Threats as Sutton holds line on levy

By AUDREY YOUNG

Agriculture Minister Jim Sutton yesterday invited farmers' ideas on how to collect and administer the unpopular flatulence tax on livestock then later threatened to legislate to enforce its payment if necessary.

He also stuck by the line in Parliament that it was a research levy, not a tax, then proceeded to call it a tax, much to the delight of the Opposition, which insists that it is a tax.

And he implied that farmers were wealthy enough to afford an extra $300 or $400 a year payment.

The tax (or levy) will total $8.4 million a year and will pay for research on methane emission. It is part of the Government's commitment under the Kyoto Protocol to reduce greenhouse gas emissions.

"There is no proposal for a tax on flatulence," Mr Sutton said in response to questions from National's David Carter. "There never has been."

"The Government has excepted pastoral farmers from emissions charges that could have cost them an average of $30,000 to $40,000 a year each.

"Instead they are being asked to contribute an average of $300 to $400 a year on research to help reduce emissions."

New Zealand First MP Doug Woolerton asked what he was going to do if farmers refused to pay the research levy - which others call a tax.

Mr Sutton: "Should it prove necessary to legislate to collect this levy or tax then we would do no doubt exactly the same as we do with those people who refuse to pay their income tax or other taxes."

Acknowledging the outrage in the farming sector to the charge, he said no government liked to undertake unpopular measures "but this is a response to probably the world's most serious environmental crisis".

"New Zealand's biggest contributor to this global crisis is our pastoral farming sector which emits more than half of New Zealand's greenhouse gases.

"It would be totally inappropriate for that sector which enjoys an average taxable income of over $106,000 per taxpayer to escape scot-free any responsibility for tacking this problem."

United Future's Larry Baldock said the Government was risking alienating the primary production sector "over the relatively paltry sum of $8 million compared to what that sector generates for the New Zealand economy."