Ardern Shane: General Debates 
Ardern Shane: General Debates 
[Volume:611;Page:8125] 
SHANE ARDERN (NZ National—Taranaki - King Country) 
: 
 I would like to start my comments in the general debate by thanking Federated Farmers and all the other Opposition political parties for their campaign against this ridiculous stupid flatulence tax that has turned New Zealand into an international laughing stock. I ask the media of this country how it is that that stupid tax has appeared as many times in  
The 
Times 
 of London and in the  
New York Times 
 as it has in the  
Waikato Times 
. How has that come about? It has turned us into an international laughing stock.  
I come back to some of the comments made by the Hon Trevor Mallard in his hopeless contribution. I ask him why he and the Cabinet did not listen to Jim Sutton when he said that the tax is a stupid tax and that we should not proceed with it. Why did you roll the Minister of Agriculture? 
The ASSISTANT SPEAKER (H V Ross Robertson) 
: The member must not bring me into debate. 
SHANE ARDERN 
: The poor Minister of Agriculture has been rolled on that and so have all his cohorts in that Cabinet. The Minister of Agriculture said: “Farmers can’t do anything about these emissions given current technology so taxing them would be a pointless exercise.” That is what the Minister of Agriculture stated in the  
Southland Times 
 on 2 May 2002. Today the Minister of Research Science and Technology the Hon Pete Hodgson said in the House that if farmers were to fund this research themselves then the matter would not be proceeded with. I ask Mr Hodgson what he thinks the $100 million the dairy industry is putting into research and development this year alone is being spent on. He should take some time meet with ViaLactica Biosciences (NZ) and find out what money is being spent on. Three million alone is being spent on ruminant efficiency. 
The Minister over there has been ruminating about a whole lot of stuff and contributing to the greenhouse gas emissions overwhelmingly—in fact much more than our livestock around the country—but the facts are that industry is funding research into ruminant efficiency. What has that research shown so far? It has shown that there is as a high chance of increasing methane emissions from ruminant animals by improving their efficiency as there is of reducing methane emissions. There is as high a chance of that as there is of reducing it. I ask the Minister given his comments in the House whether he will front up at the meetings and back away from this stupid tax. It is a simple question to answer. Will he back down—yes or no? So far there is no indication he will. It is a question of who it was within the Cabinet given that it was not the Minister of Agriculture or the Minister of Research Science and Technology who came up with that stupid idea. Who was it? 
Hon David Carter 
: Heather Simpson. 
SHANE ARDERN 
: It would have to be someone as high up as Heather Simpson. 
Simon Power 
: Rick Barker. 
SHANE ARDERN 
: No no it would have to be somebody who is above the Cabinet—that must be Heather Simpson—who would come up with such a brain-dead notion as putting a levy on flatulence when so far the science from Ruakura and other reputable science and research and development institutions around the country has stated that the research those institutions have done shows there is as much as a 40 percent chance that the measurement of methane is wrong. I ask where that nonsensical idea is coming from. Will that Minister or any Minister from the Cabinet front up at the protest that will take place here on 4 September and explain this stupid notion to the farmers—yes or no? It is a simple question to answer and nobody will respond to it. There has not yet been a Labour member at the meetings around the country that I have attended and I have attended a large number. There has not been one either a Minister or a member. I would like to know where they have fronted up. They tell me they have. They are honourable members so they will have fronted up somewhere. I am just not sure where. They have not been at any of the meetings I have been at. 
Opposition Member 
: Just get Jill Pettis. 
SHANE ARDERN 
: That would be most helpful. That would certainly add to the flatulence.