Carter David: Questions for Oral Answer — Questions to Ministers 
Carter David: Questions for Oral Answer — Questions to Ministers 
[Volume:610;Page:7301] 
7.  
Hon DAVID CARTER (NZ National) 
 to the  
Minister of Agriculture 
: Will he or any of his Government colleagues on his behalf attend the public meetings called by Federated Farmers to discuss the agricultural greenhouse gas emissions research levy at Masterton this evening at Hamilton on Monday evening and at Timaru next Friday; if not why not? 
Hon Dr MICHAEL CULLEN (Acting Minister of Agriculture) 
: 
 My colleague Mr Sutton is overseas in the United States and Canada as part of the build-up to the World Trade Organization ministerial meeting in September which takes priority over the Federated Farmers meetings. 
Hon David Carter 
: I raise a point of order Mr Speaker. This question was submitted at around 10 o’clock this morning. It asks quite specifically whether he or any of his Government colleagues will attend the meeting. The answer that I have just been given half-answers the question by suggesting that Mr Sutton will be unavailable for the public meetings. As the issue is quite important I wish to know whether any of his other Labour Party colleagues will attend those three public meetings. 
Hon Dr MICHAEL CULLEN 
: That is over to them. 
Mr SPEAKER 
: The Minister said that was over to them and that ends his responsibility. He said that the Hon Jim Sutton would not attend. 
Hon David Carter 
: How can the Minister claim that he wants genuine dialogue with farmers when he and his colleagues will not attend public meetings called to hear their concerns? 
Hon Dr MICHAEL CULLEN 
: Whilst there has been a lot of air generated on this issue I think it is fair to say that even Federated Farmers would regard the World Trade Organization ministerial round as more important than its particular meetings on the emissions levy. 
Janet Mackey 
: For how long has it been proposed that New Zealand join the Kyoto Protocol? 
Hon Dr MICHAEL CULLEN 
: The former National Party Minister Simon Upton signed New Zealand up to the Kyoto Protocol with the agreement of the then Cabinet. Since then the Government has reviewed the protocol and decided to ratify it because climate change is a serious issue. 
Mr SPEAKER 
: That was a long way outside the original question. 
Peter Brown 
: Noting those answers is the Minister telling us that he views Federated Farmers with such contempt that he will not ensure that one Government member attends at least one of those meetings? 
Hon Dr MICHAEL CULLEN 
: I am aware of a senior Minister who has offered to meet with the Federated Farmers board on this issue and is yet to receive a response to that offer and who has offered to attend meetings provided of course that he has sufficient notice to be able to reorganise his diary. Federated Farmers are showing a tendency to organise these meetings at short notice and then to spring the invitations. 
Gerrard Eckhoff 
: What briefing did the Minister of Agriculture give to his Labour Party colleagues on the hostile reception he received at the Federated Farmers conference in Auckland recently and is he asking the House to believe that that reception has no bearing on the failure of the Government—either Ministers or back-bench MPs—to front up to livestock farmers over the next week or so? 
Hon Dr MICHAEL CULLEN 
: I think the members of the Labour Government caucus were well aware of the reception that the Minister received. I can assure the member that the timing of the World Trade Organization ministerial round and the preparations for it had nothing to do with the Federated Farmers meeting in New Zealand. 
Hon David Carter 
: Why did Government officials tell farmers at the consultation meetings held last year that they would discuss only the method of collecting the tax and not whether there should be a tax; what sort of sham consultation process is that? 
Hon Dr MICHAEL CULLEN 
: More than half our greenhouse gas emissions come from the agricultural sector. The agricultural sector will be exempt from the carbon tax specifically although it will get flow-on effects from other carbon taxes. Instead it will receive a very small levy for research purposes. It is the most favourably treated sector of any in the New Zealand economy on the issue of the Kyoto Protocol. 
Hon Dr Nick Smith 
: I raise a point of order Mr Speaker. My colleague David Carter’s question was specifically about the issue of consultation—why the consultation was only on the issue of how the officials collected the tax rather than on the tax itself. The Minister made absolutely no attempt to answer that at all. 
Mr SPEAKER 
: Yes he did. 
Shane Ardern 
: I ask the Minister of Agriculture in the light of the Labour Government’s insistence on going ahead with this stupid tax which has made New Zealand an international laughing stock will the Labour members be prepared to put their money where their mouths are and to make a financial contribution to my flatulence tax jar; yes or no? 
Hon Dr MICHAEL CULLEN 
: No there is a risk the member may lift the lid of the jar and God knows what might come out in that case.