Peters Winston: Oral Questions — Questions to MinistersText is incorporated into the Bound VolumePeters Winston: Oral Questions — Questions to Ministers[Sitting date: 04 November 2015. Volume:709;Page:7691. Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume.]5.Rt Hon WINSTON PETERS (Leader—NZ First) to the Minister of Conservation: Does she stand by all her statements made in the House yesterday in answer to oral question No. 12; if so why?Hon NICKY WAGNER (Associate Minister of Conservation) on behalf of theMinister of Conservation: Yes; because the only good possum is a dead one.Rt Hon Winston Peters: Can the Minister explain—[Interruption]Mr SPEAKER: Order! The member will resume his seat. I apologise for interrupting the member but I need to hear the supplementary question. That requires certainly less noise from my immediate right.Rt Hon Winston Peters: Can the Minister of Conservation explain why she disagrees with this statement: “Taskforce Green has been expanded recently to employ long-term unemployed people in possum control in areas of high priority.”?Hon NICKY WAGNER: Unfortunately trapping has not proved to be very effective and it is particularly ineffective in places like Northland which has very palatable vegetation and rugged areas. Evidence says the combination of both of those means that the attracting of possums to traps is very difficult. So we can use 1080 because it is distributed right across the terrain and also during the time of year when there are very low amounts of food so possum kill is maximised. Actually at the Warawara Forest local iwi have agreed that they need to use 1080. It is particularly suitable for their forest because it is so steep and has such difficult terrain.Rt Hon Winston Peters: Are the Department of Conservation her own ministry and former National Ministers deluded as she said yesterday for supporting “the fur recovery industry by providing access to some areas of conservation land to trap possums especially where there are conservation benefits.”; if not why not?Hon NICKY WAGNER: No; because not many trappers have pursued trapping in Northland and that is for two reasons: the smaller size of possums and the particularly rugged country in that area. The commercial trapping that has been done there has not resolved the decline of the forest’s health.Rt Hon Winston Peters: Will the Minister climb off her high horse and apologise to the Northland Regional Council and the 350 mainly young Northlanders who since 2011 under National—Mr SPEAKER: Order! Just finish the question.Rt Hon Winston Peters: —have earned National Certificate of Educational Achievement level 2 and three credits and potential jobs by way of its possum project; if not why not?Hon NICKY WAGNER: No; because we think there are better ways to increase economic action in Northland. And I would like to note that the data released this week from the household labour force survey from Statistics New Zealand shows unemployment in Northland has decreased by 0.5 percent in the last quarter it has decreased by 1.5 percent over the last 2 years and 4300 more people are living in Northland. If the member visited Northland—Mr SPEAKER: Order! The answer has gone on quite long enough.