McKelvie IanIAN McKELVIE (National—Rangitīkei): Well I will not go into any of that but I do want to start by—I was going to say Welcome to the rainy Rangitīkei." because we must be very quickly becoming the wettest electorate in New Zealand. We do have the most sheep but we are now becoming the wettest. Just before I do get on to what I really want to talk about I think it is worth mentioning the fact that whilst the Rangitīkei and Whanganui districts have declared states of emergency I have spoken to my local mayor recently and things are not as bad as the emergency initially looked. But none the less there is flooding right throughout New Zealand—or right through the North Island—which is quite unusual when you think of the history of our floods and emergency situations. They do not often spread right across the North Island.Tim Macindoe: We are quite a pluvial nation.IAN McKELVIE: We are—exactly Tim—quite a pluvial nation. Things are not as bad as they may have been in Rangitīkei; none the less for some farmers it will be challenging.Rangitīkei is the heart of the Horizons Regional Council and the Horizons Regional Council on the current statistics is running at about No. 6 in New Zealand for growth. We had GDP growth of over 3 percent and interestingly that GDP growth is not related to agriculture; it is related to a much broader sector than that. I think that is one of the really encouraging things about rural New Zealand in recent years—that we have diversified our economy significantly as have many other parts of New Zealand. Whilst agriculture is a hugely important part of that economy it is not the critical part of it that it perhaps was earlier in our history.In the Manawatū-Whanganui area—or the Horizons region of course as Minister Bridges alluded to earlier—we have a new economic development strategy and we have got an action plan to boost the regional economy. Interestingly one of those plans in the Manawatū-Whanganui area particularly the Whanganui area involves the very strong input of our Māori community. Listening to the discussion yesterday during the course of the Resource Management Act reforms I thought it was extremely disturbing that as a nation we have not grown beyond the sort of petty behaviour that was going on in the Chamber yesterday. I think that Rangitīkei particularly and many other parts of New Zealand will benefit hugely not only from the changes to the Resource Management Act but from the input of our Māori community and the benefits that the Treaty settlement process is bringing to them. It is hugely important particularly for the Whanganui-Ruapehu part of my electorate and quite exciting for the future.I also want to briefly mention the Ruapehu district which is heavily invested in tourism and is in fact the home of the Tongariro Alpine Crossing two national parks and numerous cycleways and walkways. The Tongariro Alpine Crossing of course—some 125000 people walk that every year. It has probably reached saturation point I would have thought and there are clearly some infrastructural challenges around that sort of thing so we need to move on that very quickly. The Government is certainly helping those regions that are heavily tourist-bound I guess to make such a big difference. So that is very encouraging.Hon Maggie Barry: We're hearing you Ian. We're listening.IAN McKELVIE: Just while the Minister for Arts Culture and Heritage is talking—of course the Tangiwai Memorial which has its anniversary in about a week or two's time is being upgraded currently. Of course for those people who do not realise Tangiwai—right in the centre of my electorate—was the biggest disaster in New Zealand history at the time and is still one of the most significant disasters in New Zealand's history. Of course the Whangaehu River which the Tangiwai bridge crossed—and still does cross or a new one does—is one of those rivers that is creating a fair bit of grief at the moment in the lower reaches.I think our regional development strategy is doing extremely well. It is doing a great job in my electorate. One of the other really strong parts of the Rangitīkei electorate—and the New Zealand economy of course—is the activity of our defence forces. In fact I have Waiōuru—well I do not; the Rangitīkei electorate has the Waiōuru Ōhākea and Linton camps all in that area. The potential for the Singaporean agreement to come off is huge for my part of the world and it would be very exciting if there was ever agreement reached with them over Ōhākea. I think that is very exciting for us as well.So we are growing in almost every sector particularly in the defence sector. The education sector is very strong in the electorate of course—and I have Massey University there. We have the construction sector with housing going well. All in all it is a pretty good performance. Thank you.The debate having concluded the motion lapsed."