Patterson MarkMARK PATTERSON (NZ First): I rise to support the Prime Minister's statement. Particularly I'd like to cover issues around rural issues and farming issues—something that I might add that the Leader of the Opposition in the party that pretends to stand for rural New Zealand failed to do in his contribution. Firstly in addressing rural New Zealand I think at the moment we have to start off by acknowledging the issues that are being faced in Southland the recent flooding in the Waikato and Northland and the many parts of New Zealand where it has got very dry and into drought and then of course the COVID-19 situation which is fast evolving and causing some uncertainty and certainly some of the early issues around the forestry sector and the crayfish and the like. It is a fast-evolving situation and you can be assured that this Government is monitoring it very carefully and will respond. But what I do object to is the fact that those things aside the fundamentals of rural New Zealand and agriculture are absolutely strong. In fact we've got record exports in excess of $46 billion. It's just come out in the last couple of days that our terms of trade at the end of last year were the highest ever. This is not a dire situation; this is a very strong situation for agriculture and by association rural New Zealand. Of course that is overlaid by a Government that is running a low debt. We have very low interest rates and that of course is helping our rural sector as well and importantly we have wages growing at twice the rate of inflation. Everyone is participating in this growth. It is not just the few at the top which we've seen in the past. This Government has been supportive of farming and rural New Zealand. Of course if we go back a couple of years to the outbreak of the M. bovis situation we've put support of nearly $1 billion alongside industry into that response. Recent comments from Minister O'Connor suggest that that response is going as well as could be expected. This is a world-first initiative and we are doing that on behalf of our farmers and alongside our farmers. Of course alongside that we've increased funding for biosecurity and for customs. There was the $230 million to help our farmers transition in the freshwater and environmental packages in the Budget including one—the Thriving Southland initiative—which is a collection of 23 catchment groups in Southland that are doing great stuff on-farm and it's allowing them to do extension work amongst their peers and lift the overall game. That's the sort of support we're giving it. We're investing in the Overseer programme which needs a significant upgrade to be the tool that it needs to be to help us on our journey to lift our environmental outcomes and of course we in New Zealand First are very proud of the Farm Debt Mediation Act that has come into play or will be in play on 1 July. This has been a longstanding New Zealand First policy. We know that the banks are clamping down. There is $63 billion worth of debt in the agricultural sector and now farmers are assured of a mediation process and that the imbalance of power that is in those relationships has been balanced and we're very proud of that. But I'd like to come to the contribution of Todd Muller which was a particularly dire and grim outline of what's happening in rural New Zealand. It was incredibly negative. We know he's got some leadership aspirations but it's not on that performance and in fact you'd have to suggest that he's sandbagging a little bit now to strike after the election because there is no love lost in rural New Zealand for Simon Bridges. I can tell you that as someone that's on the ground regularly. John Key is not coming back and there is no replacement in sight. We do have challenges that we do have to address and the National Party are in denial about that. It was them that signed the Paris Agreement. Lord Deben may have come over to the Bluegreens conference but you went Barbara Kuriger to that conference. You sent Paula Bennett over there and you signed that accord. We do need to respond and you've done almost everything you can to stonewall any initiative that has been put up. It's the same with our environmental performance. We heard Minister Parker outline some of the actual statistics that are coming through on our waterways. We have had over-allocation through land-use change in some of our catchments. We do have to do something about that and we heard nothing from Todd Muller about what they're actually going to do. There was a lot of talk about what we're doing and how it was adversely affecting but it's not something we have a choice in. If we want to have a sustainable future where we want to hit those high-end markets we have to have a story to tell—a story that is provable. In things like animal welfare for example it is just not acceptable any more to have cows standing up to their knees in mud. It will be on social media and around the world in minutes these days. That's the reality of what we're dealing with and I am proud that we are part of a Government—and we are behind Minister O'Connor—that is tackling these big issues and trying to put us on a more sustainable footing. Of course the other thing we didn't hear from Todd Muller or Barbara Kuriger or any of the other rural representatives over there was any sort of vision whatsoever as to what New Zealand agriculture could reach: what are those highs where is that value strategy? Once again Minister O'Connor through the Primary Sector Council is driving that work and that's something that we will look forward to progressing with New Zealand First as well. The other thing is talk about rural New Zealand and you cannot go past the Provincial Growth Fund and we are absolutely proud of that. I am actually so surprised that the National Party have taken the line that it's the Shane Jones slush fund. They've taken a totally political line there because I can tell you what is actually happening out in the provinces. They love this fund. This is a $3 billion fund—the biggest R & D fund per capita of its size in the world. Let's look at the comparison with when the National Party was last in power. That fund was $11 million a year for regional development. Ironically they were investing more in developing the Saudi sheep industry than they were in their own regions. So I look forward to the National Party going out into the regions on the campaign trail talking to Mayor Cleine in Buller about the goldmine in Reefton that's being funded or the Punakaiki tourism resort Mayor Smith in Westland with his garnet mine and his cycle trail or Mayor Gibson in Greymouth. I was there yesterday and I can tell you we went to the Dispatch & Garlick engineering site and it filled your heart with joy to see an old-school engineering firm building a dredge for the harbour there at Greymouth and also for use up and down the Coast. These were New Zealanders in a heavy engineering environment building a New Zealand - made dredge and it was wonderful to see and they were absolutely over the moon to have had that funding that enabled that to be done in their town for their town. The Gore District has their Hokonui Huanui project and the Moonshine Museum that will get off the ground now and of course no one can talk about heavy engineering without talking about the revival of the Hillside railway workshops. So we will be building our carriages and our wagons in Dunedin now and not importing asbestos-filled ones from China. Then there's the Clutha and their cycle trail. Try telling Mayor Cadogan that that $8 million that came through between the Provincial Growth Fund and the Tourism Infrastructure Fund which will link all the Otago trails back through from Dunedin to Queenstown and around the local towns is not going to be something that you're going to be investing in. Tell Mayor Shadbolt in Invercargill that there'll be no money for the inner-city rebuild. Tell Mayor Tong in Southland that the community investment in the airport and the connectivity and the Southland Youth Futures with 200 kids getting work experience through that programme are not going to be happening. Tell them that none of those things are going to be happening and I know what they will tell you. So New Zealand First looks forward to standing on our record in rural New Zealand with our vision for farming that we will be taking into the election because we have got runs on the board here. We are not peddling dire untruths essentially about the state of rural New Zealand. It is in good shape notwithstanding the challenges coming at it from abroad. So we will stand on our record and we look forward to doing so. Thank you Mr Speaker.