Parker DavidHon DAVID PARKER (Labour): I hope Marama Fox was listening to the response from the Hon Nick Smith because when asked what crops" means he said essentially "plants that produce crops such as cereals vegetables or fruit". That is what it means. Therefore it does not mean pasture and it probably does not mean forestry.Marama Fox: Carry on. I am waiting for my turn.Hon DAVID PARKER: Well Marama Fox is signing the death warrant of the Māori Party at this election if it votes through this bill.Marama Fox: Oh my God!Hon DAVID PARKER: That is what—this is it. The only reason that you have pushed this hard—or that your party has pushed this hard—for this amendment is that you know that your party will be held to account by the electors of Hawke's Bay Northland and throughout the country for selling them down the drain in respect of GM pastures which can now be knocked out as legal and will be by this Minister—if in power to do so after the election—if this bill passes. Marama Fox that is what the Minister said that is what the dictionaries say a crop is and that is what most of us understand a crop is. People do not understand a crop to be a bit of grass or a bit of pasture growing. They understand a crop—Marama Fox: Yield me some time and I can answer your question.Hon DAVID PARKER: Well that is what the Minister said. The Minister I am sure will—Marama Fox: Just yield me your time.Hon DAVID PARKER: It is in Hansard. You read Hansard. You read a dictionary. Marama Fox you are consigning your party to history. That is the seriousness of what you are contemplating and we will cause you to be held to account for your egregious passage into law a bill that confers regulation-making powers on the Minister—[Interruption]The CHAIRPERSON (Lindsay Tisch): Order! I would like to hear what is being said and this constant barracking is unacceptable. Tone it down.Hon DAVID PARKER: Thank you Mr Chairman. I have made my point. The political consequences of this will be visited upon the Māori Party at the next election. A crop as the Minister said is something that produces crops such as cereal vegetables or fruit. That is what he said that is what the dictionaries say and that is what most people will think this clause makes. This is big politics for the Māori Party and you have got it wrong. You have got it wrong. The only reason you are back here supporting this is because of this amendment and this amendment does not do what you are telling your voters it does do.The Productivity Commission suggests various improvements to resource management processes which largely align with where the Labour Party stands on the need for freer rules re land availability for housing mechanisms to make sure that the inefficiencies of infrastructure use are visited upon those who cause them—if they put the subdivision in the wrong place—but none the less overcoming the problems of the drip-feeding of land through councils and land bankers at the moment. This legislation does not achieve those purposes. It further complicates the Resource Management Act (RMA). It hands too much power to the executive. The Minister essentially says: "Trust me in respect of my rules to overrule the substance of plans. I am not going to use them except responsibly." That is what he is saying but actually the power goes far broader than that and does allow central government to override local decisions made under plans.There are many other provisions in this bill so I am going to make a slightly procedural point. Here we are with the Government constructing amendments to every part of the RMA which is a very long document and every one of us is restricted to four calls. In a call we can really make only one or two points and in respect of important points such as that which I have just been making you have got to actually use more than one call on that one point. So through the Government whacking all of these changes to the RMA in one part you are effectively frustrating this Parliament having a decent debate about so many other details that are flawed in this bill from the long-term detriment of the environment to the increased costs to those who have to wrestle with this section. I have not had time to talk about the flawed collaborative processes or the other—"