Genter Julie AnneHon JULIE ANNE GENTER (Minister for Women): Thank you Mr Speaker. On behalf of the Green Party I rise to speak on the first reading of the Farm Debt Mediation bill which we will be supporting. We did support the original member's bill which has been referred to which preceded this bill and had some distinctions but we supported that to select committee at the time. And we support some of the key changes that have been provided in the first draft of this bill the key change being that there is a new Farm Debt Mediation Bill that establishes a standalone Act rather than amending the Receiverships Act.I suppose that if you look at the big picture of this this is a Government that wants to support people and particularly our regions during what is going to be a transition—a transition to a sustainable economy one in which we're looking after our land our water and our climate—and we want to make it easy for people to do things that are good for the land that are good for the water and that are good for the climate. The previous speaker Stuart Smith I'm happy to say is supporting the bill although he raised a bunch of uncertainty. One thing is certain: if we don't take action to control climate change that's caused by humans our farming sector will be wiped out—in fact our civilisation will be wiped out—and we don't have that much time. That's what the science tells us: that we have to start now.Now we should have started 20 or 30 years ago. That's what the Green Party was saying 20 or 30 years ago but the next best time to start is right now and by sending clear signals that the Government is putting in place a plan to transition to a sustainable economy—and that means supporting farmers to make it through the difficult times and to make that transition. We know that farming is vital to New Zealand. It's in the country's best interests that farming businesses and families are supported and farmers who operate a family business often don't have the resources to negotiate their own protections when dealing with lenders. And we know that unsustainable debt in the agricultural sector has also driven unsustainable farming practices. Not to mention—and this is something that we've often brought up—farmers are especially vulnerable to business downturns as a result of conditions that are well beyond their control and that can be weather market price volatility pests and diseases like Mycoplasma bovis and for many rural communities the failure of just one farm has a rippling effect through the community.Farm debt is often complex and resolving the debt problems of financially struggling farms can be tough and drawn out. It's best for farmers and secured creditors to meet in an equitable manner to constructively and objectively resolve farm debt issues. So what this bill does is provide a fair equitable and timely resolution of farm debt issues. It creates a mandatory mediation scheme requiring secured creditors to offer farmers who default on payments mediation before they take any enforcement action. And farmers are also able to initiate mediation if they wish. Of course this bill on its own isn't going to provide all the support and signals that we need to to transition to truly sustainable land use here in New Zealand but it's just one part of the piece that recognises that there are people out there and we can't make sudden dramatic changes to the economy without looking after people and ensuring that they have protection.I also want to note and recognise that there's often a connection between farm debt and mental health issues. Obviously the Government has made a huge commitment to ensuring that there's mental health support for people who need it. Tragically at times when there have been downturns in commodity prices people feeling the financial pressure haven't had the help that they have needed. So hopefully this bill will help ensure that there is that additional level of protection so that they have the mediation process before going straight to enforcement. And then the other side of that is the Government's big investment in mental health and in ensuring that we have those services available to people who need them—whether they're farming families or people in cities.So the Government is very much taking a holistic approach and recognising our responsibility to create conditions which are fair and reasonable for people out there but also to set us on a trajectory and to show that leadership in saying We have a responsibility. We have an absolute responsibility and need to respond to climate change and we're going to break that down into the different sectors and everybody in New Zealand is going to play their part. But we don't want unsustainable debt to be a threat to the wellbeing and mental health of farming families and we don't want there to be a large human cost." But we all have to work together and I guess I would ask members on the other side of the House in the National Party to think about how we can all across all parties constructively support communities in our constituencies to think about how we do tackle the challenge of climate change how we do tackle the issues facing the health of our water and our soil so that we can work together as a country to achieve an outcome that really looks after the future of all New Zealanders.We're not blaming anyone for the current situation but we do need to recognise that some things need to change. When 60 percent of our rivers are unswimmable we need to do something to change and we need to support those who are in the sectors that are responsible in part for the degradation of waterways or the degradation of the climate. We need to support them to transition their activities to earning their living in a way that enriches our environment that enriches our human society rather than cuts it short or pollutes it. I completely believe that that is possible but we can't change without change. Nothing will change if we don't change what we're doing. So this is just one example of a bill that the Green Party supports because it will look after farmers who are facing difficult situations when it comes to debt. We don't want to see predatory lending practices. We don't want to see unsustainable debt drive unsustainable land use. And I'm happy to note as well that virtually all of the stakeholders for this bill support it. Rural Women New Zealand supports the proposal. So I think there's very very broad support across the sector for a bill of this type and the Green Party will be supporting it."