COLIN KING MP for Kaikoura

In 2009 the Government signed the deed of intention for the top of the south settlement bill, which was a great occasion for local iwi. Four years later we can reflect on the celebration that surrounded the signing of some settlement agreements – one at the Te Hora marae in Canvastown, the others at Omaka marae.

We’re now at the point where legislation has been before the House; the Te Tau Ihu Claims Settlement Bill passed its first reading unanimously and has been referred to the Maori Affairs select committee.

Budget 2013 has delivered on a number of fronts that will support the drive to ensure our primary sector retains its edge internationally.
 
The extreme drought that much of the country struggled with this year has reinforced the need for better water storage and $80 million in funding for regional irrigation projects will ameliorate the effects of such events in the future.

Budget 2013 has delivered on a number of fronts that will support the drive to ensure our primary sector retains its edge internationally.
The extreme drought that much of the country struggled with this year has reinforced the need for better water storage and $80 million in funding for regional irrigation projects will ameliorate the effects of such events in the future.

This year’s post-Budget breakfast held at the Clubs of Marlborough was a highlight for me. I’ve held these breakfasts for the past four years and am always on the lookout for a guest speaker who has a talent for articulating what the Budget will actually mean for New Zealanders in the context of what is happening nationally and globally. To get Phil O’Reilly, CEO of Business New Zealand, to come here and dissect many of the Budget’s key areas of interest was considered by some as quite a coup. 

New Zealand seafood is a premium product and five important projects focusing on aquaculture will benefit from the latest round of Sustainable Framing Fund Grants.

The projects being granted funds cover wide ranging projects including farming premium salmon to Koura aquaculture (developing best-practice guidelines for raising fresh water crayfish), short-fin eel aquaculture (learning more about young glass short-fin eels so they can be raised successfully and sustainably) and management of the GLM9 green lipped mussel spat resource.
 
Managing the wild greenlipped mussel spat resource is of particular importance to mussel farmers here in Marlborough. Which brings me back to what has been happening in the Sounds in recent times.  
 

This is a particularly special time of the year, especially for those on the treasury benches. These people set the budget, something that has a big influence on every man, woman and child in New Zealand.
While opposition parties make all sorts of wild promises, they cannot carry them out because they don’t have the authority or the finances to implement them.

Last month a total of $8.8 million was awarded in funding for 42 sustainable farming projects.

These projects are driven from grassroots and will help to improve economic and environmental performance. This co-funding will make a real difference to rural communities because it focuses on community driven initiatives to address common problems.

All the initiatives that have received funding are highly appropriate and some are essential for successful farming in North Canterbury into the future.

Stopping the Chilean needle grass (CNG) invasion is one issue I have promoted in Marlborough and the Hurunui.  My efforts alongside the Marlborough District Council, ECan and the local committee group, chaired by Charles Wiffen, have included attending field days with Charles and the ECan commissioners, helping me elevate the issue with the Minister of Primary Industries. Somewhere up the track we really do need to have a national strategy to eradicate this pest.