Bennett DavidHon DAVID BENNETT (National—Hamilton East): Thank you Madam Speaker. Businesses only want certainty from Government. They only want to know that there is a Government that is prudent in its management of the country's finances that understands the rules that they operate their business in. Businesses don't expect Government to give them a handout; they don't expect Government to be there to make them survive in their worst times. That is the fundamental prospect that we see in front of us in this House tonight because I personally don't believe there is a need for a bill like this. I understand there's massive farm debt and I understand farmers get into trouble but every business can have that problem. What we actually need from a Government is a Government that controls its expenditure and provides the environment for business to flourish and make commercial decisions and not have those decisions be influenced by the long hand of Government going into business and changing the prerogatives that manage how those business people make their decisions. What the member Nathan Guy said was completely true. What he went through was a whole range of things that this Government has done that is destroying confidence in all businesses but especially in our rural communities. I say to that member that just finished speaking that the reason that the public out there and the business community are so against this Government is because they see a Government that wants to be entwined in their commercial decisions a Government that does not understand the economy—Mark Patterson: You've changed—changed back unfortunately. Hon DAVID BENNETT: —and that does not understand how business operates. Now those members over there New Zealand First members—they're going to stand up in five minutes' time and say this was all their idea this was the thing that they had promoted and Darroch Ball did. It was his idea. They've given it to Mr Patterson for some unknown reason and I'm not sure even why the Labour Party has to go through the indignity of having to lead off the debate on this because it is a New Zealand First bill. It's a New Zealand First cop-out because they want to go to the regions and into the farming communities and try and buy their votes and say Look we did this we've done this we've been there for you." That's not true. Everybody knows in the rural communities that New Zealand First is not there for them that New Zealand First creates more problems than good.Fletcher Tabuteau: Talk about the bill.Hon DAVID BENNETT: They understand that this bill is bad for them Mr Tabuteau. He says "Talk about the bill." Well the bill isn't needed if you've got a Government that does the right thing. It isn't needed if the Government understands its finances. It's not needed if the Government goes out there and slaughters the rural economies as it is doing at the moment. There is no confidence out there in the banking sector amongst farmers because they know what's coming from this Government. They know what's going to happen around the environmental reforms. They know what's going to happen around taxation over time.Dr Duncan Webb: Scaremongering.Hon DAVID BENNETT: What? Did you say something? Dr Duncan Webb: I said you're scaremongering.Hon DAVID BENNETT: Is it that member there who said something? He's never said anything in this House. He's come from Christchurch doesn't know what the hell's going on in the rural sector and yet comes and makes all these comments here this afternoon. Well I think that member needs to go and have a look at what his Government's policies are. Look at what they've done in agriculture in the last couple of months or are going to do. The tree aspect is a really important part of it. You know New Zealand First and their billion dollar trees. That is causing major land use change in New Zealand and that puts farmers under financial pressure. Once farmers are under financial pressure then they need to have a bill like this. If the Government of the day didn't cause all those problems then you wouldn't need a bill like that. So that's the point that our members have been saying: that the New Zealand First - Labour coalition Government is actually causing the lack of confidence in the New Zealand dairy and agriculture and horticulture sectors and directly by causing that now they're trying to repair it with a farm debt mediation bill on the other side. That is exactly the problem when you have Government involvement in the economy.What businesses really want is just certainty. They want to know that they can get on with business within parameters and they don't want Government trying to take on the one hand and give on the other and think that they know best. That is the ideology that you find in the left wing all the time. That is this thing that never works has never worked economically and will continue to fail in the future. Thank you Madam Speaker."