Guy Nathan: General DebateText is incorporated into the Bound VolumeGuy Nathan: General Debate[Sitting date: 19 February 2014. Volume:696;Page:16077. Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume.]Hon NATHAN GUY (Minister for Primary Industries): Well we can see what is happening over there in the Labour Party. There is the true emerging leader of the Labour Party Shane Jones. Where is David Cunliffe leading off this general debate today for Labour? He is nowhere to be seen. Where are the other front-bench members? There we have—Chris Hipkins: I raise a point of order Mr Speaker. Repeatedly today we have had Ministers questioning the absence of other members. It is well established that that is not acceptable and I am surprised that you have not stopped them from doing it.Mr SPEAKER: Order! It has not been a repeated practice of the day at all—that is the first time I have heard it—but it is out of order to refer to the absence of any member.Hon NATHAN GUY: There we have the emerging leader Shane Jones. The person sitting behind him today and last week smiling away there was the former leader of the Labour Party David Shearer. Of course he backed Shane Jones for the leadership bid so he is loving it now. We heard that Labour had a very robust caucus this week—very intense discussions in there. We know that the blood has started dripping on the floor already. There is a lot of doubt about DavidCunliffe’s leadership already emerging and it is starting to be unpicked by the New Zealand public starting to be unpicked by the press gallery. There is a lot of doubt emerging now about tricky David Cunliffe. We now have the emerging Labour Party leader of the future and it might be this year in 2014 that Shane Jones steps up to the plate.Things are not looking good for the Labour Party. What a woeful couple of weeks it has had: a baby bonus policy where every backbench member of this House would get $60 a week—what an embarrassment that was—and of course Labour’s poll rating when we had the Prime Minister out there in a recent poll with a trust rating of around 60 percent and a likeability factor that is very similar. Is that not fantastic?But importantly today what I want to talk about is the backbone of this New Zealand economy and that indeed is the primary industries. Today I released a very significant update: a 6-monthly update for theSituation and Outlook for PrimaryIndustries report through to June 2014. What did it say? Primary industry exports are up nearly $5 billion on forecast. Is that not fantastic? Of course the heads go down on the other side of the House.Hon Annette King: Oh no they don’t.Hon NATHAN GUY: Yes they do. Those members do not care about exports because they know their policies are going to damage the productive sector of the New Zealand economy. They do not care about and do not support our dairy exports which are up $2.7 billion. They do not care about the fact that our meat industry and our meat exports are returning more to farmers—$1.2 billion. Of course logs are up $0.8 billion. Is that not fantastic news?Well what is Labour all about? National has got a plan. We have got a clear plan. The Primary Growth Partnership is investing with industry in research and development encouraging irrigation and water storage projects working hard on more free-trade access agreements like the Trans-Pacific Partnership and lifting the performance of Māori agribusiness. What have Labour and the Greens proposed? Let us hear it. They are against the Trans-Pacific Partnership. They are against water storage projects. They are already talking about capping the dairy industry and its growth. They are against the roll-out of ultra-fast broadband. They do not want our rural communities or New Zealand businesses to be able to connect not only with other suppliers here in New Zealand but also internationally. They do not have a plan for lifting the performance of Māori agribusiness. We do. We care about job creation. We care about supporting the regions. We back our exporters.Labour is just going to roll out a capital gains tax. It is going to propose this living wage of $18.80 which will lift the unemployment benefit numbers. It does not care about the productive sector. It is not interested in the roads of national significance in supporting them and getting our products through to ports and airports. It does not care about the Kapiti Expressway in my region. Labour does not give a damn. We do not even know whether it supports Transmission Gully. It does not have a clear plan for the productive sector apart from lifting tax and saddling our exporters with more regulation and compliance. We back our primary industries the backbone of the New Zealand economy.