Smith StuartSTUART SMITH (National—Kaikōura): Thank you Mr Assistant Speaker and kia ora to the last speaker Rino Tirikatene who made some excellent points in his very good speech. I think he's quite right. I think that the scope of the bill as it stands at the moment does cover other industries like forestry and I thought he did say aquaculture but I might stand to be corrected in that; it certainly was covering fishing. Look you know we are supporting this bill to the select committee and I think that's a great place. Points have been made not only by the previous speaker but also by the Hon Gerry Brownlee earlier on in this debate. I do question why it's being sent to the Economic Development Science and Innovation Committee when in my own personal view it would have been better suited to the Primary Production Committee or perhaps the Finance and Expenditure Committee. However that's probably a minor issue. But you know the point's been made a lot about the size of agricultural debt or the quantum of agricultural debt. Mark Patterson the bill's promoter made the point that from 2015 debt has grown from $54 billion to over $60 billion and that's a large number. I think it's very difficult for anyone to imagine how much money that is. But my understanding is—certainly in the dairy sector—that the largest part of the debt is held by a few rather than it being evenly spread across the industry and that really speaks to the fact that some in the dairy industry have quite a sort of corporate approach to dairying and have gone quite large.I think one of the things we also have to remember is that it's not just people that fuel growth and drive innovation in any sector—and particularly in the agricultural sector—but it's actually debt. Farmers are risking their capital but in order to maximise the benefit of that they borrow some money against it thereby leveraging their own equity.That has driven—as the Hon Gerry Brownlee said—in my patch a massive change from what was dryland sheep farming to a very highly profitable vineyard operation which has created a huge boon to the economy not just to the farmers who became grape growers but also to the people living in Blenheim and the surrounding areas. The population has had to grow exponentially to actually supply the people to work in that. And it's not just people working in the vineyards. We have people working in laboratories we have winemakers—all of those associated industries that go around that—and it's not unique to the wine industry. We've seen that replicated with kiwifruit with the apple industry and also with the hop industry. All of those industries are growing and that is fuelled by debt.Mycoplasma bovis of course is top of mind at the moment for most of us and we really do feel for the farmers affected by that. This bill will I think send a bit of a message to those in the banking sector that we are watching them and that they really do need to back up their clients.I do share the concerns that the Hon Gerry Brownlee and Rino Tirikatene raised around the timing of this and obviously these things can be sorted out in the select committee. But in my own experience of dealing with a downturn in the wine industry and with people in trouble with the banks if you wait until the stage where the banks really get anxious and bring in a mediator at that stage you're only delaying the day when they're going to have to probably leave anyway. It's better to get in earlier. How you structure that in a bill—I don't have the answer to that. But I would hope that the select committee are able to tease that out because getting that cooling-off period which is in the bill is great and to have that mediation where people can get around the table and sort out a plan to move forward really needs to happen before we're sorting out how to get in the lifeboat because by then a cooling-off period is only decreasing their equity with every hour that goes on because of the increase in the interest bill that's building up.So the intent of the bill is great. I support it. I think it's fantastic. I do question the select committee that it's being sent to. However I'm sure that the bill's promoter will ensure that there is really good support around that and that the right questions get asked. I really urge all the rest of the House—I'm sure everyone supports it—to ensure that they get good submitters in to highlight the areas that really do need to be sorted out in the bill. So with that I commend it to the House.