Martin TraceyTRACEY MARTIN (NZ First): Kia ora Mr Speaker. Just a quick comment on the contribution by the member the Hon Craig Foss who just resumed his seat. It was fascinating to hear the discussion about the introduction of taxes and levies suggested by the Labour Party from a Government that has actually introduced two in the last 18 months on telecommunications and actually on tourists coming into our country. So it is amazing. It is always interesting to hear the—it is a word that I cannot use but it is always very very interesting to hear it from the Government benches. I want to talk about rural women. I want to talk about rural women here today because they have actually been forgotten by this Government. They have been forgotten on so many levels. There is the rural women's conference that is taking place this Friday and it is about time that they were acknowledged. I want to talk about a survey that came out in August that was a research project released by Lincoln University. It showed that 57 percent of rural women surveyed find isolation their top issue. The reason why I raise it is that it fascinates me that we have a Facebook page called Farming Mums NZ. There are 6000 followers on that particular page—6000 members. It is a social media site for farming women who are the backbone of the country who are the rocks of their family who support their husbands during hard times who continue to take their children to school who work on the farm and work off the farm and who make sure that they can contribute financially to the farm when it is going through difficult financial times. This Facebook page set up by the farming mums of New Zealand with 6000 members has been set up there so that women can articulate and support each other as they are 30 percent of those in the rural areas who are killing themselves. They represent 30 percent of the rural suicides in New Zealand and they have asked for a single thing of this Government. They have asked for the possible support of a full-time counsellor to be provided so that the women who are a part of this social network group can have a professional whom they can speak to whom they can seek advice from and whom they can get a service from. In 2012 Prime Minister John Key announced that $62 million would be set aside for mental health services to be rolled out over a period of years here in New Zealand—$62 million. I have got the figures today on the amount of that money that has been spent. All links to do with that announcement have disappeared. All links to do with that announcement have now disappeared. Of the $62 million—and it was targeted at youth mental health but it had families and communities as well as the downstream effect—$44.6 million of it has been spent since 2012. That leaves $17.4 million unspent. But all links to this announcement have been removed. Even if we were to look at the youth mental health the projections that are inside the Budget all the way up to 2018 that would equate to only another $12 million. So that means that there is $5.4 million available to this Government to support rural women and this particular service this single thing that so far they have been asking for. If you were going to get an experienced counsellor to be provided to these 6000 women it would cost you $15 a head per annum—$15 a head per annum. So between $90000 and $100000 a year for a fully qualified and experienced counsellor who these women could have available to them so they could continue to be the backbone of their community continue to support their children in their day-to-day lives and continue to support their husbands. I would ask the Government to listen now to the statement I have just made and reach out to rural women. Here is in an announcement for you Minister for Women. Here is an announcement that you could make this Friday or Saturday whichever day it is that you are actually going to that conference. You could make this announcement and provide this funding so that we can support the women who are doing it hard right now out there in the rural sector. The rural mental health initiative is attempting to do what it can but without literal support from this Government women will continue to suffer women will continue to fail and women will continue to be among the suicide statistics of our rural communities. Kia ora.