SpeechHAMISH WALKER (National—Clutha-Southland): That is an example of this arrogant Government. Mr Wood has the cheek to stand up here and lecture us about our own financial affairs telling us how to get our own financial affairs in order. To be honest if we look at the Government MPs over there there are probably a handful of previous business owners. If I look at my party the National Party we would probably have close to half of our caucus who have successfully run their own businesses before. Looking at the Government members probably three—three out of Labour's 46 MPs have run their own business. That is an example of the arrogance.If we look at the previous speech from the Minister of Conservation she said this is just the first part of their forestry plan. If you look at what happened here last year what did we have on their first part of the plan? We had thousands and thousands of people driving tractors through the streets of Wellington to Parliament—and I was fortunate enough to be in that lead tractor. But they had thousands of people turning up to Wellington driving tractors through the streets of Wellington because rural communities across New Zealand are getting absolutely destroyed by the billion trees policy.You only need to look at what's happening in the East Coast. Down in Southland a resource consent has just been given for a farm 3500 hectares—this isn't any ordinary farm; this is prime productive land. In a small community in northern Southland about 5 or 6 kilometres down the road you've got one pub you've got a caravan that sells coffees and two small tourism shops. Now it won't take too many more farms to be sold to be planted out in trees before rural communities across New Zealand—which they already are—are crippled.Just a reminder to the Government—just to remind you—can you eat trees? No you cannot eat trees. If the recent COVID disaster is not an example of why we need our productive land to be used for sheep for beef—the most productive land in the country is supposed to be used for meat for milk. It is farmers after all that have built the wealth of this country. And the lack of respect especially from the member Tamati Coffey—he said You need to listen to MPs who have their electorates covered in forest." Well Tamati Coffey I see 10 members of the Government over there. How many of those members represent rural electorates? None. On this side of the House we have about 13 members and by my count you've got six or maybe seven out of the 13 that represent rural electorates. And Tamati Coffey had the cheek to tell us "You need to listen to your people." Well why aren't they listening to the thousands of people that protested here at Parliament last year because rural communities are getting destroyed by the billion tree policy?A message for the Government: rural communities tick slightly differently to urban communities. You lose one farming family from the district—often they're involved in the rugby club. At rugby clubs you might have one person that's the couch the bartender puts the flags out and puts the padding up on the posts. Often that same person's involved in the local cemetery often on the board of trustees. You only need to look at what happened in the Catlins south Otago 30 years ago. There was a school there that had 30 kids; this year it's got six. Now why the decrease? That's because valleys there were planted out in trees roughly 30 years ago. So a school's gone from 30 kids down to six. I've visited farms there over the last few months and they're concerned. They're concerned because their own community over the last 30 years has been losing population—farming family after farming family that's left especially in the 1990s because a lot of that land was planted in trees.Now if the Minister of Conservation tells us this is just the first part of their forestry plan what's next? That's my concern. Now the National Party backs the forestry sector; it's our third largest agricultural exporter and it employs around 26000 27000 people—there's roughly 14000 15000 small forestry owners out there. I was speaking to a number of those last night. None of them knew this bill was going through Parliament yet we're here the day after probably the most important Budget that any of us will see in our lifetime—unemployment expected to go to close to 10 percent debt is supposed to balloon out to $200 billion $50 billion of new spend yesterday with $20 billion of that being a slush fund for the election a thousand people a day going on to the jobseeker benefit businesses in my electorate in Queenstown going broke like there's no tomorrow. Some of these business owners have built up their cliental their customers and their businesses over decades if not generations to lose it overnight.The Government came out yesterday with a Budget that simply had no plans no vision yet here we are today—the day after the Budget day—debating a registration system for log traders and forestry advisers that strengthens the industry and improves the supply chain. This can be a really good bill if the Government could just simply get their process in order go through the proper process. A bill usually takes months yet here we are rushing it through the day after the most important budget possibly of our generation to talk about traders. Now I spoke to some of those forest owners and contractors last night and had they known about it they would have liked to get involved. Now there is a shortened select committee process—I look forward to hearing from them.Forestry appears to be quite simple but it's actually really complex. You've got a bit of land you grow trees you process the trees you get them to the wharf or the processing mill and you ship them overseas—sounds simple but it's incredibly complex. And if you look at some of the issues that they've been having over the years it's often the cowboys that get into the industry. Now I can't see anything in this legislation that'll stop those cowboys. For example I know of one chap—he's been in the industry 20 years; he's gone broke 13 times. Now he owns logging trucks. Now what he does is he goes in he promises the world to the farmer or the person that's grown the trees for 20 or 30 years promises the world in terms of price in terms of clearing the site and often it's the social licence that is at stake after a large flood in a region where often on the news you'll see a whole heap of logs just left there in the valley or on the hill. Now the reason those logs are there is because the person processing the logs or cutting the logs down all they care about is getting in there cutting them down and shipping them away—getting on to the next job.So this piece of legislation has the ability to help many many people out there but because of the rushed nature of this I don't think we're going to see the full extent. But I encourage all those people out there to please submit to the select committee. I also ask for all those people who protested down the streets of Wellington last year to protest the billion tree policy which is literally crippling and destroying rural New Zealand I encourage them to come in to tell people like Tamati Coffey Michael Wood and the Minister of Conservation what they think of their forestry plan to date because at the moment all it's doing is destroying rural communities across New Zealand and at the same time destroying the livelihoods of the people—the farmers the ones who have built this country up over the years the ones that will get us through the COVID disaster and the ones that will get New Zealand back on its feet again."