Barclay Todd: General DebateText is incorporated into the Bound VolumeBarclay Todd: General Debate[Sitting date: 09 September 2015. Volume:708;Page:6437. Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume.]TODD BARCLAY (National—Clutha-Southland): I would just like to make a contribution with regard to the comments made by the previous speaker Sue Moroney around the celebrations of the 100-year existence of the Labour Party. Who would have thought? I suspect that the forefathers of the Labour Party looking today at those benches would be disappointed at the scant affair that is being represented there today. Also another point I would like to just acknowledge in the last member’s speech is that we heard so many times about how she has a vision and she has a contribution for New Zealand’s regions yet we did not hear one initiative—not one sausage—about something that she would do in her home seat of Hamilton. She also thinks that the new expressway announced by the Minister of Transport today would be suitable for the landing of a Jetstar plane also not quite appropriate and a bit out of touch I would think.I would like to join my colleagues and the colleagues across the floor in acknowledging Queen Elizabeth II our longest-serving monarch in New Zealand. I would like to acknowledge Paul Foster-Bell who has taken the opportunity to host a function in recognition of that tonight on level 2 Parliament House.I would just like to take up a couple of themes in my presentation and they are around education and around tourism specifically relating to the Clutha-Southland electorate. But first I would like to acknowledge my senior colleagues who since I was elected almost a year ago have gone out of their way to come down in droves to the Clutha-Southland electorate and meet with my constituents and familiarise themselves with the issues facing our region and who are taking real action to address some of those challenges. We have had 51 town visits by Ministers and MPs from 18 of my colleagues over the last 12 months. The Opposition says we are not focused on the regions but I have had half of caucus down to my electorate over the last 12 months. I have not seen many Labour MPs down there.I have seen Annette King down there observing the mess she created when she was health Minister. It has taken a National Government to put in a commissioner and finally sort out the issue that successive Governments have been facing with the Southern District Health Board. It has taken Jonathan Coleman to make the call and put in a commissioner and she is doing a fantastic job. A future plan for the Southern District Health Board is what the commissioner is working on now and I look forward to seeing her communicate that to the district in the coming days.Just regarding the Southern District Health Board and health in the area I want to acknowledge a project that I am personally involved with which was initially driven by the previous member of Parliament for Clutha-Southland Bill English. It is looking at alternative forms of governance for Wakatipu health. There is a feasibility study going on at the moment to see whether or not health in the Wakatipu district can be managed or governed in a separate way. A former Minister of Health Bill English introduced community governance in Gore Balclutha Ōāmaru and a number of other areas and that is having a significant impact in that area. Only 60 percent of the funding for Gore Health Ltd comes from district health board contracts. The remaining 40 percent comes from dentists GP services and the mole-mapping clinic and services all the way up to Ashburton. That is innovative thinking from provincial New Zealand. It is something that Queenstown can be a part of as well.It is great to see new initiatives being taken up by this Government. It is exploring new ways of doing things. With regard to education I have been proud to be able to promote and drive the Government’s Communities of Schools initiative which so far has seen 12 of our 72 schools sign up. We have a further 15 schools that either are in negotiations with the ministry or have put forward an expression of interest to be part of a community of schools. This provides an innovative way for schools who are already working together to further strengthen their relationships and combine resources in order to get great outcomes for specific learning difficulties in particular geographical areas.We have Mataura School which has an art demonstration at Parliament at the moment. It is the largest-ever art display that has been in the Parliament Buildings so I encourage all members to go and check that out. It is a piece of Southland that is being displayed in Bowen House at the moment. We have got a number of initiatives going around in education. The Minister of Education came down and she has met with almost all of our principals and board of trustees representatives over the last couple of months in a series of meetings to find out what differences they need in order to continue doing a great job in education.In terms of tourism we have a number of great initiatives going on. Tourism is a part of the economy that is booming at the moment. Tourism in Queenstown is going exceptionally well. We had about 1.9 million visitors last year. It is 4 percent of GDP nationally just behind dairy. We have a number of projects going on to help sustain tourism growth in the area. One that I want to mention before sitting down is the Milford futures project that I am driving at the moment which is to find a new way to sustainably manage tourism into Milford. Thank you.