Bennett DavidHon DAVID BENNETT (National—Hamilton East): Thank you Mr Speaker. New Zealand is blessed to have the best farmers in the world and our farmers are the best because we can adapt to markets better than anybody else because our farmers don't have supports regulation and control like other farmers do around the world that makes them inefficient and unable to meet market demand and market requirements. Nobody in this House is saying that there isn't change going on in consumer preference; everybody understands that farmers understand that and farmers will meet those market preference changes as they can. We need to give them the ability to do that and not have it forced from Government regulation all and every time through this House by stringent rules that don't take into account the need for good science to back up any change.Now many members of the other side will come out and they'll say Farmers have got a break." That's what the last member said: "This gives farmers a pause." But it does not really give farmers a pause. The commission has the ability and the Minister has the ability effectively to force farming into this scheme if they feel they haven't done enough by the time it gets to the cut-off date of 2022 and effectively bring everybody in in 2025 then. It isn't a pause. If it was going to be a pause they would follow the leadership of the Hon Scott Simpson who said "Let's take a bit of time work through and then when you're ready bring it in." But when you've got it over people's head that it's going to come in if a Minister determines you haven't done enough that isn't a pause; that is an effective challenge to that industry around what is going to happen from this Government.We need to make sure that there is a practical and scientific base to the challenges we're putting on our sectors. Now a number of our speakers tonight have talked about the importance of the primary sector in getting New Zealand out of the hole we're in now as a result of the funding that has been spent on the COVID recovery—that goes without saying. We all know that New Zealand will rely on our primary sector to pay the bills in the next few years. As our members have said why then do you sting that sector with inefficiency with Government regulation and dogmatic control from Government when they could actually be making more change if they let it happen in a more organic way? And that is the crucial success of New Zealand farming in the past and it will be the success in the future.I was just looking at a document this afternoon and it talked about the Dutch approach not necessarily to this bill but to sustainability. Look at this: "Innovation is a key commitment to sustainability."—twice as much food half as many resources. The Dutch for the size of their country are now the number two exporters of food produce by value in the world. That is because they have met the market around them and New Zealand farmers can outperform the Dutch farmers if we give them that chance. The problem we have is if we set too many rules too many regulations without the ability for farmers to meet those rules and regulations through good science and with the threat on them that if a Minister determines they haven't done enough they will then be included in a scheme that would be detrimental if it is enacted at a very high level that means that our farmers could potentially lose some of that efficiency. They could potentially lose some of that judgment they will make in making sure that they produce products in a way that will meet the world market going forward.So I trust our New Zealand farmers to meet the demands of world markets. I trust them to work as hard as they can under the constraints that science and technology will allow to do the best they can for our environment so that they sell the best products on the world stage. That will achieve more I believe than a Government trying to regulate. Give them that market ability to do what they're doing now and they will deliver to you more than a Government trying to threaten them and have over them this constraint. So this bill the National Party can't support because we believe that at this time it's really important that New Zealand look at its financial progress going forward. But also importantly I believe we also need to trust our farmers to trust our producers because they know the markets they're going into they know the demands of the consumers there and they will meet those demands with the best capability they have in New Zealand at this time and that trust is more important I believe in this situation. Thank you Mr Speaker."