Goodhew Jo: Annual Review Debate — In CommitteeText is incorporated into the Bound VolumeGoodhew Jo: Annual Review Debate — In Committee[Sitting date: 03 May 2016. Volume:713;Page:10703. Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume.]Hon JO GOODHEW (Associate Minister for Primary Industries): I rise to take a call in this debate and to try to balance some of the ridiculous assertions that are so broad-sweeping and scandalous in that respect. The first thing I want to say is that the member Eugenie Sage is just the teeniest little bit right when she says that midwives are warning pregnant women about the risk of wells in contracting blue-baby syndrome. Where the member is just completely off the planet is in thinking that this is widespread. The member knows it is not. It is a very very small number and every single farmer who takes well water that is affected in this way knows about it already. This was a very general warning that went far wider and scared many of the pregnant women in my electorate unnecessarily. But that actually is the modus operandi of that particular party sitting over there.I want to talk about the record that we have in terms of the support for the forestry sector and then in general. What we have heard today is about how the economy is benefiting from primary industries in very many ways. I want to start by reminding members of the benefits that certainly accrue through free-trade agreements to the forestry sector. The free-trade agreement with Korea will see 99 percent of exports duty free within 10 years and then the Trans-Pacific Partnership agreement will see $11 million worth of savings every year and once it is fully implemented it will be tariff-free.So that is the return back to our forestry sector. But in fact the forestry sector will say it needs to grow in other ways too so we are planting more forestry through the Afforestation Grants Scheme—$22.5 million over 5 years. In addition to that we are updating the timber standard because there is much more to be gained economically through engineered timber. So although this is the economic side of things I think it is really important that we put on the record today that for many in the primary industries sector—not all—it is a pretty tough time right now. In my electorate we have certainly seen that and we have seen it further afield up in North Canterbury as well.But this Government has put out support for the mental health of rural communities—for the rural support trusts it is $150000 extra. You know most of the rural support trusts people are volunteers. They are fantastic warm caring skilled volunteers who are out there supporting their neighbours and out there responding to need. It is very much a neighbourly thing. In the next 3 or 4 weeks we have got two events—one in South Canterbury and one in mid-Canterbury—to support farming families to come together enjoy a bit of time together and gain that support. I was with Annabelle White—she was doing the entertaining; I was doing the listening and the laughing—in North Canterbury on 1 April when a well-supported rural support trust meeting had 300 women there a few police members who were not women and in fact a waiting list of 60 as well. So there was fantastic support—people coming together. We see banks we see vets and we see transport companies linking arms. They are all out there doing their level best to support some farmers who are finding it really challenging. And we are not talking just about dairy; we are actually talking about other farmers as well. But this is very different from the 1980s when that support did not seem to be there; it certainly is there now.I particularly want to mention the $500000 that has gone towards mental health support. There have been an extra 60 rural support trust facilitators trained and also 14 regional mental health clinical champions and a medical director appointed. So it is not just money that is floating around. What we know is that the rural support trusts have helped to train a number of people in what is called Mental Health 101 training so that they can recognise when people in rural communities are feeling under pressure—under the pump so to speak.Suicide is always considered to be a problem but what we know across New Zealand is that it is more frequent in rural areas when you look at it on a population basis. This of course causes concern but what we also have out there is a much better understanding now of how to recognise when people are feeling under pressure. Putting aside those people those rural support trust facilitators and getting around the country both Minister Nathan Guy and I have been able to catch up with rural support trusts from the top of the North Island earlier in the year in February to the bottom of the South Island at the Southern Field Days and then at A and P shows as well. They are doing a fantastic job and I want to lay it on the record here today.