David Carter is now the Minister for Primary Industries.

Mr Carter says his new title is effectively just a new name for the Minister of Agriculture but the Government has brought food safety into MAF, and brought the Ministry of Fisheries into MAF too.

"We now have a super ministry if you like, looking after the primary industries. The Prime Minister has taken the opportunity of appointing a minister for primary industries and I will look after all of the issues related with New Zealand’s primary sector."

Mr Carter says his top priorities for the coming term are to continue progress on irrigation and to get industry working more closely with government on the biosecurity decisions that need to be made. 

He says there’s a lot of legislative work to get through too.

"We will be very busy on the legislative programme, we have the Biosecurity Amendment Act in parliament at the moment, we have the legislation around National Animal Identification and Tracing that now needs to be moved through its final stages in parliament.

"I’m working with Fonterra very closely as they develop their final Trading Amongst Farmers proposal."   

Mr Carter says while there will be a lot more work on his plate, Manawatu farmer and National MP Nathan Guy has been appointed as his deputy, and promises that between the two of them, they’ll get through the work.