11. Question No. 11—Rural CommunitiesMATT DOOCEY (National—Waimakariri) to the Minister for Rural CommunitiesQuestion No. 11—Rural Communities11. MATT DOOCEY (National—Waimakariri) to the Minister for Rural Communities: What has he done to encourage rural communities' resilience to challenges and to support mental wellness?Hon DAMIEN O'CONNOR (Minister for Rural Communities): I am regularly talking with rural support trusts with farmers organisations like Beef and Lamb and DairyNZ the banks my colleague the Minister of Health and others about rural communities. When my colleague announced the $1.9 billion funding for mental health I was the first on his door ensuring that he had a pathway to support rural communities. We've invested $20 million in telehealth to boost phone and online services to ensure that those who live in the most isolated communities can get help when they need it. This Government has boosted by almost double the amount of money for rural support trusts who are doing great work on the ground to get out there and help rural communities in times of need. Mr Speaker there are many many more but you'd probably sit me down before I got through half of them.Matt Doocey: In response to the open letter from BakerAg highlighting its concern on the current state of rural mental wellness was a tweet by the Minister stating that If farm advisors and rural media weren't so keen to repeat negative political rhetoric farmers might feel appreciated" an appropriate response to a letter outlining serious rural wellbeing concerns?Hon DAMIEN O'CONNOR: I appreciate that some people are very sensitive to the truth. I have subsequently spoken with many people in the rural media to explain my position and they indeed accept that's the truth. I'm also meeting representatives from BakerAg this afternoon so that we can better explain our positions. I stand by the fact that if we were to highlight the positive potential opportunities across agriculture at a time when we have record levels of income in almost all the sectors I'm sure people in the rural community would feel more positive—unlike the bleating that comes from the National Party every single day.Matt Doocey: What does the Minister say in response to the comments made by Ruawai dairy farmer Mark Cameron the organiser of the farmers' protest in Northland on the weekend who stated "I believe the suicide statistics of rural NZ are now reaching epidemic proportions. On average there is a rural or farmer suicide once per fortnight. I would say between the media narrative and the Government tone the emotional and physical wellbeing will suffer terribly as a result of this."?Hon DAMIEN O'CONNOR: I acknowledge that actually for a long long time the rural suicide rates have been far too high. It's a challenge that we as a Government have taken on—$1.9 billion for mental health services is a great way to start after nine years of total neglect for rural mental health services. [Interruption]SPEAKER: Order! Both sides.Hon DAMIEN O'CONNOR: Thank you Mr Speaker. It is a terrible tragedy that we have anyone committing suicide in this country. The reality is that across almost every demographic across both urban and rural we have too many people who don't see a way forward. If every one of us was to be more positive about the huge opportunities for us as a food-producing nation—the opportunities in rural New Zealand are immense and if we highlighted those then I'm sure everyone in rural New Zealand would feel a lot more positive. I ask the Opposition to do just that.Matt Doocey: What representations if any did the Minister make for the inclusion of a rural suicide prevention approach within the recently published Government suicide prevention strategy Every Life Matters?Hon DAMIEN O'CONNOR: Can I say the one thing about this Government is that every single New Zealander regardless of whether they are rich or poor regardless of whether they are white or brown regardless of whether they live in rural or urban New Zealand—every one of them—has the right to have proper levels of protection and assistance when they need it. That's why we're rolling out $1.9 billion in mental health services because the previous Government completely ignored the support systems that have been needed across all of New Zealand.Matt Doocey: I raise a point of order Mr Speaker. I asked the Minister what representations if any did the Minister make for the inclusion of a rural suicide strategy approach.SPEAKER: I'll ask the member to make it clearer for the member. I thought he had addressed the question but I will ask him to make it absolutely clear.Hon DAMIEN O'CONNOR: I can say that on every single issue across Government and across Cabinet I'm a staunch advocate for rural implementation. We have put in place—and indeed in the previous Labour Government I did rural proofing which ensured that every Government agency had to consider the implementation of policies not just in the cities like Auckland but across rural New Zealand. That policy has now been re-implemented—SPEAKER: Order! [Interruption] Order! I think the member probably answered the question in the first sentence.Matt Doocey: In light of that answer is he disappointed that a rural suicide prevention approach is not mentioned in any of the key outcomes or the key actions of the Government's suicide prevention strategy?Hon DAMIEN O'CONNOR: Can I say that this Government thinks New Zealanders regardless of where they live are all entitled to the same level of protection consideration and help. It is simply the policy of this Government that we're not to differentiate. The attempt by the Opposition to separate out and divide out rural and urban New Zealand is completely unproductive and as the latest UMR survey said there's not the division between rural and urban that the National Party want to keep bleating on about."