business of the House today to debate a matter that has just
become the subject
the subject of a criminal investigation,
investigation, and the application is therefore declined.
investigation, and the application is therefore declined. Would
some honourable member care to move that
the House take
notice of miscellaneous
the House take notice of
move. We don't know how lucky we are. Of course, that's what Jacinda
Ardern's
Ardern's supporters were thinking last week when
Andrew Little was in the dock! We don't know how
lucky we are, mate. That's
what they were thinking.
are, mate. That's what they were thinking. What a photo
opportunity from hell that
was for Andrew Little. And then also thinking about
Little. And then also thinking about John Clarke and his famous words,
we shouldn't also forget,
John Clarke and his famous words, we
weren't for your gumboots, where would
weren't for your gumboots, where
particular case, in Edgecombe yesterday I would be
standing in half a metre of floodwaters and
silt over my red gumboots. My heart goes
out to all of those people who are
affected with the Edgecombe
event and now it has been brought out to
the Bay of Plenty. But importantly,
the reason that I'm going to talk
about not only John Clarke,
but Murray
Murray Ball this afternoon is because these two
gentlemen are iconic rural people who
have connected urban communities.
They've brought humour into the
households of New Zealand. They've brought
humour with their cartoons and
the film, where you think about those
characters in Footrock Flats, who
was it, dog, cast horse and
Major, the pig, the dog, that
gave everyone the opportunity to
connect to rural communities and have a good, old
laugh and we've lost that
now and what we see this afternoon
questions of attack from the Opposition on water quality. Of
course, they don't even want
to acknowledge
course, they don't even want to acknowledge what farmers have
done in a short period of time. Let's
take them back for a
step in time. Over the last ten
years or so, farmers have excluded livestock from
farmers have excluded livestock from rivers, water tributaries, streams,
lakes, to the tune of
about 26,000km. Last time I looked, that
gets you from here to
London, and partly on the way back as well. A
lot of these fences are now
partly on the way back as well. A lot of these fences are now riparian
planted, they have
nutrient budgets, they are very mindful of
the fact that they need to do more. We are
now having a discussion with
Lowland farmers and moving the
dial for them and we know there is a bit
of cost involved. We know that it will
require 56,000km of fencing
to occur. We know there
are productivity benefits as well as
environmental ones, as well. Now,
farmers are
environmental ones, as well. Now,
want to leave the land in a better state than when they came on to
it for their children and
their grandchildren. We
grandchildren. We don't hear that this afternoon in any of
the questions from the Labour
Party or from the Green Party. It's
just
cows anywhere in New Zealand. In fact, go and kill half of them. You
just move farmers
into the dole queue. We feed 40 million people, we
export to 130
countries around the world. We should be proud of
that. We should be proud of the fact that
we produce premium food and we need
to do more in terms of environmental
sustainability, but what we don't
hear from the other side of the
House, is our farmers are doing
their utmost and we want to
support them through this. But
it's so easy for our opposition members to have
the blame game. It's so easy to
the blame game. It's so easy to
report and say it's all to do with farming. Well, it's to
do with urbanisation and industry
growth. It's pointless looking
over your shoulder, it's about moving
collectively forward as one and
what would Iain
collectively forward as one and what
in his community. He will never acknowledge the fact that
the Manuatu River is cleaning up under
this Government and
the great work that
that Nick Smith is doing.
Also, I want to talk about something that was significant last
night, and it focuses in
on environmental sustainability. It is to do with
our fish stocks. Now, here's a book that
was launched last night Orange
Roughy On The Rise, this
orange roughy fishery collapsed in the
1980s and '90s. Now with science,
third party accreditation through
the marine stewardship
certification, we can take a premium
product to market. I acknowledge our
farmers and our fishers
and foresters, who are
doing a fantastic job.
job.
The minister's time has expired. Mr Speaker, can I just... Oh,
hang on. Order! The question is
that the motion be agreed to. Jacinda
Can I just start by saying, John Clarke, given the
opportunity, would have done a fine impression of
impression. And I want to acknowledge John Clarke, and I
want to acknowledge Murray
acknowledge John Clarke, and I want
were the epitome of the Kiwi psyche. But