van de Molen TimTIM VAN DE MOLEN (National—Waikato): Thank you Madam Chair. When I travel the countryside talking to rural communities the overwhelming feedback I get is uncertainty: uncertainty with this change of Government with the direction the agriculture and primary industry sectors are taking and that lack of clarity around how they can drive their business going forward without clear parameters in which to operate. There are some challenges in the industry at the moment and we've heard already a bit about Mycoplasma bovis the threat of brown marmorated stink bug as well and this is a time when Government needs to be stepping up putting a clear mark in the sand and saying that they are backing the primary sector through these difficult times and we are not seeing that currently.What we're seeing instead is a raft of reviews and a lot of uncertainty around what's coming up. Are we having another restructure of the Ministry for Primary Industries for example? We saw that breaking the ministry apart—but actually No we can't quite break it apart; we'll just do a bit of rebranding change the labels." Then we've got challenges around the Dairy Industry Restructuring Act (DIRA) review. That just encourages uncertainty with our farming communities. They need support at these times; they don't want this hanging over their heads not knowing what it's looking like. We are seeing a breadth of parameters outside the scope of DIRA coming into that review as well and that again encourages uncertainty and a lack of confidence within the sector. We're seeing that up and down the country.The Primary Sector Council is another example. That's been set up but actually where is the dairy farming representation on that council? It is strangely absent; there is not a single dairy farmer on there. Where are they? All the other industries are represented but dairy is sorely lacking. You can have no surprise then that the industry takes exception and has uncertain expectations in the air around what the future is for them during these difficult times.When you look at some of these challenges like the biosecurity challenges in front of us we need to be making sure that we've got the backs of our farmers and part of that is around mental health. The Rural Health Alliance Aotearoa New Zealand was a key organisation that just had its funding ripped under this Government—$600000 an absolute minuscule contribution to the rural sector within New Zealand. It's been cut out altogether. What an example of support for the sector. It's disappointing to see.We've heard already again some of these challenges around the alternative protein or plant-based protein synthetic protein space that Mr McAnulty was talking about earlier. Well some of his comments were all over the show. I suspect he's been eating a bit too much of this plant-based protein himself and is indeed starting to resemble perhaps a plant-based protein—looking a little bit weak somewhat of a scientific experiment in that we just don't really know if it's good for us or not.Moving on from that we have seen a continued lack of support. Irrigation—we've already heard from the former Minister about that. The water storage projects that present huge opportunity for the primary sector in terms of building wealth within the economy building resilience having environmental benefits as well were just cut. What we're seeing continually is virtue signalling—good ideas good concepts but a lack of detail that actually supports those on the ground doing the hard yards. It's disappointing to see despite the rhetoric that we are not having a clear line of support for our primary sector. We're seeing that flow through to market conditions. You go up and down the country and in the Waikato—my electorate—we have seen land prices stalling in the property market over the last eight nine months. There is uncertainty; they don't know what's happening in that space—there's the DIRA review there's M. bovis there's a change in Government unclear policies. It has a significant impact on the economy and this Government does not seem to recognise that.A lack of support is clearly evident in these communities as well. When I travel around and talk to my rural constituents they are saying they don't know what the future holds for them at this point. They are looking for clear support and clear leadership from the Government but it's absent. It's nowhere to be found. What we see again and again is rhetoric coming out of the Government with no clear indication of the financial support that farmers might expect how they're going to drive their productivity and environmental sustainability and business growth—all these aspects that are critical to any industry but we're seeing that in particular in the rural sector at the moment. It's a shame that this Government won't step up and fill that gap as it's needed. Thank you."