McKelvie Ian: General DebateText is incorporated into the Bound VolumeMcKelvie Ian: General Debate[Sitting date: 25 May 2016. Volume:714;Page:11258. Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume.]IAN McKELVIE (National—Rangitīkei): Well what an exciting week to be a member of the Government. There is a Budget to look forward to—a Budget that will set the trend for the next 3 years and beyond. It is a very exciting time to be a part of this Government. We live in a country with local communities that are seeing a lift in provincial activities. Small towns are turning round. Populations are now growing albeit slowly—a considerable change from 3 years ago. To listen to James Shaw who has a very jaundiced view of our rivers and Mr Robertson who has clearly read the Mary Poppins serials too often in that he is perfect in every way you would think that the country was coming to an end.We are doing better and are competing effectively because we are an economy that is based primarily on food production and tourism in a part of the world where we have unique advantages that we must protect. Our isolation gives us some valuable protection from air- and land-borne pests that may enter the food chain. The Ministry for Primary Industries (MPI) has a vital role in ensuring that these are not carried into the country by those tourists who are the other part of our economy’s current strength. The other considerable advantage we have is our “100% Pure New Zealand” slogan and the magnificent environment that underpins this. We must continue to protect and enhance this through great science and investment in new and sustainable farming practices investment in pest control in our conservation estate and continued investment in the freshwater clean-up. Doing so will ensure that our tourism industry which relies so heavily on the environment will continue to prosper and grow.There is another strong driver of our economy and that is the IT sector; whether it is innovative new products coming to the market such as Orion Health or Xero’s accounting packages or people and families who are able to work from home running very successful businesses both internationally and locally because of the Government’s drive to improve rural connectivity—one of the great secrets of New Zealand’s future prosperity. It is also important in our ability to grow our rural populations which is absolutely essential and we need those people in the workforce in order to support our tourism industry and the agricultural food production sector. This year’s Budget will provide some $14.4 million to further promote apprenticeships enabling a further 5500 people to train in a vocation that will lead to work opportunities. The very exciting thing about the growth in apprenticeships can be seen clearly in places like Taumarunui where Universal College of Learning has invested in providing a certificate in carpentry to young people getting them started on the pathway to an apprenticeship and work. It is resulting in a near 100 percent success rate.This leads me to the opportunity we have as a country to enable people to live and work in more isolated parts of this beautiful country. We already have the infrastructure—not perfect in some cases but there. We already have the houses—again not perfect but there. We now have the opportunity for work and in many new areas as a result of worldwide demand for quality food tourism and lifestyle opportunities. Only this morning in this House we heard the first reading of the Te Awa Tupua (Whanganui River Claims Settlement) Bill which will further increase the opportunity for work and consequently for people to return to live and work in places like Pipiriki and Taumarunui on the river’s edge. It is very exciting for provincial New Zealand. If we concentrate on providing environments that people want to live in opportunities for jobs and the tools they need to work we do not need to continue to follow the route to urbanisation that the rest of the world has followed. We do not need to continue to fight to live in Auckland. The policies of this Government will give people the incentive to live and work in provincial New Zealand. This in turn will eventually take the pressure off the enormous growth that Auckland Tauranga and Hamilton are seeing at present.Tracey Martin: How many people are going to leave Te Atatū do you think? Where are they going to go?IAN McKELVIE: Go to Northland and have a look—go to Northland and have a look. I am pleased to report that the house prices are moving in the Rangitīkei. There is opportunity for new work. New Zealanders are seeing opportunities to move back home not only from the two great A’s—Australia and Auckland—but also from other parts of our great country. Thank you.