McKelvie Ian: Debate on Prime Minister’s StatementText is incorporated into the Bound VolumeMcKelvie Ian: Debate on Prime Minister’s Statement[Sitting date: 01 March 2016. Volume:711;Page:9253. Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume.]IAN McKELVIE (National—Rangitīkei): I am like the off-course substitute Mr Deputy Speaker. For those who do not know what that was in the old days at the TAB the off-course substitute was the one that replaced the one that was there before—Jami-Lee Ross thank you.I come from the Rangitīkei obviously and I have always prided the Rangitīkei on having the most intelligent part of New Zealand in my electorate. Of course the piece of Palmerston North that has got the most intelligent people is in my electorate.Iain Lees-Galloway: No they live in my electorate—they go to work in your electorate but they live in my electorate.IAN McKELVIE: You can imagine my absolute amazement when I read the other day that Whanganui is one of the world’s most intelligent cities. In fact it is in the top seven in the world.Mr DEPUTY SPEAKER: I am not surprised.IAN McKELVIE: I immediately thought of Mr Deputy Speaker—well that is where he comes from of course. Just to appease the member for Palmerston North the Rangitīkei electorate also has more sheep than any other electorate in New Zealand just as a matter of interest including Southland.I want to talk briefly about the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) agreement and its effect on an electorate like mine. It will have a positive impact on our challenged communities and the reason it will is that as we move into the increased incomes as a result of our trade agreements and the TPP agreement the trickle-down effect will significantly impact on those electorates through things like dairy sheep beef and timber. I want to talk particularly about timber in the Rangitīkei electorate and around New Zealand because the change that I envisage coming and I think we all envisage coming as a result of the TPP agreement in the timber industry for example will be to encourage a lot more manufactured products to leave New Zealand. That will be good for the New Zealand timber industry.The other point about the timber industry of course is that we have so many pine trees in New Zealand we probably do not have the infrastructure to get them all out in as quick a form as we might need to. So that will be a challenge for the future and of course it is going to moderate the number of trees that are cut down at any one time just because we need to get them processed and out of the country. So that is an interesting issue.The Government over the last 7 years has moved to significantly improve our tourism opportunities. Of course the north end of my electorate has a great reliance on tourism. The Whanganui River and the changes that have happened to the ownership and the development of tourism opportunities around the Whanganui River—what is going on with cycle tours river tours via jetboats canoes and other means. They are all very busy. Recreational walking cycling fishing and climbing are attracting people from all around the world to our country to our region. The critical thing that will enable this to continue of course is our work with the environment. I think it is really important that Minister Smith who has worked very hard on a lot of the issues around our environmental stuff is now moving again to further our opportunities to clean up our waterways. I think that that is a challenge and I guess in a way it is a nervous challenge for many in rural New Zealand but none the less it is a challenge that we need to face up to. It is hugely important for our tourism and agricultural industries that we take that opportunity and make sure it works.The policies of this Government are now creating jobs in regions and areas that for years have struggled. This is evidenced by the much-improved unemployment figures—a 3 percent turn-round in 12 months in my region—and the fact that 175000 new jobs have been created in the past 3 years. Over the last 7 years the average wage has increased significantly and the announcement just yesterday of the new minimum wage of $15.25 an hour will again make another difference to those people who are paid at that end of the scale.It is a challenge for our rural towns to survive and to continue to grow but it is important that we do. I think this Government is supporting them in a manner that will enable more jobs to be created and will enable more young people to stay in those areas. I think in the future we are going to see significant growth particularly around the tourism industry and particularly in the north of the Rangitīkei electorate and in many other parts of New Zealand as we move further down the path of developing our environmental opportunities and developing our tourism opportunities.Our challenge as a small trading nation is to sell more to the rest of the world than we do now. We need to go into these trade agreements and move ourselves along as quickly as we can. We need to create new products and we need to create new opportunities for the producers of those products and I think this Government’s policies are moving those along pretty quickly. So I have a great deal of pleasure in supporting the Prime Minister’s statement. I think we are on the right track and I look forward to the next 12 months of our Government working very hard for New Zealanders. Thank you.