Kuriger BarbaraBARBARA KURIGER (National—Taranaki - King Country): Thank you Mr Speaker. It's an honour to speak today. To those that we've lost and to those who are currently suffering this is a big moment for Parliament and I want to congratulate the cross-party group. The onus is now on the rest of us to back them and make sure that this is a truly apolitical forum going forward. There is no room for politics in mental health.Everyone has a story. Every family has a story. And I think when you first experience it it doesn't ever happen in one's own family—and excuse me for saying your" Mr Speaker but this is just one of those conversations—it never happens in your family until it does. In 1995 my sister lost her husband and we were left with two young nephews one of whom is about to become a dad. Until it happens in your own family it's something that's over there and it's often not talked about. When I was growing up it was never talked about. Young people died and no one ever knew why they died. But I think every family in this day and age has been touched in some way if not by suicide at least by mental health.I want to especially thank Matt and the cross-party team who worked hard with a focus towards rural mental health. Mark Cameron's just covered some of that off so well and thank you Mark for that because my brother-in-law Steve was a farmer and it can be lonely. A lot of our community groups are doing some fantastic work. I want to make mention of the Rural Support Trust Neil Bateup and the team who are out in our rural communities. Sometimes I have to ask the Rural Support Trust people if they're OK because they're dealing with some pretty heavy issues. It's wonderful in our communities to have the John Kirwan's and the Mike King's and people like that who lead the way on these topics and the Lance Burdett's but to support all of those people and I really thank those people for the work they've done. We all need to get behind them because in every community there are people who are helping the mental health situation. Most of us don't know what to do often and it's the Rural Support Trust and others who help us get behind those of us who are suffering.Now Matt Doocey mentioned before that we'd had this two-pager yesterday from the Mental Health Foundation talking about the language as politicians that we use. But I would ask every politician in this House to consider the language we use every day when politicians talk about farmers. And I often find myself saying "Farmers are people too." As we go through our environmental issues and all of the other issues that we're trying to deal with people are working so hard and the language that is used towards farmers sometimes is so tough and they feel like everything's coming at them and no matter what they do it's never enough. So I would ask us all not just to watch our language around zero suicide but to please watch the language that we use when we're talking about not just farmers but every group in the community.I am currently proud to be working with my son Tony and Fonterra on a new initiative called Supporting Farmers and in particular supporting sharemilkers around power imbalances bullying those types of things. Now we got here through an experience where the help that Tony asked for was not forthcoming. And so I want to say that we're really proud of Tony we're really proud that Tony is still with us and we're really proud that Tony's going to be using his experience to help other young men and other sharemilkers as they step forward in their farming careers. And I want to thank Fonterra for taking us on in that initiative. So really today I think is a momentous occasion. I stood on a stage with Matt Doocey Jenny Marcroft and Louisa Wall when we did a cross-party mental health thing with an Australasian forum and I saw the camaraderie that was in that group on that day and tears were shed and we're all humans at the end of the day. I want us all to get behind this cross-party group and make the most of this initiative that's been launched by this team. Thank you Mr Speaker."