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Much misinformation has been circulated lately about access to rural land.
I have spoken to Agriculture and Rural Affairs Minister Jim Sutton about this and he says the allegedly secret document often referred to is actually the document that will be going to Cabinet for ministers to make decisions on.
This document is still in draft form and ministers have yet to make any decisions on land access.
At the moment, officials are working on potential policy recommendations for ministers, taking into account all the submissions already made.
It is not appropriate for that to be discussed publicly, as it has not been discussed at Cabinet yet, and ministers have yet to make any decisions. Until Cabinet makes decisions, there is no government policy on this.
Legislation cannot be formulated until there is government policy, so there is no draft legislation available at the moment either.
When decisions have been made - if they are made - there will be more opportunities for interested people to have a say before any new policy is implemented.
It is surprising that some organisations feel the development of land access policy has taken place without any input from the people affected by it.
This is a process that has been going on for two and a half years now, with two series of public meetings around the country and two opportunities for interested people to make submissions.
All the information has been released along the way, including all the submissions from the public.
I note that Mr Sutton has made it clear that ministers ruled out the so-called "right-to-roam" earlier this year.
The work being carried out by officials is looking purely at walking access along waterways. This is not people with guns, people with dogs, or people with vehicles. Also, it does not apply to the area around houses and buildings. All this has been said publicly before, and I hope this allays some concerns.
Labour cares about the rural sector and our farming families. Some of the achievements of this Government include helping with major reforms in the dairy, pipfruit, hops, kiwifruit industries, wine, wool, and meat industries.
Labour established the Rural Affairs portfolio, held by Jim Sutton, supported by a strong policy group within MAF, so there is a voice in Cabinet for those living and working in rural areas. This has been backed up by the appointment of Damien O'Connor as Associate Rural Affairs Minister.
We set up the Sustainable Farming Fund to help tackle obstacles to economic, social and environmental sustainability in rural communities. So far, the fund has supported more than 300 projects (about $10 million a year) throughout New Zealand. An independent report estimates fund projects are contributing between $350 million and $500 million a year to the economy.
We returned essential government services to rural areas with the establishment of the Heartland Services initiative. There are now 30 centres around New Zealand, including two in Wairarapa.
The number of young people from overseas able to work while on holiday in New Zealand will increase to at least 40,000 within two years. Pipfruit New Zealand chairman Ian Palmer has said with the current low unemployment rate in the region, allowing more overseas visitors to work in New Zealand is a necessity. Mr Palmer said the move was partly due to discussions between the pipfruit industry and Government to address problems with finding seasonal staff in the past few years.
We drastically tightened biosecurity, introducing soft-tissue X-ray machines at all international airports, lifting screening of all international postal mail, air travellers' baggage, air crew and air passengers to 100 percent and introduced instant fines for biosecurity breaches.
We've introduced a comprehensive biosecurity strategy, which better co-ordinates work done by various government departments and local authorities.
We established the modern apprenticeships programme, which is helping primary industries to better fulfil their need for skilled employees.
Greater funding to help with staffing in schools in less populated areas, including a new allowance to encourage teacher trainees to undertake practicums in remote areas and TeachNZ Scholarships for people who commit to teach in rural areas.
Targeted Funding for Isolation, provided to assist rural schools meet the costs associated with their isolation, rates will be increased by 12.5 percent effective from 1 January 2005.
The Government is to increase the value of the boarding bursary by 16 percent to $2725 per student per year.
Extra funding to help retain and recruit GPs in isolated rural areas, providing for a rural premium, a Rural Locum Support Scheme and the Rural Practice Support Scheme. We have funded mobile surgical units to provide services in rural areas and are implementing a new subsidy scheme to enable small to medium sized communities, such as Riversdale and Lake Ferry, to build and upgrade sewerage systems and fluoridate community drinking water supplies if they want to.
Paid Parental Leave has been extended to seasonal workers who are in employment more than six months of the year, which means that workers such as those in meat plants like Oringi will be eligible. Work is being done to extend the scheme to the self-employed, which will cover farming families.
We're integrating the business and export development services currently provided by Trade New Zealand and Industry New Zealand, to form New Zealand Trade and Enterprise and are working with the forestry industry and local government in shaping the Wood Processing Strategy to deal with the "wall of wood" from planted forests that will be ready for harvesting over the next 5-10 years.
We're facilitating and promoting the provision of broadband services to rural communities and remote regions and we're providing guidance and funding to assist regions identify and develop sustainable, economic growth strategies and put those strategies into action.
Labour's large primary production caucus committee, headed by Otaki MP Darren Hughes, supports all this.
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