Tabuteau Fletcher: Oral Questions — Questions to MinistersText is incorporated into the Bound VolumeTabuteau Fletcher: Oral Questions — Questions to Ministers[Sitting date: 16 March 2016. Volume:712;Page:9791. Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume.]5.FLETCHER TABUTEAU (NZ First) to the Prime Minister: Does he stand by all his answers in relation to Oral Question No. 2 in the House yesterday?Rt Hon JOHN KEY (Prime Minister): Yes.Fletcher Tabuteau: If he stands by his statement that New Zealand dairy farmers pay tariffs is he not aware that foreign importers will be the ones to directly benefit from not having to pay those tiny tariff reductions in 20 years not our farmers?Rt Hon JOHN KEY: Dairy farmers are exporters and they pay those tariffseffectively because they are charged on the product that they sell. In the case of dairy farmers he might think $96 million is tiny but I dare him to go out to an A and P show and tell them that.Fletcher Tabuteau: I seek leave to table under Speaker’s ruling 164/2 a US Department of Agriculture document detailing benefits to US agriculture published 30 November 2015—Mr SPEAKER: Order! I just need to check: is it freely available on the internet?Fletcher Tabuteau: It is published on the internet but—Mr SPEAKER: Then members will search for it if they want it.Ron Mark: I raise a point of order Mr Speaker. Can I draw your attention to a very astute ruling by Speaker Carter Speaker’s ruling 164/2 which in brief highlights the fact that although a document may be available on the internet given the weight of documents and the specificity a particular document may not be readily available. In light of your ruling could you review that decision please.Mr SPEAKER: I will immediately review the decision and say I am still not prepared to put leave. The purpose of that ruling is that there will be occasions when the information is hard to find. If it is on a US Department of Agriculture website I assume it is in the capability of every member here if they want it to search for it.Fletcher Tabuteau: If Waikato University’s Professor Jacqueline Rowarth said this morning that new European subsidies will exacerbate the current global oversupply of dairy what is this Government doing to combat them and the other $166 billion worth of subsidies in the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) agreement countries?Rt Hon JOHN KEY: For one thing we made strong representations for decades to the Europeans and in Nairobi last year they actually agreed to get rid of subsidies when it came to exporting. Secondly we are doing all the things that we can do to help the dairy farmers and other farmers of New Zealand but we cannot physically stop the European Union paying subsidies even if we believe it is wrong.Fletcher Tabuteau: How can the Prime Minister expect New Zealand farmers to be resilient and adaptive when they are competing against European and TPP farmers who receive over $250 billion in subsidies every year?Rt Hon JOHN KEY: The member might want to use his time after question time to go back and have a little study of the New Zealand economy in 1982 and 1983 and 1981 and have a look at how big agriculture actually was and how successful they were because they got supplementary minimum payments back then. I tell you what it did not do them a hell of a lot of good—unsubsidised New Zealand farmers are far more robust and far more successful than they were back in the days when politicians were giving them money.Fletcher Tabuteau: Did the Prime Minister and the Minister of Defence agree that one of the best ways to undermine any reasonable opposition to the TPP was to farcically deploy New Zealand armed forces at the Christchurch TPP evening given that the only criterion for their deployment is if there is a threat of loss of life and property?Rt Hon JOHN KEY: The Minister of Defence advises me that it did not happen.