Hoggard AndrewHon ANDREW HOGGARD (Associate Minister of Agriculture): Yes five-minute call. Thank you Mr Speaker. I'd like to speak to three components of this bill that I've had involvement with. Those are the provisions around significant natural areas the rules around stock exclusions and the winter grazing component.Now before I do we've heard a bit about how this is going to be the end of nature in New Zealand from the other side despite these people previously protesting and getting all aggrieved about being accused of being at war with farming yet these words clearly demonstrate they're still at war with farming. Up and down the country farmers are taking care of biodiversity on their farms making changes to winter grazing practices all before any regulations came about. Since 2003 25000 kilometres of riparian margins have been fenced off. That's just by the dairy sector alone that we've measured; we haven't measured all the work that's been done on the sheep and beef farms up and down the country. I'm seeing more and more of that on a regular basis. If you added that all in I am sure would probably double that number.Turning to the proposed changes around the mapping of significant natural areas this comes from the ACT-National coalition agreement. This suspends the requirement to identify new SNAs by councils while we review how SNAs are managed in the future." There have been numerous concerns from many landowners around the implication of having significant natural areas (SNA) on their land. For many it's the principle of their property rights being trampled on and where this might go in the future with zero compensation or recognition of those property rights. For many there is the question around "Is this really significant?". When you're a landowner on the West Coast of the South Island where around 86 percent of the land is included in the Department of Conservation estate you are quite justifiably scratching your head going "Why the hell is my half a hectare so vital that all these restrictions need to be placed on me?" Haven't we already protected quite a significant amount of the land in this region already?Then there is that word "significant". We see numerous examples of what could generously be called "scrub" being viewed as significant. Going forward we need better definitions of what "significant" is and we also need a much better carrot-type approach to improving biodiversity on private land as opposed to the Opposition's favoured go to stick method.The previous stock exclusions low-slope map and its various evolutions have proven once again that one-size-fits-all from Wellington isn't the solution. There would have been extensive properties forced into financially crippling fencing programmes. Think of all the farms you see on Country Calendar. These are the sort of farms that would be put out of business by having to do all this. These are not farms that are having an impact on water quality. Instead many of these farmers looking at these regulations their only option was to go into pines which is not what we're wanting. Many regions also had long-standing stock exclusion rules that made sense for these regions. As I mentioned the dairy sector had already been long-time engaged in this job.I mentioned the changes around the winter grazing regulations. Once again it was a one-size-fits-all approach from Wellington. Farmers have made significant gains in the last four to five years in how they manage this practice and we have seen great uptake of the winter grazing module. All the current and soon-to-be previous regime did was add cost by forcing a regulatory burden on councils and farmers. The biggest frustration many had with this system was the fact that there was supposed to be an alternative pathway for Farm Plans. However what we got instead was not fit for purpose. It was costly complex and also overlooked in a practical sense all the existing Farm Plans that were out there. Having a farmer-focused Farm Plan system is where I truly believe we will turn the dial forward on improving water quality outcomes out there in regional New Zealand.This Government is committed to ensuring we have a fit for purpose system that doesn't create duplication of paperwork and that provides farmers with good knowledge and plans on how they can make a difference in their catchments. That is the way forward not an endless stream of green tape from Wellington. I commend this bill to the House."