Muller Todd; Dyson RuthTODD MULLER (National—Bay of Plenty): Thank you Madam Speaker. Well history will judge this Government as one of the least impressive in this country's history. No amount of warm empathy—no amount of warm empathy—can paper over the cracks that this is a moribund ramshackle coalition. Look at them—we've got the Green Party who want to kill extractive industries. They have a vision that sees no agriculture and that our future is a completely decarbonised New Zealand that is underpinned by tourism and baristas. Then on the other side you've got the Labour Party who have completely forgotten their roots in terms of representing working-class New Zealanders and who now are captured in fringe causes and identity politics. Then you've got of course New Zealand First—shonky conservative sort of nativist anti-anything and back to the 1970s. Somehow that coalition tries to purport themselves as a Government of the 2020s. Well they are hopeless and their record does not bear scrutiny. The way this Government has approached the economic platform that they were presented which was the strongest in a generation—the strongest economic platform that any Government had upon arriving into office. GDP growth of 4 percent a year job growth 10000 a month—10000 a month. Here we are just a bit over two years later holding up 1.6 percent growth as somehow a bulwark against what this country is having to face at the moment as coronavirus is a very real and present danger not only to people's health but to the health of the economy of New Zealand. They hold up their record of going from 4 percent growth to 1.6 percent growth as some badge of honour. Well it is hopeless. The way they have approached economic management in this country in the last couple of years has been hopeless. They remind me of that game at fairgrounds that you see at the Bay of Plenty A and P show where you've got dunk the teacher"—where they've got cash-filled sponges that they're just throwing at a target. But the poor target is the farmer of New Zealand and the tradie of New Zealand and the small-business person of New Zealand. Absolute indiscriminate spending and they have got our country to a position where when we really do have a crisis which is what this is feeling like—when you actually get out of this place and listen to people—they do not have the strength of platform and competence to be able to manage it. You can actually see it in some of the answers to the questions that we pose on this serious issue. They have reached the scenario where—and that does happen at times—what they have in front of them is beyond their capacity to imagine how to respond. They don't have an economic platform to do it and they are falling back to platitudes and process because actually this is unravelling in front of them. They don't actually have a plan to be able to turn it around. You can see it in their increasingly diffident answers to the questions this side of the House are putting on this issue. I seek to advocate for 23000 farming families and let's imagine and reflect on their perspective on this Government's tsunami of impact that they have wrought upon rural New Zealand over the last couple of years. Kieran McAnulty immediately looks down at his pad because he knows that if he stands up in his community in Wairarapa this is what he gets told. He gets told "First of all you rocked up with a capital gains tax." Yes it got put back in its box but you absolutely had an intent. You were going to come after those farmers because from your perspective that was an asset that deserved to be taxed. Then you have your essential freshwater proposals and the reaction that that gets from our farming community when you take the capacity of farmers to imagine how to actually farm to the limits that you're proposing off the table—you know it because you've seen it. They have seen it when they've gone out and listened to the farming community on how massively impacted they are by those proposals. Now we've got a national policy statement of biodiversity—"Oh it's just another proposal." Up to 10 percent of your farm at least can be taken off the table—10 percent in every single catchment—with no clarity around what a significant natural area is and so you have farmers who are looking at basically an attack on their property rights. Then you've got your particular response as a Government to climate change. Yes you highlight the fact that there was the zero carbon bill that got passed but your immediate focus was to frame up for the agriculture sector of this country that the future from a climate perspective was co-designing a tax system. Not working with the industry and not identifying firstly how to measure it or give them tools to be able to mitigate it but your total framework as a party with respect to rural New Zealand was how to tax it out of existence. It actually talks to a fundamental view that sits at the core of this Government around the future of agriculture and the dominance that it has historically had in this economy of our country. For at least a couple of decades the left of centre—particularly expressed by the Labour Party—have held the view that agriculture is a sunset industry. They have held the view that the New Zealand economy's dependence on agriculture to be able to produce the most efficient food and fibre to the world and to sell it to discerning consumers around the world was yesterday's model and that the economy needs to diversify beyond it to other industries and other sectors. You overlay that with an absolute focus on destroying an oil and gas sector and then—in particular with respect to agriculture—a view that their best days are behind them and that is at the core of the philosophy that this Government brings to the table for agriculture in New Zealand. There's no understanding of the competitive advantage that this country has in producing food and fibre to the world. There's no understanding of what it actually means to partner and collaborate and stand beside that sector and to actually work with it to be able to increase its capacity to measure its impact and to be able to build value-added products in the future. There is a sense of condemnation that this Government has allowed to fuel the sentiment that exists particularly on that side of the House with respect to farming in New Zealand. This is not a sentiment that I am plucking from thin air; this is the sentiment that I get told at every farmer meeting that I've had in the last six months—that when you go around and listen to the provincial and rural communities of this country that underpin our collective wealth and strength with 65 percent of our tradable exports this is the sentiment they're expressing. This is a Government that has lost its way in terms of managing our economic direction and that does not have a plan to get us through the next year or two and particularly the next few months. Kieran McAnulty: He's running out of puff. Come on lift yourself. TODD MULLER: Well I appreciate the other side of the House sees these issues as flippant and sees these issues as not particularly important but the farmers who are listening to this the families who expect a Government that actually understands their pressures and understands their needs and who actually want a Government that sees a future for them—what they see back is increasingly cynical and flippant and a Government that actually doesn't understand their interests. There is a degree of seriousness around where we find ourselves with this coronavirus. Actually Government members you're in charge and you guys are the ones that have to front the plan and so where is the plan? Where is the plan to be able to respond to what's happening and unfolding across our communities? Where's the plan to keep people safe? Where's the plan to ensure that our economic strength in rural New Zealand is underpinned and supported? It is all platitudes. It's all fluff. That's the problem with this Government—it has always been fluff. You will ultimately be judged by what you do not how warm you say it and that is the challenge that this Government is going to find over the next few weeks—that actually you have found yourselves right at this time and place in this country in a situation that is beyond your capacity to imagine how to respond. The country needs more than that and you're going to be held to account for your failure. ASSISTANT SPEAKER (Hon Ruth Dyson): Before I call the next member could I just remind the member who's just resumed his seat not to bring the Speaker into the debate. It was quite consistent throughout the speech. I understand this is a split call."