Cameron Mark; Rurawhe AdrianMARK CAMERON (ACT): Thank you Madam Speaker. Thank you for the opportunity to speak on the second reading of the Crown Pastoral Land Reform Bill. Well here we go again: more virtue; no ideas. The Minister for Land Information New Zealand (LINZ) should get off his ideological hobby horse and actually ride a real one. I'm sure many in the high country would offer him one if he actually took off his high-vis coat for more than five minutes and spent time on a farm in New Zealand. This bill has completely eroded farmer morale. There is further angst and frankly anger. High country farmers and landowners will see their heritage and their history irreversibly changed. Now I just want to if I may quote the Minister. When he was asked in question time about his position—and I quote—Does he stand by his statement on the Crown Pastoral Land Reform Bill made before his appointment to the Land Information portfolio"—he quotes—"My primary focus has been to ensure that the bill recognises that Crown pastoral lands supports a prosperous high country pastoral farming industry and I'm confident that this new regime proposed by the Minister will ensure that sustainable pastoral farming on Crown land will continue to thrive". Well gracious me what does that mean if you're one of those farmers? I've just come back from there and they're disgraced. This bill seeks to remove a perpetual 33-year lease. This is generational. It will change the whole construct of existing legislation this new omnibus bill. For the context of those happening to listen at home it speaks to pursuing better environmental outcomes on Crown land. Well gracious me these people are doing that. They are moving the wilding pines they are mitigating the pest damage they are controlling the goats and on and on it goes. But this Government they don't care. It's all virtue. Jobs for Nature—we don't even know what the full-time equivalents are there when they're asked for in the House. So many took an affront to this legislation being in front of the Environment Committee and the Minister at the time saw prudence and gave it over to Minister O'Connor. Arguably many have asked why it wasn't in front of the Primary Production Committee. After all it affects my kind of people Barbara's kind of people people on this side of the House—farmers. Ultimately it's farmers that are affected. They are the leaders of environmental protection in the high country. The report back from the Environment Committee made several suggested changes. The bill seeks to end tenure review. As previously mentioned it amends clause 2 introducing monitoring and enforcement regimes. Well haven't we got enough regulation in New Zealand? The dairy sector is all too often lauded on the other side of the House and the primary sector by the Minister of Finance and here we are with more regulations more red tape and more "You can't go outside and do anything." Notably the provisions relating to a penalty regime come into effect six months after Royal assent. They're not even sure of the issues they're trying to address in the bill. The crux of my debate is that this erodes totally the relationship between the Crown and 150 years of farmer-Crown relationship. There has been significant capital investment by farmers down in this Crown pastoral land to the sum of hundreds of thousands if not millions of dollars adding to community productivity and wellbeing. These are families. These are the local schools. Every day farming in New Zealand gets a little bit harder and this is a prime example of that. If I can just contextualise we're talking about environmental concerns. In July 2021 Stuff ran an article "Losing the war on wilding pines". In context wilding pines are increasing across the country annually by approximately 5 percent. They cover 1.8 million hectares and that increases by a further 90000 hectares a year. Who's removing these? They are the farmers—these are the very people you seem to deride. If I can quote Jess Cocks who lives on Mt Nicholas station she notes that "This bill has been formed with the lack of active consultation with lessees. It does not recognise the 127 completed and implemented tenure reviews that have achieved good outcomes for all concerned." She goes on: "There is also a contractual obligation on behalf of the Crown that is being overlooked. This Government routinely overlooks the very part of the primary sector that has kept the country and the economy going." The ACT Party notes overwhelmingly that submitters were in two camps: those in LINZ's camp and the rest of us—the farming community. Currently there are approximately 165 to 170 lessees. Now arguably those on that side of the House will say that it's a small number. Well gracious me they are real people. They are communities. They are families. They are schoolchildren going to the local schools. Their whole family construct will change. The community will erode. The current Act allows for certain activities like pastoral farming for cattle deer and sheep grazing. Well what an onerous thing! What environmental degradation this seeks to fix when these are the very people that arrest the problem. There are limitations on soil activities and burn-offs. Well the farmers already acknowledge that. I am one and I'm acutely aware of my environmental footprint. I'll close up with a quote to make the other side of the House actually acknowledge what the concept of family in rural New Zealand is all about. Caroline Tamblyn said "I have worked as a LINZ contractor for 12 years doing pastoral lease consents valuations and tenure review." She goes on: "I no longer work as a contractor and have no connections to pastoral leases. I have submitted on this so-called land reform bill because I disagree with the adversarial approach to removing longstanding property rights. It's deliberate sabotage of good working relationships between the Crown and farmers of New Zealand." I and the ACT Party unequivocally oppose this bill. It totally fails to acknowledge the private property rights and the significant investment in high country communities. ACT stands with National on this side of the House and we support farmers and rural New Zealand. DEPUTY SPEAKER: I call Stuart Smith—five minutes."