Patterson MarkHon MARK PATTERSON (Associate Minister of Agriculture): Thank you Mr Chair. I would just like to take the chance to take a call on my wool industry delegation. It was a question that came up earlier from the member for Tairāwhiti. So good news: the North Island auction price lifted 17 percent last week for second-shear wool so the surge is on. The second New Zealand wool boom is under way. So in all fairness we are in the 2022/23 Estimates so I will acknowledge the investment that went in by the previous Government to look at various options. I would describe it a little bit like throwing a dish of wheat at the side of a bus but some did hit and it's acknowledged that some of the initiatives are starting to show some progress. So essentially what I have done within my delegation to answer the member's question—the first thing is to get out and about and see what the industry is up to what's happening where the opportunities are and how we can help. So it turns out that there is a lot of innovation going on out there. There are a lot of manufacturing businesses that have got some new products new end uses for wool that potentially could sustain a higher farm-gate wool price which is the absolute key. It's not so much that we need to grow demand and that is the only way to lift the price of wool but it has to be in products for a higher farm-gate wool price because this is not so much about wool as you might think; this is about the profitability of hill country sheep and beef farming. We've got the land use challenge from forestry and they're doing it really tough out there at the moment as I'm sure the member knows so it is imperative that we get wool from being now a cost on a business into being a major profit centre. With a swing back to natural fibres we absolutely have that opportunity in front of us.So beyond that I've attended and led a delegation to the International Wool Textile Organisation conference in Adelaide where there were some 25 New Zealand delegates. We had a specific New Zealand afternoon for strong wool. It's an organisation dominated by fine wool but this was specifically for New Zealand strong wool and we absolutely knocked that out of the park. The Autexes the Bremworths the Wool Impacts—we showed a level of positivity with the fact that we had a plan the fact that we had the motivation and some collective will to turn what was a pretty sombre conference around.We did meet with the Chinese delegation who take 30 percent of our wool through the Nanjing wool market. We had respectful and constructive conversations with them looking to address some of their concerns around some of the wool quality. Also we were expressing our concerns about the lack of a sustainable price for the fibre.I have also brought together an industry leadership group alongside Wool Impact which was a group that was formed under the previous Minister. The group that hadn't really had much consultation within this was farmers and the farming leadership and we have to start looking at how we can transition Wool Impact and the good work that they have done in fairness into something that can be sustained by the wider industry itself—by farmers by the wool manufacturing companies and wool-interested companies. What does that look like? So I've tasked this group with coming up with that outcome.I've also tasked them with looking at different pathways to market because the auction system has clearly failed us. I've tasked them with coming up with an industry goal—a credible industry goal that we can put towards doubling exports which is a Government goal. But wool can do much more than that so how can we contribute to that overall Government goal? So that's a summary of some of the actions we're taking. Thank you.