Dean JacquiHon JACQUI DEAN (National—Waitaki): Thank you Mr Speaker. In this bill it's really hard to know where to start to express the outrage that I feel at the introduction of this bill on behalf of a very rich cultural history of a group of New Zealanders who are much maligned and those are the high country farmers. I'm afraid that the Minister the Hon Eugenie Sage has not shucked off her former close affiliation with Forest & Bird in that from my point of view the Minister would prefer to have no humans on the high country. So it should be for nature only with no humans. I really believe that that philosophy that ideology which underpins much of the Minister's work and the sheer chip on the Minister's shoulder at the fact that farmers—how dare farmers farm the tops; how dare farmers farm in the high country of New Zealand. Well I'll tell the Minister how the farmers can do that. They do that because in 1948 or thereabouts Crown perpetual leases were introduced. The history is worth going through because the history didn't just begin when the Hon Eugenie Sage was a member of Forest & Bird and then a failed councillor of Environment Canterbury who failed in their duties at the time and then became a member and then Minister in this unfortunate New Zealand First - Greens - Labour coalition Government. In 1948 when perpetual leases were established they were done with the specific aim of encouraging investment in Crown pastoral lease lands. High country farmers at the time had no tenure on their leases and so they found it very difficult to access funding from banks to address some of the issues that they faced in farming to do with soil erosion and management off of their lease areas. In 2008 I believe tenure review was introduced and that is the first provision of the bill.Hon Eugenie Sage: 1998. Get it right.Hon JACQUI DEAN: Gosh so good to have Eugenie Sage's dulcet tones ringing through the House! But when National was in Government in 2008 tenure review was a process which picked up speed and a lot of gains were made in this voluntary process. We have to remember in this House that the tenure review was a voluntary process entered voluntarily both by the leaseholder and by the Crown. So let's not forget the history and the contribution that high country farmers have made to agriculture in New Zealand. We all love wearing our icebreaker merino and there are other brands which are our Italian woollen suits and I'm sure I've seen one or two of those over the other side of the House. The wool from those—Raymond Huo is nodding; he is sporting one himself. How wonderful. And where does that merino come from? It comes from the high country. So let's make no mistake that high country farming not only has a basis of tenure in New Zealand but also brings with it a rich cultural history—and that is to be valued—and a rich cultural contribution to our economy not only through merino but also from the wool they produce and the other diverse activities that now happen on high country farming. So I reject that the end of tenure review is anything but a land-grab by this Government. I will back that up and the rationale for that can be found hidden in plain sight in Schedule 2 of this bill. Hon Member: Ha ha!Hon JACQUI DEAN: I'll go through those schedules. That was a very nervous laugh actually from the Minister who's under a little bit of pressure at the moment is Eugenie Sage. But in Schedule 2 of this Crown Pastoral Land Reform Bill there are classifications of activities on Crown pastoral land. So the first part of this bill puts an end to tenure review. In other words it's a land-grab. No more—no more of this voluntary negotiation between farmers and the Crown. So that's the first part. The second part is the part where the Crown squeezes the high country farmers out of farming by making it unsustainable. They talk about sustainability in this bill and how farming hasn't been sustainable. What nonsense quite frankly—what nonsense. Try telling that to Andrew Simpson at Balmoral Station. Try telling that to a number of the high country farmers who have covenanted special areas of their land and who are doing everything they can to become very sustainable farmers because their livelihoods depend on it—it is as simple as that. They also feel a very strong stewardship towards that land. So let's just go to Schedule 2—Part 1 of new Schedule 1AB permitted activities. OK. So you can dig in posts you can lay electric fences you can bury dead animals you can dig rabbit warrens and so on and so forth. That doesn't require a consent. However Part 2 which is the discretionary pastoral activities will or may require a consent from the commissioner: (a) new or additional irrigation: (b) burning vegetation: (c) clearing … vegetation … (e) cropping". Well that sounds like farming to me—"cultivating". That sounds like farming to me—"draining or ploughing: (f) top-dressing: (g) sowing seed:". Why does this need a concession from the commissioner? I'll tell you why: it's because this Minister and this Government are absolutely bent on driving out farmers from the high country on the pretext that the land is not being managed well enough. Well if they really were concerned about land management they look no further than their own backyard and the weed burden that is on Department of Conservation land. Birchwood Station has just grown worse and worse over the years. Wilding pines—let's have a conversation about that. So the Department of Conservation under this Minister need to look at themselves before they start casting aspersions. Hon Eugenie Sage: $100 million.Hon JACQUI DEAN: Oh she's upset—she's upset. She's shouting at me. Well I will keep speaking because it's my turn Minister. This Minister is getting so exercised because she does not like hearing the other side. Why does she not like hearing the other side? Because she doesn't like listening to the high country farmers. I understand she has not been to have a look for herself and so how can that be honest engagement with the farmers? So I'm just going to continue going through these schedules. Soil disturbance for the construction of buildings needs a consent. New fencing needs a consent. Clearing drains needs a consent. These provisions that are proposed— Andrew Bayly: That's outrageous.Hon JACQUI DEAN: —well they are outrageous and regrettably will become the law—are put in this bill for one reason and one reason alone: because the Minister and the Government do not value farming in New Zealand. They do not value high country pastoral farming. They do not recognise the value and the contribution economically environmentally yes and also culturally that the high country farmers of the South Island have brought to us in New Zealand. They want all that to go. They want to squeeze them off the land so that Eugenie Sage can have her dry land park they can have the walking track across the Mackenzie Basin and they can have all of those things that they covet so badly. They do not see the farming community as their allies who can make a contribution. Despite all efforts—all efforts—on behalf of farmers to make that happen they see them as the enemy. And this bill—this terrible bill—which has the one intent of getting rid of high country farmers and all they represent all they bring to the New Zealand economy and to New Zealand culture—they want that gone. We do not support this bill."