Hughes GarethGARETH HUGHES (Green): Thank you Madam Chair. Talofa lava. Kia ora. Ngā mihi ki a koutou. Kia ora. I agree with the previous National speaker Hamish Walker who talked about hard-working farmers in New Zealand. They are getting up early and working late in the day but I don't believe those hard-working farmers are served by the tenor of the debate we've seen tonight because what they don't want to hear after the hard day in the fields is more platitudes and more slogans in fact highlighting the very failings of the previous Government when it comes to animal welfare. My message to the opposition is that while you're in Opposition take the time to do some big thinking about the challenges to our primary industries. These are the challenges that this Government is grappling with. You know I don't know if members are aware but recently the Beyond Meat company who do the Beyond Burger—the lab-based burger—had the largest initial public offering of any company in the US since the dotcom bubble. It's simply incredible the disruption our agricultural industries face in the coming years so I challenge the Opposition to do some heavy lifting intellectual thinking about the challenges. What we know from consumers who are increasingly embracing plant-based diets vegetarian diets is that what they're wanting is more discernment in their choice of food products. What they want to see is sustainability and animal welfare and to have climate emissions accounted for and not just more empty slogans and opposition for opposition's sake. Just today I met with the egg producers' board who are rolling out a national network of individual egg labels which are going to say for each individual egg whether they're free-range or whether they're barn-raised because they know that's what their consumers in their markets are demanding. You know we see Zespri with a single variety of kiwifruit exporting a billion dollars per annum as part of the $3 billion kiwifruit exports. We're seeing incredible sustainability initiatives which were replete in these documents about what the Government's spending. I think of great farmers such as Our Land of Milk and Honey that are really embracing sustainability principles as a way to reach those more discerning consumers in New Zealand and around the world.When it comes to biosecurity I'm proud to be part of a Government that's stepped up when it comes to Mycoplasma bovis and is improving the National Animal Identification and Tracing system which the previous Government knew was falling over.When it comes to climate change emissions what we're hearing from National was just genetic engineering. It's the only thing they're proposing which is simply incredible given they didn't actually change the regime under the previous royal commission on the environment. Now we don't need to risk our fast-growing $600 million - organic industry—it's grown by 30 percent in the last three years—by chasing the shimmer of genetic engineering which hasn't been proven to actually work. We know we've got the tools already from feeds and from breeds. We've already got the tools available.When it comes to animal welfare here's an area where we can provide top quality food products to the rest of the world to the animal welfare standards they're demanding. That's why I was proud last year to pass the country-of-origin food labelling bill—because Kiwi consumers want to be able to choose our high quality food products. But when it comes to issues such as rodeo which don't reflect modern farming practices international consumers are questioning animal welfare credentials.Then you look at issues such as live shipment and the scandal of what happened in Sri Lanka under the previous Government with more than I think 10 percent of those cattle dying in Sri Lanka after that very long voyage from New Zealand to Sri Lanka. We know we can do better. When it comes to the issue of winter grazing which we're going to increasingly see this winter with animals literally giving birth in knee-high mud paddocks. Those aren't the animal welfare standards our Kiwi or international customers want to see. So here's some areas where the Green Party has been really proposing stricter animal welfare standards. This is part of embracing the future trend of agriculture because those customers are more discerning.At the highest level I think in the macro picture for New Zealand in the primary sector is when it comes to two of our biggest exports tourism and agriculture. Is it simply cramming more tourists down in Fiordland? We are seeing the infrastructure pressures. Is it cramming more cows on paddocks? We're seeing the impact on our waterways. I'd say our pathway is where there's no limit to the exports on innovation which I've talked about; higher standards which I've talked about; research and development which I've talked about; and sustainability. That's our future for a richer New Zealand and a richer agricultural sector.