Hughes GarethGARETH HUGHES (Green): Kia ora Madam Speaker. Ngā mihi nui ki a koutou. Kia ora. I rise on behalf of the Green Party to support this legislation. Farm debt's risen to $62.8 billion; this is a huge issue. It has grown fast over recent years. We've all seen the stories—probably many of us have talked to farmers about the mental health issues and the pressures that arise from that large debt burden. We've heard from the member Mark Patterson that it's that small tail of farmers that carry that massive amount of debt around their shoulders their neck but it's an important issue and I'm glad that Parliament is working in a cross-party fashion again when it comes to this issue to support it. Now many people listening might ask Well why farms? Why single them out in particular? Why not other businesses? Shouldn't they benefit from statutory protections when it comes to mediation?" The fact is that farmers I think do have a particular set of circumstances. They are particularly vulnerable to the weather. You know my thoughts and prayers go to our cousins across the Ditch in Australia that are facing these massive bush fires—I understand there is a catastrophic rating in New South Wales at the moment around Sydney. We are going to see this getting worse and worse when it comes to the effects of climate change. We need to prepare and adapt. Of course there is vulnerability to fluctuating prices; biosecurity incursions which are no surprise to New Zealand as we've battled Mycoplasma bovis; but I think also there is the particular issue of the intergenerational nature of farms. Many New Zealand farms are literally where these farmers—their parents their grandparents sometimes even earlier—were born so it's important that when you do come to servicing that debt potential default and bankruptcy this step is put in place. I'd like to thank the Primary Production Committee for their consideration. I understand there were 31 written and 17 oral submissions. The Green Party unfortunately this Parliament doesn't have a seat on the Primary Production Committee so I wasn't able to participate. But I would like to thank the committee because there are four big substantive improvements where they've amended this legislation that I'd like to highlight and single out.Firstly the original legislation said that a creditor had to offer mediation when the farmer was in default. Now I hear the argument submitters made that that was coming too late in the piece. Once you get to default things have already advanced to such a level that really you could have fixed it earlier on. I like the phrase of Mark Patterson which is "We'd rather have a mediator at the top than an ambulance at the bottom of the cliff." So I note new clause 16A to allow earlier intervention where the farmer can request it earlier on. We know from international evidence that the earlier you can intervene the better the outcomes for all parties involved so I'd like to acknowledge that positive amendment.The committee's clarified the definition of "farmer". Things such as hobby farms lifestyle blocks aren't included and I think that's entirely reasonable and what they've done in clause 6 is deleted the words "solely" and "principally" from the definition of "farmer". But they've also expanded those who are engaged in the business—so trustees spouses partners also come under that definition of "farmer".I'd also like to acknowledge the work of capping the costs. We've heard the international evidence—well the evidence from Australia—that mediation costs around $6000. Originally those costs were envisioned to be split 50:50 between the creditor and the debtor. However I think when you realise the fact that you're only invoking the situation when the farmer is in some debt—is in an onerous debt situation—you know they are particularly vulnerable. So $2000 still is a significant sum and we think the committee's actually got about the right number in terms of the farmers' costs.Lastly and this I think is important from an animal welfare perspective is an application to the High Court in situations of urgency. We've heard other members today talk about the situation where the value of the farm might degrade over time if say there are 60 to 90 days for mediation. But there is also the scenario where you've got stock on a farm which might not be well cared for from an animal welfare perspective while that 60 day mediation process is under way. So we do acknowledge this; we do support this amendment to include an application to the High Court. I'd like to take this opportunity to thank New Zealand First. This is clearly something they've worked on for a long long time. I guess it's a good example of persistence pays off in politics so I acknowledge the member who's ushered this through Mark Patterson. National I think were trying to make politics out of this. It's not something our farmers deserve at this point in time. They're facing a number of pressures and I think if we're going to talk about the issues facing farmers many of the problems can be laid at the floor of that Government that had nine years to sort it out. But instead what they did is they chased volume over value they saw this rapid increase in debt. They didn't act with the most severe environmental crisis facing our local environment which is the degradation of our waterways. In fact we've seen that nitrous oxide concentrations—the amount of nitrogen we're applying to our farms—have increased I think 650 percent since 1990 much of that under the tenure of the previous Government. I still remember in this House when they were blaming birds and volcanoes for the problems of our water quality crisis and the fact you can't swim in two-thirds of our streams and rivers. They didn't face up to it. This Government is acting unlike that previous Government. So I think it's wrong it's unfair and giving our farmers a disservice when they're trying to blame the Government for dealing with the problems that they left. The Green Party vision—which we're seeing from this Government—is supporting our farmers into more sustainable practices. And ultimately that is going to make our farms more economically sustainable because we can't keep chasing volume; we need to chase value. We can't just keep cramming more cows in our paddocks. We need to embrace sustainable farming practices which was included in the last Budget. We need to be embracing regenerative farming and organic agriculture which we know is going great guns in this country. This ultimately is going to see a more sustainable farming system that is more sustainable economically and continue that social licence. Kia ora koutou."