The Government wants to return New Zealand to the top half of the OECD.

Where the freezer ships provided the breakthrough for our economic growth as a young nation, the broadband and information and communications technology are the next frontiers.

This year's Fieldays is a classic example of how the farming sector is already well ahead of many others in embracing new technology.

In the early days most of the wires coming into this site were for electricity, today every exhibitor can have access to a broadband connection. For the first time streaming coverage of the show will also be available on-site.

An AC Nielsen survey last year of farmers with a gross on-farm income of more than $100,000 found 63 percent had access to the internet - that figure is higher for dairy farmers, where it is estimated to be closer to the 80 percent mark.

It's also estimated that 300,000 individual users visit an agricultural website each month, and for many farmers the morning login to a site like Fencepost, RD1, Netfarmer, Farmpoint, or Lifestyleblock is a well-established part of the daily routine.

You don't need to be an apiarist to find something worthwhile on the Beehive website as well.

I'd like to also pay a compliment to the women behind the website in the deep South - Not Just Gumboots and Scones (www.notjust.org.nz) - a great example of information you can use, with links to sites like District Health Boards, public libraries, Government departments, media sites.

The women behind that site quite rightly point out they don't go online to send idle emails but are more concerned with the farm accounting and business administration tools the net has to offer. Farmers don't have time to surf the internet - the speed of the connection, and the quality of the information and interaction available on the websites is crucial to getting e-commerce done efficiently.

Benefits to farmers and their suppliers from e-commerce and e-business include online auctions, realtime information on produce, better farm management, rural banking advice for those who don't keep office hours, and employment-related assistance. There's even talk at Fieldays this year of a GPS system on a tractor to enable automated seed sowing without the need for a driver.

Benefits from e-government are already flowing from our objective to have the internet as the main way people will carry out their business with the Government by 2004. This will reduce compliance costs for paying tax and ACC, as well as providing for e-procurement and obtaining information and services.

However to achieve all this we need broadband access. We need to turn the World Wide Wait into the World Wide Web. Broadband connection, especially to rural areas, is a key part of the Government's IT and regional development strategies.

The Government is doing its part to provide decent infrastructure, through Project Probe. Schools around the country are targeted for rollout of broadband, with Waikato the largest of any regions under this project.

Broadband will provide some of the answers to current problems with rural phone lines, and options include wireless, satellite, fibre or copper.

In the meantime a more practical solution is being offered for the issue of interference from electric fences.

Today I am releasing a new guide put out by the Ministry of Economic Development. It has been working with Telecom, Federated Farmers and the electric fence industry to draw up a simple set of procedures to deal with those annoying loud clicks and lost connections caused by poorly installed or maintained electric fences.

The Five Step Check brochure helps identify which fence is causing the problem, whether it requires maintenance such as the removal of overgrown vegetation, or whether the layout of the fence needs to be reconfigured.

We see our role as providing the basic infrastructure to let you get on with your job. Farmers know their own business best, and the service industries that support you have a better understanding of the type of technology to suit you.

It's fantastic that e-farming is the theme at Fieldays. It allows farmers to build on their internationally successful and competitive businesses. The partnership between business, government and the community will produce a better lifestyle for all New Zealanders.

Good luck and good business for Fieldays this year.