Cameron MarkMARK CAMERON (ACT): Methane—that's right. Biogenic methane animal ruminant methane—the very gaseous emission that the left lambasted the rural sector for for the past six years like somehow there's a farmer amongst them. I ask them: what on earth are you talking about? Well I say there are no farmers. Where are you farmers that you speak of such things? What of Megan Woods or Chlöe Swarbrick yesterday and today offering evangelical sermons of what farmers should do to farmers? Debates offered from Central Auckland of how farmers should live their lives. This Government: we are farmer-friendly. We listen to common sense. That is why I rise today in this House to speak of the Government's split-gas announcement. That is why oral questions raised yesterday by the left highlighted their blatant ignorance of farming and on-farm practices. What—did you all fail third-form science? Gracious me! It's a short-lived gas. That's why this Government wants a genuinely non-partisan review. Goodness gracious! Methane decays back to carbon dioxide—it decays back to carbon dioxide in 10 or 12 years. Hon Marama Davidson: Woah! The independent climate commission. MARK CAMERON: You all know this stuff because what feeds plants? Oh! Or could—Hon Marama Davidson: Are you going to call them? That's not Chlöe; it's the independent climate commission. SPEAKER: Yeah just keep it reasonable. MARK CAMERON: —you go farming or perhaps you're just bereft of it? The agricultural contributions are essentially—[Interruption]SPEAKER: That's enough. MARK CAMERON: —static. They're static. Peak herd was in 2005 and 2006. Ruminant numbers have been falling ever since.What do you the Greens know of farming? What would you have us slaughter all our animals? If not how many—how many should we slaughter? Bloody fantasy I say to the Green Party when it comes to that nonsense. New Zealand used to have over 70 million sheep—70 million. It's now less than 25 million.Peak dairy herd has been falling since 2005 and land-use changes are constantly evolving. What did the left forget to account for all farm on-farm sequestration? The tens of millions of plantings by farmers—farmers—and existing offsets. Oh the silence from the other side is deafening.So the true question is: what is the Government asking? Hon Marama Davidson: So when are you going to listen to the science? Where's your science?MARK CAMERON: Are the methane targets fair? Are they fair?SPEAKER: Sorry to interrupt the member. I'll ask the Green member to refer to Speaker's ruling 64/2 and for that matter Speakers' ruling 64/3 in the Speakers' Rulings. A member strictly speaking has a right to be heard in silence. No one observes that because interjections can be rare and reasonable but the barrage that is coming from there breaches that Speaker's ruling absolutely. So we'll just have the rest of Mr Cameron's speech respectfully listened to.MARK CAMERON: I am certainly grateful Mr Speaker thank you. I ask again: are the methane targets fair? What is fair? How will we as a Government prevent emissions leakage if we get the methodology wrong to less efficient jurisdictions? We are the most efficient friendly farmers in the world second to none and I am not shy about saying that and yet we hear the left say all the time You lot"—the farming sector—"you need to do more." Ivory towers—that's all I say to them. Wake up. Methane is simple. It's the symbiosis. The morphology of gut bacteria—animal gut bacteria. It's what we're feeding these animals and their genetics. We're a plant-based pastoral system for goodness sake and yet I hear the boffins say "Use boluses". Well I'm a farmer that's got five or six broken bones from drenching animals. What a nonsense! "Drive down the emissions." they say. Does anyone on that side of the House actually know how many mature animal bovines would have to be drenched annually twice a year? I ask you—you do not know. I would ask that side of the House.Further emission reductions will happen. Farmers embrace technology every day. The Government has announced GE as part of our future moving forward. It is what we are feeding these animals and having animal genetics and farmers that embrace that technology is our new future. I know that that side of the House may struggle to comprehend that logic but then again farm logic is beneath them; not this Government. Farmers always have and will continue to innovate their way out of these problems. With sensible farm-gate logic rural New Zealand will seek and mitigate the quandary which is methane science and emissions. We will no longer fester in the left's ideology if we as a farming community are backed by the Government and every day we thank them for it."