Muller Todd; Tolley AnneTODD MULLER (National—Bay of Plenty): Thank you Madam Speaker. I rise to take a short call on the Budget Policy Statement (BPS). Can I first begin by just critiquing Tamati Coffey's observations. Firstly he raises the issue around the levels of panic in this country. He's right: they're rising. But he's wrong about the cause. The cause isn't New Zealanders reaching that view because they feel that they've just naturally fallen into that state. They look at the capability that sits on the Treasury benches and they know that fundamentally they don't have the ability to manage through it. They've got no trade experience. They've got no commercial experience. They have never in their own lives in their lived experience been exposed to something as complex and whole of country and economy of this scale—and bluntly they're bereft of ideas as to how to do it. So they end up returning to process and platitudes. Last week we were told that we were going to have an announcement and a week later that it was coming in a week's time. They're out of their depth and it's their actions every day which is reinforcing the sense of unease in this country and the sooner they realise that and actually grip it the better.What I would like to talk about—as has already been covered by a lot of speakers—is that the deterioration of the New Zealand economy in the few months since this statement was put on the Table is severe and acute. What I find quite remarkable is that as the Government is flailing around looking for ways of protecting and buttressing the economy from the shocks that it is living in and is likely to live in over the next few months they are turning to the very sector that they have spent the last two years trying to unwind constrain and whack which is the agricultural sector of this country. As they see economic confidence eroding beneath their feet as they see unemployment starting to rise GDP growth stalling and going into likely recession the one sector that could be the difference between a deep deep recession and something which is bearable in this country will be the strength of our food exports to the world. How quickly has their tune changed confronted with the reality that actually 70 percent of our country's exports come from food and fibre and actually they are sectors that deserve to be worked with not condemned—celebrated and not looked to be constrained.You have heard it in some of the conversations about the BPS already this afternoon. They have put in place over the last two years a view that freshwater management should be so acutely changed that fundamental land-use change should occur in this country. They talk about the importance of decarbonising the economy. In their own report in the last week the Ministry for the Environment has made looking forward to 2035 their assessment that there will be 20 percent less sheep and beef hectares in this country—a drop from eight million; 1.3 million hectares less—to about 6.8 million. Their own report! So here you have the dichotomy of a Government that is out of their depth in terms of knowing how to respond. The only sector which is buttressing the economy from freefall is the food export sector in particular but their activity for the last two years has been to pull together a suite of policy initiatives—be it carbon tax be it freshwater be it biodiversity—all aimed to make that sector feel less supported more vulnerable more unable to see a way of continuing to produce what our historic competitive advantage has been. They put in their own Budget Policy Statement that their vision is just transitions away from sectors where we've been historically strong in. For goodness' sake wake up.We are part of a world that has got 180 countries. The Government works on behalf of 5 million people whose economic interests are under pressure and under threat and the way we get there is by producing food and fibre for the rest of the world. Start supporting them. Start working with them. Admit in this House that actually the policy prescription that your ideological hearts have driven you to is wrong and that what is required is a far more holistic approach around what are the strengths of this country. How do we work with those sectors to support them to ensure that the recession that looms in front of us over the next two three four five months is not as acute as possible? For a party that says at its core it represents and cares for people why don't you realise that what actually matters for them is a job in an economy that's working?DEPUTY SPEAKER: This is a split call. I call David Seymour.