Hodgson: Share the Pain
By Rohan Quinby
During my time in politics, I learned two important principles. The first one is: why kick ‘em when they’re standing?
The second is: share the pain, when you can get away with it. This second principle I would now recommend to Pete
Hodgson.
The minister has been roundly criticised in clean, green New Zealand for asking farmers to help fund research to cut
down on bovine emissions that contribute to climate change. The reaction of dairy and beef farmers to the so-called
"flatulence tax" have been a little disproportionate.
Mind you, the entire sector is a little disproportionate.
50% of New Zealand’s greenhouse gas emissions come from livestock farming, but farming as a whole contributes only 7% to
this country’s GDP. Animal products account for 36% of agricultural exports, but livestock farming uses 76% of
agricultural land in New Zealand.
As a result of Kyoto commitments, the government has to take steps to reduce overall emissions of greenhouse gases. And
if research can discover a cleaner fart, then New Zealand farmers will be the first to benefit. Unfortunately, most
farmers don’t see it that way. In fact, they’ve wound themselves into such a fury that many are threatening to withhold
the proposed levy.
Back to the principle of sharing the pain. Maybe, just maybe, Hodgson could have got together with Marian Hobbs to
mitigate this political crisis by asking others to contribute to a cleaner environment. I’m talking about car owners.
New Zealand is the only country in the OECD that does not regulate vehicle emissions. To make matter worse, New Zealand
has one of the highest rates of vehicle ownership in the known world. According to the last State of the Environment
Report, car ownership has increased at more than twice the rate of population since 1972. In a city like Auckland, where
less people use public transit than the citizens of Los Angeles, it means that simply breathing the air can be
hazardous.
Although there have been calls for vehicle emissions testing, the word from the Hive has been that they don’t want to do
anything that would make car ownership too expensive. Of course, if they were really concerned about the costs of
transport for the average person, they would overhaul the way that public transit is funded and run in this country.
But let’s look at a jurisdiction where emissions testing has been brought in and see what kind of benefits it has
delivered. In British Columbia, the Air Care testing programme is credited with reducing vehicle emissions by 35 per
cent in its first ten years.
The vast majority of harmful emissions come from a minority of vehicles: the program identifies over 100,000 excessively
dirty vehicles every year. Reductions in air pollution are credited with saving lives, reducing hospital visits and are
estimated to contribute up to $1.6 billion in savings to the provincial economy.
And the whole program doesn’t cost taxpayers a cent. Annual costs are met through fees.
My advice to Hodgson? Share the pain. Get Marian Hobbs to bring in vehicle emissions testing now, and you undercut the
complaints of farmers that they have been unfairly targeted in the drive for a cleaner environment.
- Rohan G.H. Quinby Auckland, New Zealand - rohanq@rocketmail.com website: Anti-podean Journal ( http://www.geocities.com/rohanq.rm)