McAnulty KieranKIERAN McANULTY (Labour): As a new member of this House I'm disheartened to hear former Ministers speak of current Ministers in such a fashion that we have just heard. In defence of our Minister of Agriculture and Minister for Rural Communities he is deeply admired amongst our rural communities. Hon Members: Ha ha!KIERAN McANULTY: You can laugh all you like. The members opposite can laugh all they like.I note the Hon Jacqui Dean calling over here calling us city slickers—I couldn't be more offended if she'd tried. I live in Wairarapa and I know exactly the issues that are facing rural and regional New Zealand. As the members stand there like the Hon Simon Bridges—who I haven't seen smile so much and when my fellow comrades over here were mentioning his name his smile got wider and wider. They don't like that word do they? They don't like the workers and they don't like talking about workers; they like scooting around the outsides of it actually not wanting to address the issues.That there actually sums up the last nine years when the National Party were in Government. We heard from Jacqui Dean and we heard from the Hon Simon Bridges declaring that they are in touch with rural and regional New Zealand. We didn't hear them talk about the shortage of rural broadband. We didn't hear them talk about the lack of infrastructure funding in our regional areas. Nor did we hear about the lack of provisions and measures that the previous Government put in place to actually allow our small-business owners in rural areas to access the workers giving people that are standing there wanting a chance—give them a go. We haven't seen that over the last nine years. We never heard these two members talk about the lack of access to primary healthcare in certain rural areas. The fact is that the National Party paint themselves to be the party of rural New Zealand and yet they fail to deliver every single time. They take those regions for granted they think they're going to vote for them anyway and they do absolutely nothing.Take police for example. There are many towns in our rural communities who rely on police that come from up to 45 minutes to an hour's drive away. How is that delivering for our rural communities? They would rather focus on delivering tax cuts than actually giving our communities what they need.But this Government is different. In the last 100 days we've delivered more for rural communities already than the previous Government actually did in real terms. They might have given them lip-service but in nine years they delivered nothing. And all that they can do is a little snigger. They started with a bit of a hiss and a roar when I stood up here but they're pretty quiet now because they know that there's truth in what I speak.The fact is if you look at farm ownership this is one thing that is affecting hard-working New Zealanders in our rural community. It doesn't matter if they are a sharemilker or a shearer or indeed someone who just works on a farm. One generation ago you could work hard you could save up and you could buy productive land in this country. That was no longer the case only a few months ago. One of the first things this Government did was put in provisions to make sure that New Zealanders could actually afford farms to make sure that overseas speculators cannot come into our productive land just for the sake of buying it and not adding any value. Just like this Government delivered for New Zealand homeowners it has delivered for future farmers as well. We have actually also identified another mistake of the previous Government in assuming that primary industries are all but the same and can therefore be thrown into the same Government department. The Minister of Agriculture the first thing he did was identify that agriculture needs a specific focus—and forestry and fisheries and indeed rural communities.How can that party stand here and say that they are the party for rural communities when one of the first things they did when they got into Government the last time was get rid of the Minister of Rural Affairs—got rid of the ministry and the Minister that was actually guaranteed to give rural communities a voice at Cabinet? Well I'm proud to be part of a party and a Government where one of the first things we did was reinstate the Minister for Rural Communities to ensure that places like Dannevirke and Carterton and Featherston have a voice at the top table.