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Today I want to say a few words about my portfolio, and on some of the big challenges and opportunities facing your industry.

The horticulture industry plays a major role in New Zealand’s economic growth, contributing $6.7b to the economy in the year to June 2013 and making up around 8 percent of New Zealand’s total merchandise exports.

Horticultural exports have more than doubled since 2000, to $3.6 billion in 2013, and are forecasted to surpass $4 billion in 2016, a major milestone for the sector.

It’s great to be here tonight to launch this report on the economic contribution wine makes to New Zealand.

I believe it’s really important to celebrate your success as growers, producers and exporters. 

The wider primary industries are the backbone of New Zealand’s economy, making up around 73% of all our exports. Viticulture is an important part of that and this report shows us just how far you’ve come.

Good evening and thank you for the opportunity to address you all tonight.

Following some challenging years, there are strong indications of improved results for many companies in the sector this year.

This resilience is a reflection of the hard work of people throughout the red meat sector.

The meat and wool sectors make up 21 percent of total primary sector export revenue at an estimated export value of $8 billion for the year ending 30 June 2014, which is a record.

It’s great to be here today to witness the signing of the Government Industry Agreement Deed by the New Zealand Pork Industry.

This is a historic day. It’s the result of the hard work over several years of both industry and government to realise the benefits of working in partnership. 

There is a simple but important principle behind the GIA: by working together, we are stronger.

This agreement means we can share our expertise, experience and knowledge to make joint decisions on biosecurity readiness and response.

Thank you to Better Border Biosecurity (B3) for hosting this important conference. The theme is “10 years on – Adding Value to New Zealand’s Plant Biosecurity System through Research”.  

Today I want to talk to you about the importance of biosecurity to New Zealand, and the importance of scientific research to back it up.

I want to start by acknowledging the B3 partnership as a great model for working together on research.

Today is a very important day, and a long time in the making. This is the start of a new era of biosecurity partnership between the Government and industry.

We’re here for first signing of the Government Industry Agreement (GIA) for Biosecurity Readiness and Response Deed, between Kiwifruit Vine Health and the Ministry for Primary Industries.   

Mr Speaker, this Bill is a crucial piece of legislation.

As members will remember, this legislation came from the Ministerial Inquiry led by the Hon Paul Swain. That Inquiry was set up following serious allegations of mistreatment of crew on foreign chartered vessels. It made a number of legislative and non-legislative recommendations to improve agency coordination, monitoring and compliance of foreign chartered vessels.

This Bill is necessary to ensure that health and safety requirements on all fishing vessels in New Zealand waters are of the highest standard.

Thanks for the invitation to say a few words tonight.

Your conference theme is “Securing the next generation’s future” – which is a very good vision.

Tonight I want to say a few words on the importance of irrigation to New Zealand’s future, and what the Government – and industry – can do to help it succeed.

The potential of irrigation

I’m sure I don’t need to remind this audience of how important the primary industries are to our country.

Distinguished guests, ladies and gentlemen.

It is my great pleasure to be back in Colombia.

Good morning. It is great to be back in Chile. This is my third trip to Latin America in just over a year, and my second trip to Chile and to this beautiful region.

The last time I was here I accompanied our Prime Minister as part of a broader trade mission across Latin America. This time I am joined by our trade Minister Tim Groser, and a 14 strong New Zealand business delegation.

This delegation includes some of the best of New Zealand's agribusiness, agri-tech, and agricultural training expertise.

Thank you for the opportunity to address you all today.

The last few years have been some of the more challenging in New Zealand’s history. In the space of five short years we have endured the worst financial crisis since the Great Depression, the worst drought in 70 years, and of course the devastating series of earthquakes in the Canterbury region.

But we have largely weathered this storm, and while there will no doubt be further hurdles along the way, the future is looking bright for New Zealand.

Good afternoon everyone. It is a pleasure to be here in Riyadh this week, as part of a week-long visit to Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates and Oman.

Last year the Government launched the NZ Inc Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) Strategy, which outlines New Zealand’s plans for further developing strong government and private sector relationships with the GCC.

Good morning and thank you for the invitation to be here. It gives me great pleasure to speak to you today about global food security, and New Zealand's journey to become a ‘kitchen of the world’.

Good morning and thank you for the invitation to speak.

For over a century, dams and the infrastructure associated with them have been a vital but often overlooked part of the fabric of this country.

Back in the 1880s, gold dredgers dammed a tributary of the Shotover River to provide hydropower for the nearby mine.

Early freezing works and dairy factories ran on hydro and it even helped power early municipal lighting at Reefton on the West Coast.

Today we still tend to associate dams with generating electricity for the national grid.

Thank you for the introduction. It is a pleasure to address this forum today and to welcome visitors from China, the United States, Australia and New Zealand .

Can I acknowledge:

Thank you Bob, and thank you to the New Zealand Companion Animal Council for inviting me here today to talk with you about animal welfare.

Can I acknowledge Joyce D’Silva Joyce, Ambassador and former Chief Executive of Compassion in World Farming, and my fellow MPs – Trevor Mallard, Mojo Mathers, Ian McKelvie and Andrew Williams.

Good afternoon everybody.

I would like first to extend a special welcome to industry and business leaders, my parliamentary colleagues, and our partner PGP programmes here today as we showcase the wide range of PGP programmes underway to date and exciting innovations they are progressing. 

We will – I understand – be hearing from some of the newer programmes shortly.  I’d encourage you to explore the stands, and I also understand you can even sample some of the programme’s products in today’s canapés.

Thank you for organising this conference today on this very important topic, and for the chance to say a few words.

I had a bit of drama getting here this morning with cancelled flights. It would have been easy to give up and head back to Wellington, but I wanted to be here because biosecurity is my number one priority as Minister.

The New Zealand Biosecurity Institute, the National Pest Control Agencies and your members are a valuable part of the biosecurity system. Raising awareness, sharing knowledge and supporting best practice are all very important.

Today I want to talk to you about my priorities for the primary sector, of which horticulture is a major part. In particular I want to talk about the two goals that the Ministry for Primary Industries has – to grow and protect New Zealand’s economy.

As you all know, the primary sector is the powerhouse of our economy. It is worth around $30 billion a year to the New Zealand economy and makes up around 72 per cent of our exports.

Thank you to the Institute of Agricultural & Horticultural Science for putting together this conference on what is a very important topic, and for inviting me to say a few words.

Before I start I’d like to comment on the title of this conference - Have we gone soft at the border?

I was advised that it would be a ‘courageous’ move to speak at a conference with such a title. But given the importance to me of biosecurity, I saw this event as more of an opportunity than a challenge.

Thank you for allowing me to make some opening comments to this seminar.

This is my first visit to China as Minister for Primary Industries, but my second visit as a Minister. I visited here in April 2012 as the Minister of Immigration and Associate Minister for Primary Industries.

Thank you to the organisers of the National Sustainability Showcase for the invitation to say a few words this evening. 

Thanks to the Trust’s efforts, the farm environment awards have grown steadily in recent years.

Good morning,

I would like to thank the Wellington Chamber of Commerce for organising this event. This event comes off the back of the Prime Minister’s trade mission to Latin America, where we visited four countries over 10 days – Mexico, Colombia, Chile, and Brazil.

The mission was a great success. Strong relationships were formed, or strengthened, both at the political and at the business level.

Thank you for this opportunity to speak today, it’s great to be here in Mexico.

Today I’d like to talk a little about what New Zealand has to offer and about innovation in the New Zealand primary sector. I will also talk about our delegation and offer my thoughts on the New Zealand-Mexico relationship.