Woolerton R Doug: Estimates Debate —  
Woolerton R Doug: Estimates Debate —  
[Volume:610;Page:7203] 
R DOUG WOOLERTON (NZ First) 
: 
 I wish to speak about Vote Agriculture and Forestry and the agriculture portfolio in general. I say that while many millions of dollars are appropriated for policy advice administrative and legislative provisions management of the forestry assets the Sustainable Farming Fund and many other issues by far the most major issue is not written into the appropriations. 
The biggest issue for agriculture as all the people involved in it know—and I know that the Minister knows this—is the exchange value of the New Zealand dollar compared with the currency of the countries that we trade with. We have seen a rising New Zealand dollar and a consequent fall in our farmers’ incomes but we have not seen any action—or even concern dare I say it—from the Government. We know that we have a floating dollar and we do not intervene in those things but it is outrageous that something else is being imposed upon the sector of the community that provides the major income for the people of New Zealand and therefore sets the living standards of New Zealanders that is not being imposed upon our competitors in Australia in America or in many other parts of the world. That is the cost of signing the Kyoto Protocol. 
 We know because we listen intently to the Minister’s speeches that the Government says we will ultimately be the net beneficiary of a carbon-tax regime. But to be a net beneficiary in the future is no use to our farmers who are struggling with a high exchange rate for the dollar and a falling income today. So the heat that has been generated by protest—and there is more protest to come as I understand it—from farmers in this country something that has been unseen for many years is not just about the $8.4 million they are being asked to contribute to research on methane emissions but is indicative of wider concerns in the farming and productive community. 
Those concerns are about where this Government is taking us. Is this Government concerned about primary production? Is it interested in encouraging exports from this country or will we face what we have been facing over the last year or two: a completely false consumer-led prop-up of the economy by means of immigration? New Zealand First for one says that that is not what built this country. Immigration is not what built this country and it will not take this country forward. This country will go forward only on the basis of the products of our labours of our wonderful climate of the ingenuity of our farmers and of the hard work of farmers and their families. That is what will take New Zealand forward. Any cost imposed on our farmers that is not imposed on their competitors in other countries obviously makes them less competitive and that is exactly what is happening in this country today. 
I want to place on record the concern of New Zealand First and I believe the concern of many of my colleagues on the Primary Production Committee at that. We know and we should be able to expect that any Government—be it a Labour-led Government a National Government a New Zealand First Government or whatever else—should recognise the dominance of agriculture in this country and the need to have a very very healthy export sector for the benefit of us all.