10. Hon DAVID CARTER (National) Link to this
to the Minister of Agriculture
Does he have confidence in his ministry?
Hon JIM ANDERTON (Minister of Agriculture) Link to this
In the succinct language of that member’s leader, it is almost certainly likely.
Does the Minister think it is acceptable that the Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry, after approving a highly promising sustainable farming project, and despite that project meeting all the set conditions, then allowed the project to languish for 5 years before making the promised $250,000 available; if so, why?
I have to presume, because the member did not say so, that this money is from the Sustainable Farming Fund.
Hon Dr Nick SmithWell, I think the rest of the House gets an idea about hopelessness when they hear from Mr Smith. The ministry administers the Sustainable Farming Fund, not the Minister. It is an independent process.
If this project has taken as long as that to authorise, then I can only assume that those who were responsible for the authorisation did not have confidence in the project until such time as all the information was obtained, and that they then approved it.
In light of the Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry’s internal memo admitting that the incident was “extremely embarrassing for MAF” and that its “communication had been extremely poor”, why did the Minister have the key official responsible for this fiasco appointed to his office as his senior adviser?
The official who is in my office was the official who actually instigated the Sustainable Farming Fund. There is one thing worse than taking 5 years to approve a project under the Sustainable Farming Fund, and that is not having a Sustainable Farming Fund, which was the position under the National Government. We would not have been waiting 5 years for a project; we would have been waiting forever, because it never had a fund in the first place.
Does the Minister think it is acceptable that the Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry completely ignored 12 months of correspondence asking for an update on the funding status of this project, including complaints to the Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry’s director-general, to the Minister of Māori Affairs, and to himself as the Minister of Agriculture; if not, what has he since done about it?
I know—and the member may not, because he is described by many as the invisible spokesperson for the National Party on agriculture—that throughout New Zealand unequivocally farmers and farmers’ organisations are strongly supportive of the Sustainable Farming Fund. They think it is the best investment programme for research and development that any Government has ever instituted, and they are waiting with bated breath to see how someone like David Carter, if he ever gets the chance, might maladminister it.
I seek leave to table the Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry’s internal memo, which states amongst other things that all failings—and there have been many of them—appear to have been at the Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry’s end.
Madam SPEAKER