimTIM VAN DE MOLEN (National—Waikato): Thank you Mr Speaker. I find it incredibly interesting just how much time this Government is spending talking about the National Party. On and on they go again and again. It seems like there's jealousy on that side. I see it in their eyes. They have nothing else to talk about so they keep coming back to refer to the great things that we did during our time in Government. Hon Maggie Barry: Good boy.TIM VAN DE MOLEN: They're jealous of our drive our determination the success we've had the strength we have the ambition and the quality of people on this side of the House. And I'd just like to comment on that speech of the previous member Kieran McAnulty. He didn't sound like he actually meant any of it. All those things he was saying about rural New Zealand and yet I don't think he believed it himself. As someone who actually represents rural New Zealand I can assure him there are plenty of great things that have been done by the former Government for rural New Zealand. It is still possible to own your own farm by working hard. I've seen it many times over the last few years and I would encourage you to have more ambition—SPEAKER: Order! No. The member is a new member but he doesn't bring me into the debate. While I'm on my feet I will ask the Hon Maggie Barry just to be very careful about the tone of her interjections and to think what she would say if a male member called a female member a good girl.TIM VAN DE MOLEN: Thank you for your guidance Mr Speaker. Carrying on from that business confidence is something that we've seen highlighted in the last few days. It's terrible where it sits at the moment. We see this massive decrease. It's outrageous how much it's fallen and as if 39 or 38 wasn't bad enough in the business confidence survey if you actually break that down by sector and look at agriculture it is minus 68. That is incredible.Hon Scott Simpson: How much?TIM VAN DE MOLEN: Minus 68 is the level of confidence in the agriculture sector because of this new Government. No wonder there's so much uncertainty out there. When I talk to farmers around the Waikato I'm constantly getting feedback. They don't know what's going on. They're scared. They're worried about their future. Water storage forms a huge part of that around the country—120000-plus hectares are now uncertain. These projects have massive benefits for New Zealand. They have social benefits. They have economic benefits. They have environmental—and so many other benefits that are just being neglected by this Government. If they'd only look at the data they would realise there is so much benefit to implementing these projects for our regions and for our country as a whole. We need to continue to focus on these to enable our regions to continue to prosper. On top of that we have migrant workers. We don't know where that policy is sitting yet. We've heard it chop and change multiple times. Where are these people going to come from to pick our vegetables to work on our farms—some of these challenges that we face in the Waikato and we still have no answers for after 100 days.We're smashing apart the Ministry for Primary Industries. That's what we're hearing from the Government. What good is that doing? We need to be concentrating on challenges like Mycoplasma bovis and coming up with solutions like actually understanding what this new test for mānuka honey is rather than chucking out different categories and then getting presented with legal challenges because of it. We need to be a little smarter about what we're doing. On top of that these trees: we've heard all about a billion trees. Well where are they now? What we're hearing now is that we're not sure how many it will be. Maybe it's just an aspirational target instead. And actually today in the House we heard from Minister Shane Jones that it will even include lemon trees. Well the only lemon here is that policy. This is no laughing matter I would say to that Minister as he continues to make jokes about the number of trees. This is serious for New Zealanders and serious for the people he's claiming it will give jobs to. We need to see some actual evidence and some work happening.The business confidence side aside from agriculture in the regions is struggling. When I talk to business owners in Matamata when I talk about to business owners in Morrinsville they're concerned. They don't know what the future is looking like for them under this Government. They want to be growing their businesses supporting their communities and contributing to New Zealand and yet they don't see they can do that with this Government.Roading is being cut. The Waikato has great projects available through the commitments from the previous Government on the expressway and now we're seeing those up in the air. Who knows where they're going to be? All we're hearing are promises and intentions and absolutely no action at this stage.The debate having concluded the motion lapsed.