Carter David: Questions for Oral Answer — Questions to Ministers 
Carter David: Questions for Oral Answer — Questions to Ministers 
[Volume:610;Page:7138] 
5.  
Hon DAVID CARTER (NZ National) 
 to the  
Minister of Agriculture 
: What is the proposed method of collection of the $8.4 million “flatulence tax”? 
Hon JIM SUTTON (Minister of Agriculture) 
: 
 There is no proposal to collect tax on flatulence animal or human. Also there is no proposal to collect tax on the 95 percent of agricultural methane—a very powerful greenhouse gas—released by ruminant livestock or on the nitrous oxide emissions from agricultural soils. 
Hon David Carter 
: Is the Minister telling the House that no levy totalling $8.4 million is now to be levied against farmers; in effect is he saying that the “flatulence tax” has been determined but that the method of collection has not been? 
Hon JIM SUTTON 
: I repeat there is no proposal for a tax on flatulence. There never has been. If the member would like to do some background reading and to take this subject seriously I will give him a serious answer. 
Dr Wayne Mapp 
: I raise a point of order Mr Speaker. The question was specifically about a levy. The Minister did not address that and simply talked about taxes. That was not an answer to the question 
Mr SPEAKER 
: The Minister did address the question. 
Janet Mackey 
: What is the Government’s policy for pastoral agriculture in terms of the Kyoto Protocol? 
Hon JIM SUTTON 
: The Government has exempted pastoral farmers from emissions charges that could have cost them an average of $30000 to $40000 a year each. Instead they are being asked to contribute an average of $300 to $400 a year for research into helping to reduce emissions. 
R Doug Woolerton 
: If farmers refuse to pay that levy for research into methane emissions what will the Minister do? 
Hon JIM SUTTON 
: Should it prove necessary to legislate in order to collect this levy or tax we would no doubt do exactly the same as we do with people who refuse to pay their income tax or other taxes. 
Gerrard Eckhoff 
: What is the Government’s intention over the apparent meat companies’ insistence that an administration fee of 2.5 percent will be charged to collect this new levy or tax on research and will that fee be in addition to the already-announced $8.4 million tax? 
Hon JIM SUTTON 
: That is not an issue that the Government has yet been required to consider but it has not been public policy practice under successive Governments in the past to require for instance the payment of fees to employers when they retain PAYE income tax. 
Jeanette Fitzsimons 
: What would be the total sum collected from farmers if they were to be subjected to the same level of carbon tax as the emitters of fossil fuels are to be charged and what is the difference between that total sum and the mere $8.4 million that the research levy is to cost? 
Hon JIM SUTTON 
: The best estimate I have seen of the cost of an emissions tax equivalent to that proposed for other industries would approach a billion dollars from pastoral farming. That figure compares with the $8.5 million proposed for research. 
Larry Baldock 
: Why is the Government taking the risk of alienating the primary production sector over the relatively paltry sum of $8 million compared with what that sector generates for the New Zealand economy—or does the Government have plans to significantly increase that amount at some time in the future? 
Hon JIM SUTTON 
: No Government likes to undertake unpopular measures but this measure is our response to probably the world’s most serious environmental crisis—[ 
Interruption 
] The biggest New Zealand— 
Mr SPEAKER 
: I do not mind a little bit of interjection but I will not have members shouting out like that. The Minister is entitled to give an answer and to be heard. 
Hon JIM SUTTON 
: New Zealand’s biggest contributor to this global crisis is its pastoral farming sector which emits more than half the country’s greenhouse gases. It would be totally inappropriate for that sector which enjoys an average taxable income of over $106000 per taxpayer to escape completely scot-free of any responsibility for tackling that problem. 
Hon David Carter 
: What is the estimated value of the surplus forestry credits that the Government has nationalised and will sell on the international market? 
Hon JIM SUTTON 
: The Government has not nationalised anything. The forestry industry negotiated with the Government and agreed that in return for the Government accepting the Kyoto liabilities of any deforestation the Government would retain any carbon sink credits from afforestation.