Fitzsimons Jeanette: Questions for Oral Answer — Questions to Ministers Questions to Members 
Fitzsimons Jeanette: Questions for Oral Answer — Questions to Ministers Questions to Members 
[Volume:621;Page:16521] 
7.  
JEANETTE FITZSIMONS (Co-Leader—Green) 
 to the  
Minister of Agriculture 
: Has he received any recent advice on the sustainability of New Zealand farming practices; if so what action is he taking as a result? 
Hon JIM SUTTON (Minister of Agriculture) 
: 
 Yes. The Parliamentary Commissioner for the Environment has published a report called  
Growing for Good: Intensive farming sustainability and New Zealand’s environment 
. The Government has already implemented many policies in the areas he discusses under our focus on sustainable development. 
Jeanette Fitzsimons 
: Is the Minister concerned at the finding of the report that across all farming sectors nitrogen fertiliser use has increased by 160 percent in just 6 years; and what impact does he expect this to have on water quality in lowland streams and central North Island lakes given the advice from the National Institute of Water and Atmospheric Research that they are already seriously polluted from agricultural runoff? 
Hon JIM SUTTON 
: I am aware that that is a startling increase and is partly brought about by the increasing prevalence of the clover weevil which means that natural clover cannot fix as much nitrogen as before. I look at it in the context of the situation that 99 percent of dairy suppliers who require resource consents obtain them and 17 percent—and very rapidly increasing—of dairy farmers utilise input-output nutrient management systems. I appreciate that farmers can mitigate the effects of increased artificial nitrogen use and increasingly and vigorously are doing so. 
Janet Mackey 
: Can the Minister describe any particular programmes? 
Hon JIM SUTTON 
: Yes I could at length but I will just say that this Government facilitated an agreement between the dairy industry local government and central government—the Dairying and Clean Streams Accord—which addresses issues of intensive dairy farming. The Sustainable Farming Fund has funded 101 specific projects that address the issues that the Parliamentary Commissioner for the Environment has raised in his report and the Government’s Water Programme of Action is studying better ways to allocate water resources. 
Sue Bradford 
: Is the Minister concerned that New Zealand’s soil loss to the oceans through erosion occurs at a rate 10 times faster than the world average and has been accelerated by land clearance and stocking rates on steep country; and how will he manage this issue to prevent a recurrence of the disastrous floods in deforested catchments that hit New Zealand again earlier this year? 
Hon JIM SUTTON 
: Members should recall that New Zealand is a geologically young country and at the same time as we are being thrust from the oceans by the movements of tectonic plates the top is being washed off and is flowing back into the oceans. I would however say that there is erosion that has been accelerated by what is almost certainly unsustainable patterns of land use in many places and I have officials devising policies to address those problems in the future. 
Stephen Franks 
: Has the Minister ever asked his officials the Minister of Police or the Minister of Justice to calculate the cost of crime and the fear of crime to New Zealand farming families or the loss of sustainability of valuable stock on land that thieves and thugs now treat as public access land; and what is the Minister doing to persuade Mr Goff that the criminal law is not working to protect rural New Zealand? 
Hon JIM SUTTON 
: I can certainly say that one thing I will not be doing is supporting the member’s initiative to make it legal for farmers to shoot trespassers. 
Jeanette Fitzsimons 
: What strategies does the Minister have to ensure that New Zealand farming survives further increases in energy prices as world oil production peaks given the heavy reliance on fertilisers and pesticides made from fossil fuels an increase of 30 percent in direct energy inputs to farming in just a decade large electricity demands to pump irrigation and high fuel use to transport bulk agricultural exports to market? 
Hon JIM SUTTON 
: I will certainly encourage the adoption of irrigation technologies that rely on gravity to distribute water rather than on unnecessary pumping. There are good answers to all the member’s other questions but I cannot really go through them all in the short time allowed. 
Keith Locke 
: Will the Minister accept the recommendations of the commissioner to lead in the development and implementation of indicators of sustainable farming? 
Hon JIM SUTTON 
: The Government will certainly be taking a lead in the facilitation of sustainable farming practices. As to whether the Government itself will develop the indicators the member seeks that is something we are still considering. 
Jeanette Fitzsimons 
: If New Zealand faces trade barriers because of unsustainable farm practices as the commissioner suggests will the Minister manage that risk by making New Zealand farming more sustainable or will he just try to use World Trade Organization rules to force customers to accept environmentally damaging products? 
Hon JIM SUTTON 
: It is my firm belief that New Zealand is second to no nation when it comes to sustainable farm management practices. Everything this Government does encourages further progress to be made in that way.