Sutton Jim: Estimates Debate — In Committee 
Sutton Jim: Estimates Debate — In Committee 
[Volume:627;Page:22143] 
Hon JIM SUTTON (Minister of Agriculture) 
: 
 I will deal first with the issue raised at great length by the member who has just resumed his seat. He spoke about the leaky buildings issue and there is one thing that seems to have escaped his attention: properly designed and properly constructed buildings do not leak. Now it is all very well for Dr Smith and his colleagues to try to make excuses for the jerry-builders of Auckland the sloppy architects and the sloppy building inspectors who have not done their jobs properly and blame it all on the wood but it does not wash. Those people including Dr Smith whose Government was in power when most of these buildings were constructed should reflect on their own performances instead of trying to pass the blame on to others. Wood is wood and if it is allowed to get wet and dry and wet and dry and be left in a wall full of water it is going to rot sooner or later. The member should realise that. 
Now I go back to members who raised issues concerning rural New Zealand. Harry Duynhoven pointed out the value of training education and economic development policies to rural New Zealand. He hit the nail right on the head there. I am proud when I go through my own electorate. The towns of Timaru Geraldine Temuka Waimate and Twizel have never looked better. They are looking in great shape. They have had 5 years of booming prosperity on the basis of the policies of this Labour Government. They have done well because farming has been doing well because tourism is doing well because niche manufacturing is doing well because industries adding value to the products of our land are doing well and they are doing well with the enthusiastic and energetic assistance and partnership of this Labour-Progressive coalition Government and long may that continue. 
If members do not believe that they are doing well—because one can probably always find a farmer who has some complaint to make whether it is about having to pay ACC insurance levies pay his or her income tax or fill out his or her GST form and all those things that make compliance such a chore doing business in the modern world—they should note that according to the statistics derived from the monitor farm survey the average pastoral farmer in New Zealand has increased his or her net worth over the last 5 years by something closely approaching $400000 a year. Whoops $400000 per year almost each per farmer tax-free capital gain! That is not doing badly and that is a vote of confidence in the future of farming by the people who are investing their savings and their profits in expanding their investment in that industry. 
They are not taking the money and running. They are bidding the prices up and up because they know how great the future is looking under the policies that are at present in place. It is a pretty exciting future for provincial and rural New Zealand as a result. 
I want to say this in respect of Clayton Cosgrove’s question. He asked a very serious question and I sat back and waited for someone to answer it and nobody did. So I will give it a go. 
Clayton Cosgrove 
: Good on you. 
Hon JIM SUTTON 
: I have had reports you know! He asked what National’s legacy to rural New Zealand was. I think National sort of answered that in its agricultural policy this year. National’s policy does not mention agriculture. Everything in its policy comes from other portfolios. There is nothing about agriculture in it. It is a nothing policy and its legacy is nothing. We inherited a neglected mess and we have been trying to fix it up. When we get to biosecurity I will deal with that part of it and biosecurity is a pretty important part for agriculture in New Zealand. But we will have another go at that and we will not miss that opportunity. 
Doug Woolerton asked how New Zealand’s balance of payments deficit—pretty dramatic in its size—would be resolved. He said New Zealand has been spending up large and there is some truth in that. New Zealanders have been spending up large. New Zealanders are not great savers I have to say although the present Government is prudently setting aside money to ensure that the bare essentials will be there for the member and myself and others when we reach retirement age. It will be possible to continue New Zealand superannuation at present real levels through the bulge of the retirement of the baby boomers because we are being prudent and investing now. If individual New Zealanders are also doing that it will be great but the Government is making sure it is underwriting the efforts of individual New Zealanders and so we will do it. As I said the farmers’ net worth has been going up. So farmers are keeping their investment in their properties obviously with a high state of confidence that they will increase their incomes accordingly as a result. 
The Budget 2005 is great news for agriculture. It builds on a great foundation that has been laid over the previous 5 years. It allocates a further $31 million over 4 years to complete trade agreement negotiations and that is extremely important to rural New Zealand because rural New Zealand produces most of New Zealand’s export products and earns most of New Zealand’s export income and farmers know the value of getting those markets opened up to creative opportunities. 
 The Sustainable Farming Fund is now part of mainstream and core Vote Agriculture and Forestry funding. The Sustainable Farming Fund is one of the aspects of Government policy that I am most proud of in connection with agriculture because it backs the innovation the energy and the brains of rural New Zealanders when they have good ideas. It provides a bit of seed money to get them started and to give them an opportunity to put together community-based programmes to do a bit of relevant research to make use of the information gained or the information that already exists but has not been translated in a form readily accessible to farmers and it supports sustainable environmental management and sustainable and thriving rural communities. 
I think that is great and I want to mention that an independent assessment of the Sustainable Farming Fund that analysed a sample of the more than 300 projects that have been funded throughout New Zealand estimates that those projects potentially will contribute between $350 million and $500 million a year extra to the New Zealand economy. That of course will not happen unless further investments are made by the people in a position to make them or who are motivated to do so but it does indicate the value of well-targeted research money even in the relatively modest amounts we have made available in that particular programme so far the value of that and how that can multiply for the benefit of all New Zealanders. 
It was great news in this year’s Budget that that was baseline. It will be there unless the Nats get back in and cancel it the way they cancelled its predecessor programme the farm partnership which the National Party when trying to get into office had promised that it would keep going. However in its first Budget the “mother of all Budgets” it cancelled the funding. The programme was kept going on a purely voluntary basis with no funding and of course the inevitable happened. So much for National Party promises! Rural New Zealanders should remember that history when they vote next month.