McKelvie Ian: Annual Review Debate — In CommitteeText is incorporated into the Bound VolumeMcKelvie Ian: Annual Review Debate — In Committee[Sitting date: 03 May 2016. Volume:713;Page:10708. Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume.]IAN McKELVIE (National—Rangitīkei): At the risk of repeating some things that have already been said in taking this call—unfortunately I was away today attending the funeral of a Shannon primary school teacher who was 27 years in the business in of course the previous territory of our Minister for Primary Industries. I need to start these few words by congratulating Martyn Dunne and his large team at the Ministry for Primary Industries on doing such a great job in producing a very good annual report. The organisation has moved very quickly from amalgamation to become a real force in the sector. As I commented in my opening remarks to the director-general Martyn Dunne this sector has made great strides in the past year producing a very good annual report and facing some very interesting challenges in the biosecurity animal welfare and food safety sectors—coming through them all with flying colours.The first of these challenges was named Operation Concord and managed the blackmail threat over the 1080 scare one of the most distressing in New Zealand’s history. But it was satisfactorily resolved and at the same time it gained New Zealand great credibility for our food safety response capability worldwide. The second major challenge was of course the fruit fly outbreak in Auckland—again managed extremely well by the Ministry for Primary Industries.I want to get on to the issue that the last speaker was talking about—that of animal welfare. Although unfortunately the Ministry for Primary Industries was well tested by a major animal welfare inquiry in the treatment of bobby calves in the last year—this will result in some prosecutions but for those of us with a lifelong love of animals it is very disappointing to believe someone could treat animals in this manner—it is reassuring of course to know that the Ministry for Primary Industries has an extremely efficient system and that the Animal Welfare Amendment Act (No 2) passed last year will enable effective action to be taken against these inept and irresponsible people. I want to defend the sector’s record in animal welfare however because I think that many of the issues raised by the last speaker Mojo Mathers are in fact not applicable. I think that almost all sectors of New Zealand farming take their animal welfare issues extremely seriously and do a great job with them and I think we should be proud of our record in that area.We also should be proud of the fact that we produce food in a very competent and caring manner which is great for our animals great for our farming sector and great for our international reputation. Our industry should not be measured by the inept behaviour of a few renegades. Our farming practices are world-renowned for our animal welfare care innovation and many other things. To maintain and improve our place in the world market we must ensure all of our practice relating to environmental matters food safety animal welfare and biosecurity is the very highest it can be and we must continue to root out of the industry those people who cannot perform. There is no room for complacency here—the Ministry for Primary Industries is well aware of that.It is also very reassuring to witness the new biosecurity agreements adding significant value to our response capability as noted by the Office of the Auditor-General in its recent report to Parliament a report that documented the great progress made by the Ministry for Primary Industries in this area. I want to thank all members who have served on the Primary Production Committee in the last 12 months. We have a very consensual select committee. I think we do a pretty good job and we do a pretty good job of reviewing some pretty important legislation and important issues for New Zealand’s future.I just want to take one issue though that has been in the news again today. I think it is a shame that political interference occurs in a process around Silver Fern Farms that was democratically taken by the shareholders of that company. We now have a whole lot of politicians jumping on the back of it thinking they know better than the 82 percent of the shareholders who voted in the course of that event. I think it is extraordinary that we think we know better in this Parliament than the shareholders of that company. I think it is a tragedy for New Zealand and I think it is plain silly—irresponsible frankly.We in the Primary Production Committee also review Land Information New Zealand AsureQuality Landcorp Crown Irrigation Investments and animal products. I will briefly comment on the performance of Landcorp as it is a very large asset in the Government books and is currently demonstrating the challenges faced by many of us in the agricultural sector. We certainly hope it can turn the current situation round because if it cannot the rest of the agricultural sector will not. Notice that it has abandoned further dairy conversion on the central volcanic plateau. It is worth noting that this was the subject of a petition to the Primary Production Committee which enabled us to better understand the challenges facing our region. Thank you.