Jones Shane: General DebateText is incorporated into the Bound VolumeJones Shane: General Debate[Sitting date: 07 August 2013. Volume:692;Page:12449. Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume.]Hon SHANE JONES (Labour):Kia orana. Based on what other parliamentarians have said this afternoon I want to briefly follow up on what the Minister for Food Safety has just said. All parliamentarians in the House today and during the course of the week would endorse that the major focus at the moment ought to be on the families the infants and obviously the households that rely on the product that has developed a very bleak reputation over recent times. Most certainly there are queries and questions about the institution an institution that enjoys an extraordinary level of privilege in the commercial world of New Zealand and holds an inordinately important status as the largest trader of dairy products. These are questions that go to the heart of the economy and go to the heart of key regions around New Zealand. So although the health and the well-being of themokopunas and the families who rely on this product around the world eclipse everything else at the appropriate time very searching questions will be put forward and answers will be demanded. I will just say that.Now let us talk about jobs. I heard the member from Northland Mike Sabin unwisely insult Winston Peters earlier today and say to him that he would not know about Northland because he never goes there. I have sort of found that for a first-term member I am really disappointed that my fellow Northlander has turned on Winston like that. I have got no doubt that as time goes on more senior elements in his own party are going to say: “Oh for goodness’ sake—don’t say that! We have a sort of different view about Winston.” Well Winston has a clear view about them—it is Winston Peters whom I am referring to.But let us talk about jobs. Northland’s job statistics are bleak. They are bleak because there is no specific set of policies designed to turn round the regions of New Zealand. Perversely enough one of the areas that is going to suffer if we do not completely hop on top and solve the issues around the growth potential of our dairy industry is the regions. Why are the regions starving? Well infrastructure has been starved in relation to regions. I am not saying that population concentrations are unimportant but look at where much of the primary produce and look at where much of the export raw materialcomes from. It comes from the regions. So do not undercut KiwiRail for a relatively small amount of money. From Wairoa and Gisborne through to Heretaunga reinvest in that particular portion of our rail infrastructure. Do not neglect those regions and treat those regions as though somehow they are less—that their status as New Zealanders is less important.Secondly a hobby horse of mine: forestry. Why is the Minister for Canterbury Earthquake Recovery not making it a priority and ensuring that all Crown projects in respect of the Christchurch rebuild have as a priority the utilisation of timber the utilisation of wood as Jim Anderton and Helen Clark did? That is not to say you exclude concrete you exclude steel—although far be it from me to become a sudden authority on carbon footprints etc. But the reality is that our forestry resource and the secondary and tertiary products from that resource have a great role to play in our own economy. Neglected by the current Minister—well actually the forestry industry does not know who the current Minister is. It realises that Nathan Guy is the Minister for Primary Industries but based on the body language of the front bench today he is not going to last long. Not only will there be losses of personnel—and I quite like him; I met him in the golden oldie Parliamentary Rugby Team—but I think Horowhenua is going to see a great deal more of him unfortunately for Horowhenua.I want to come back to the forestry resource. Why not promote wood so that it takes a place of pride in the $40 billion rebuild and ensure that all major designs and major architecture work have as a model how timber wood and associated industries can be utilised in the Christchurch rebuild to enrich the forestry sector? It is not necessarily going to cost an inordinate amount of dough but it is actually reintroducing something that was there prior to Steven Joyce indiscriminately going through a whole host of policies that Mr Anderton had left for him to advance on. But with Steven Joyce being the narrow-minded partisan know-all that he is MrAnderton’s contributions were soon forgotten about. The final point that I would make—Mr DEPUTY SPEAKER: No you have run out of time unfortunately. You will get it next week.