Choudhary Ashraf: Financial Review Debate — In Committee 
Choudhary Ashraf: Financial Review Debate — In Committee 
[Volume:646;Page:15002] 
Dr ASHRAF CHOUDHARY (Labour) 
: 
 Is it not incredible that we have not heard a word from Mr David Carter about what National will do about innovation and about research and development in agriculture? It is unbelievable. It is unbelievable that we have four farmers here—Nathan Guy Phil Heatley David Carter and the member who has just left the Chamber Eric Roy—who are members of the Primary Production Committee but they have not said a word about research and development in agriculture. What are they going to do? Their leader has said that the Fast Forward programme is a gimmick. Here we are; we have put in $700 million which will be doubled by private industry. It is not before time that we have put in so much money as a capital fund. The generation of the income from that will be invested in agricultural research and development. 
I am getting a whole lot of calls from my scientific colleagues. They are asking what has gone wrong with the National Party which is supposed to be farmer friendly. What is it doing? It is opposing this research and development fund that we are putting in. Is it not incredible? The whole industry is saying how delighted it is with this money being put into the sector. This is a country that takes pride in research and development in agriculture. It is for the future of this place that we have to make sure we keep ahead of the rest of the world and make sure we have innovation. Over all these years we have had innovation in dairy production animal production and the wool industry. In all those sectors we have been a leader in the world. We have to make sure that this money is invested in future research and development and that our scientists are kept in this country to work for us and for the farmers. And here we have our four members of the Primary Production Committee who oppose this investment. 
I am really totally disappointed that David Carter has spoken out the way he has in relation to the investment we have made and that the Leader of the Opposition has said that it is a gimmick. It is unbelievable that our farmer friends across the other side of the Chamber are actually opposing the money invested in this industry. But I am really very sad. I am sad for those guys when they go back to their constituents. What will they tell the farmers among their constituents about what National is doing? I know that the calls I am getting now will be the calls those members will get from the science community and from Crown research institutes asking what is going on in the National Party and why it is actually opposing this investment in this industry. Where are the alternatives? Can we hear from the National Party about the alternatives to what we have done? What is the National Party going to do? How much money will it put into this sector? 
The number of initiatives that this Government is taking is incredible. Let us look at the whole sustainability issue covering land and water action. This country has recently gone through a bit of a drought—whether it is the Waikato area or in the south where the select committee has been in recent times. Of course I understand that the drought has broken in the south now. The horticultural industry in this country particularly on the East Coast is dependent on irrigation and in some of the areas we have to provide better irrigation. The water sources have to be managed better. Here we have some of the water action in place so that farmers in the future can benefit from it. Of course we have to provide sustainability in the whole farming system because this country as I said earlier is based on the future of agriculture particularly in the area of dairy production. Fonterra has done very well in terms of the export of dairy products. Clearly there are issues to do with the dairy quota that we are looking at now. It has to be streamlined. There is also the whole climate change issue. We heard earlier from my colleague who was talking about climate change. Again this country is the leader in providing innovation in agriculture.