Smith Stuart: Estimates Debate — In CommitteeText is incorporated into the Bound VolumeSmith Stuart: Estimates Debate — In Committee[Sitting date: 11 August 2015. Volume:707;Page:5629. Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume.]STUART SMITH (National—Kaikōura): I would really like to start by refuting some of the comments made by one of the earlier speakers about getting in and managing all sorts of industries. I can say as a former leader of the wine industry which was one of the industries that he spoke about that the last thing we would have wanted as an industry when I was in charge—and I am sure it is the same today—was to have the Government get in and try to run the industry.What industries want is a Government that runs efficient services that minimises the tax burden as much as possible and most important that runs a good framework and particularly takes care of trade by negotiating really good trade agreements and free-trade agreements. I am really delighted to be a part of a Government that is supporting the Trans-Pacific Partnership at the moment which will be such a fantastic opportunity for this country. It was disappointing I would have to say—although perhaps not surprising—to hear the uninformed comments coming from the other side of the Chamber.I want to move on to talk about the drought in North Canterbury which the Minister for Primary Industries alluded to.The drought is a really significant drought particularly around the Cheviot-Hawarden area.It seems to be a horseshoe of land on the east coast of the South Island that is missing out on the rain that comes from the north and missing out on the rain that comes from the south and the west. It is unfortunate; this drought has been biting really hard for quite some time. There are reports of about 100000 breeding stock that have been shifted out of the area to go for grazing some of which will not come back on to the farms to lamb because there simply will not be the feed there. Although it looks green to the uninitiated as you drive by it is what is known as a “green drought”. There is a green tinge with really no feed underneath it and not many root reserves to really kick anything away. The soil moisture is so low at the moment that it will need significant rainfall to really turn that round.I really want to acknowledge the $200000 of additional funding that has gone to the rural support trusts. That will make a big difference. It is gratefully received by those people who are affected—and also the $500000 that was announced at the Fieldays by Minister Guy and Minister Coleman. That was a great initiative—it really is. That is where Governments can get in and make a big difference with actually a relatively small amount of money and I want to acknowledge that. I also want to acknowledge the team that is doing a great job in North Canterbury—Winton Dalley in particular the mayor of Hurunui who is heading up the drought committee along with Doug Archbold the rural support guy for that area who is doing a fantastic job. Sometimes it is a pretty tough job to get out there and do that and I want to acknowledge him tonight. I think that we should really all encourage those people and the job that they are doing.These things will improve. It will rain again. All those things happen and people will adapt their systems to deal with it as best they can. But that segues quite well into my next point which is irrigation. I acknowledge the $25 million towards the Irrigation Acceleration Fund. There has been a lot of talk about funding from the Government and Vote Primary Industries and Food Safety towards irrigation and what that amounts to. But that money is to fund storage and storage is about actually the community benefiting and the environmental benefits from irrigation.The Ōpuha scheme in South Canterbury is I think a wonderful example of how the whole community and the environment benefits from storage. At Ōpuha Dam the irrigators voluntarily reduced their take as the drought really started to bite hard in that area to allow more water to flow and to keep the instream values up in the Ōpihi River which flows out of the Ōpuha Dam. That enabled Fish and Game which was a very vociferous opponent of the irrigation scheme to capture the fish that were in the streams that were drying up and take them and put them into the Ōpihi and then when that finally got to the point where it was drying up to take the fish and put them in the Ōpuha Dam.So we have now certainly a group of people from Fish and Game in South Canterbury who were opponents of the scheme but now very much fans of the scheme because they can see the benefits to the environment from storage for irrigation. So I think the Irrigation Acceleration Fund is very important. Thank you.