McKelvie Ian: Annual Review Debate — In CommitteeText is subject to correctionMcKelvie Ian: Annual Review Debate — In Committee[Sitting date: 29 April 2015. Volume:704;Page:2977. Text is subject to correction.]IAN McKELVIE (Chairperson of the Primary Production Committee):I move that the reports be noted. I guess it is a privilege for me as the chairman of the Primary Production Committee to get an opportunity to speak in this debate. The last year has been extremely busy for the Primary Production Committee with some very big pieces of legislation passing through its hands: the Fisheries (Foreign Charter Vessels and Other Matters) Amendment Bill it very nearly got to the post with the Animal Welfare Amendment Bill and of course the Food Bill which is a very important piece of legislation and one that backs the whole of the New Zealand economy really as a significant part of our income comes from our ability to deal with food and our exports of it.Also during the year we have had significant discussion around the Primary Growth Partnership and the Sustainable Farming Fund input that the Ministry for Primary Industries has. The Primary Growth Partnership in my view is a very big part of this Government’s effort—the very ambitious plan of this Government—to improve our lot as a nation. If it is possible to hurry up science the Primary Growth Partnership is certainly a method of attempting to speed the progress of science. It costs the country a significant amount of money and I am sure in due course we will get a significant repayment from that.The agricultural sector of course has had a great deal of success in the last couple of years with new jobs new revenue and new opportunities being created. That is in no small way due to the efforts of the Ministry for Primary Industries and the amount of resource it puts into this country. It has a very large budget and a huge staff. The kiwifruit industry is projecting more than 2000 permanent jobs being created in the next 4 years 4000 more seasonal jobs in the next 4 years and a shift from $1.4 billion worth of income to $2.2 billion worth of income by 2019. That is just one example of the way that this sector is diversifying under the current Government and the current Minister. I think it is an extraordinary result.We talk about diversifying our economy. Although milk has dominated both our biosecurity and our country’s economy in the last few years we are certainly diversifying agriculture under the current plans and doing it very well. The wine industry is in a similar space projected to grow by 7.6 percent next year.I want to touch on the forestry industry which of course is one that comes in for a lot of discussion. We have a significant investment in that industry through the likes of Scion and the work it is doing in science around the growing of trees and doing it quicker and more efficiently. We are also putting a significant investment into the development of better processing facilities in New Zealand. That is one that is pretty challenging because as log prices move to where they were a few weeks ago it has much the same impact as it does with whole carcasses if you look at the sheep meat industry. It is very easy to export a whole carcass or a whole log if that is where the money is. That is what has been happening to some extent in New Zealand in recent times.The real success stories in the last year or two have been around the sheep meat and beef industries—I guess the old old industries of New Zealand. Both of them have had significant increases in prices and very fortuitous for the country it is too when you look at the environmental challenge we have around the country and the fact that we need to keep our agricultural sector as diversified as we can. The more diversified we keep it the better we are able to at least be compatible with our environment and make it work for us so I think that is pretty important.I want to touch very quickly on the horse industry and the Minister’s recent inquiry announcement. By my estimate—and it is certainly only my estimate and I had a little bit to do with the horse industry in earlier days—it is liable to produce a significant increase in income to New Zealand as a result of this inquiry. That is what I guess the Government is all about and certainly what the ministry will be looking at as a result of this inquiry.The dairy industry as I said earlier is struggling a little at the moment and that is the way the world markets are. I think we will be looking at some significant pick-up there in due course but it is just the way I guess we have always been in agriculture and it is one of the challenges we face as farmers.I want to touch on biosecurity. We have seen this with the reaction to the fruit fly in Auckland. That is I think a classic example of a biosecurity system that is working extremely well. We have seen I guess the industry partnerships also assisting that whole system to work extremely well. Thank you.