Walker HamishHAMISH WALKER (National—Clutha-Southland): Madam Assistant Speaker I'm very happy to be standing up and taking this call as this has affected my electorate Clutha-Southland greatly. The reason why the National Party wants this bill to go to select committee is pretty straightforward. It's too important not only to the agriculture sector but to our country. Farmers have sent tens of thousands of their fit and healthy stock to slaughter. How do you explain that to your kids? Mum and Dad why are our perfectly often individually named stock going to slaughter?" Decades of genetics lost—years and years—a lot of money spent building up the genetics sent on the truck down to the works. Livelihoods lost cash-flow problems that result from slow compensation payments and sleepless nights. This is too important to rush through this House and then not take it to the select committee and just talking—I mean in my experience on the Primary Production Committee we actually get on. The reason why we get on is we want to make the primary agriculture sector as best as possible for our country. I had one farmer contact me yesterday just outside of Gore in West Otago. He said "Hamish I saw you at some of the public meetings. The reason why I'm getting in touch is that I've had 17 different personnel from the Ministry for Primary Industries the different organisations on to my farm and nearly all of them have told me something different." This guy just wants to get on with his life.I've got another farmer. He spent the last 10 years battling away paying off interest only. He's finally at a stage now where he can start paying off principal and this has put him back. He'll be paying interest for the next five or 10 years. This farmer was actually mentioned earlier by a previous speaker I sat down with him and with his wife and he said that this has driven him to depression. The wife can't sleep. He said "We had to explain to our children why we are sending our fit and healthy stock to slaughter." This is a big deal.I just want to recall Steffan Browning's speech from the Green Party back in 2012 on the Search and Surveillance Bill. This is when the Green Party actually stuck to their values. His speech—would you like to hear it?Rt Hon David Carter: Yes.Dan Bidois: We'd love to.HAMISH WALKER: This bill is an "invasion of human rights … Human rights and civil liberties are out of the window. This is a police State type of bill. This is a Big Brother bill. I am looking forward to a day when it can be repealed and we can have more sense made out of it. The Greens will continue to oppose this bill." This brings back memories: the waka-jumping bill the "Minister of Water Bottling" and the "Ministry of Mining on Conservation Land". I encourage all the Green Party members this weekend at their annual conference to get out there and let them know what they think.I just want to acknowledge all the farmers and communities affected out there especially in Clutha-Southland. The financial toll the emotional toll the uncertainty and the gossip that this has caused—I've had some farmers into my office and they're telling me they're treated like lepers. So this is a big deal. I also want to pay a special tribute to the organisations like the Southland Rural Support Trust Dairy New Zealand Federated Farmers and the banks in Southland who are standing by our farmers in Southland. I don't know if that's the case in other areas of the country but in Southland they certainly are. I've attended many meetings across Otago and Southland and the most common feedback I get is that the response so far has been a complete mess. Why Minister are we rushing this through the House when we can put it through the select committee? It would take only a week. We can hammer it out and we can all have our diversity of thought to get the best outcome for farmers. This is an important issue for New Zealand—not only the farming community but New Zealand. It's costing nearly a billion dollars. We've got Government Ministers talking down the industry. How are we supposed to attract workers to the industry when you're talking down the industry?This actually goes to international markets. We've got people overseas questioning what's happening when you've got Government Ministers talking down the industry. Minister it's not too late to take it to select committee and I urge you to listen so you can get cross-party support on this."