Carter David: Financial Review Debate — In Committee 
Carter David: Financial Review Debate — In Committee 
[Volume:671;Page:17487] 
Hon DAVID CARTER (Minister of Agriculture) 
: 
 It is a pleasure to take a call in this debate particularly in light of the very good report that was tabled by the Primary Production Committee ably chaired I might add by my colleague Shane Ardern. I think it is a great pity that when we are talking about the most significant industry to the New Zealand economy the Labour Opposition is not prepared to take a call. The thousands of listeners out there today need to note the interest shown by the Labour Opposition in the portfolio of agriculture and forestry. I guess it is not surprising; after all when Labour was in Government it termed the industry a sunset industry. 
There is so much this Government can be proud of in terms of what we have achieved within this portfolio particularly when we review last year. My colleague Shane Ardern mentioned the Primary Growth Partnership. We now have the largest expenditure in primary sector innovation that New Zealand has ever seen. That programme was launched only 18 months ago. We now have $475 million worth of projects under way. That is a remarkable investment in 18 months. [ 
Interruption 
] Annette King may criticise that but no farmer in New Zealand I assure her would criticise this National Government’s expenditure in the primary production sector and in innovation. 
There was a lot of talk about the emissions trading scheme last year as we changed the scheme we had inherited from the Labour Government. We made it far more practical and far more affordable and we faced with our farmers the issue about the introduction of agriculture in the scheme. We are reviewing that position at the moment as we promised we would. 
Let me make known the Labour Party’s position on the emissions trading scheme. We have heard the comments of Charles Chauvel the previous Opposition spokesperson on climate change. He said that if the Labour Party is elected at the next election—not likely I acknowledge—it will bring agriculture in immediately and rather than grandparenting any of the emissions to agriculture it will land that immediately on the farmers of New Zealand. When farmers go to the polls I want them to realise that fact. 
Animal welfare has been a big issue for a long period of time and Mr Ardern is quite right in saying we have now allocated the largest increase in expenditure at $8.2 million that the sector has seen for years. We had a situation in Southland where the Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry and Federated Farmers had an issue with the conducting of a particular animal welfare inquiry. I am pleased to say that the report has now been accepted by both the ministry and Federated Farmers. 
We want to move forward in a constructive manner with Federated Farmers because we need their assistance just as we need the assistance of organisations such as Beef and Lamb New Zealand Ltd and DairyNZ as we collectively make sure we help farmers who get into unfortunate animal welfare situations—but if it is a perpetual habit of any farmer frankly I do not want that person in our industry. 
There is mention of water in the financial review. Water is the greatest competitive advantage this country has and collectively we have to find ways to better store and allocate that water. With the allocation of that water farmers will then have to utilise it far more efficiently than they do at the moment. With water will come intensification so again we need to be prepared to invest money in science to allow the agricultural scientists of this country to find mechanisms by which we can intensify and increase productivity and profitability on farms while mitigating the environmental impacts of such intensification. 
The final issue I want to talk about is probably the biggest risk this sector faces and that is the risk associated with biosecurity. Day by day 175000 items come into New Zealand and every one of those is potentially a danger. All of us in the sector have a duty and a responsibility—and this applies to members of Her Majesty’s Opposition—to do what we can to have the most efficient biosecurity system in the world. If we have a breach of our biosecurity borders—and we have had one in the last 12 months in the kiwifruit sector—we have to acknowledge that we have to move quickly to try to contain it and do what we can to mitigate the effect of any biosecurity incursion. 
Report noted.