PQ 9. Agricultural Land Use—OVERSEER Nutrient Management Tool [Sitting date: 26 November 2014. Volume:702;Page:8. Text is subject to correction.]

9. RICHARD PROSSER (NZ First) to the Minister for Primary Industries : How much will it cost to make the nutrient management tool OVERSEER fully fit for purpose across all agricultural land users in New Zealand?

Hon NATHAN GUY (Minister for Primary Industries): That depends on your definition of “fully fit for purpose”. Increasing funding to cover every soil type and every variation of every farming system is not economically feasible or required by stakeholders. However, we are confident that we can find ways of using OVERSEER and other tools to create an enduring framework for nutrient management that drives change and behaviours to achieve better environmental performance.

Richard Prosser : What steps has he personally taken as Minister since 2012-13 to ensure that OVERSEER is fit for purpose when AgResearch’s annual report stated: “With the requirement for Regional Councils to apply nutrient limits, Overseer is playing an important role in Regional Plans, Environment Court hearings related to nutrient limit setting and compliance monitoring, and it will need significant development to be fit for these intended uses.”?

Hon NATHAN GUY : There are about three questions in one there. What is happening is a huge amount of work in science. That science is feeding in to OVERSEER. The member needs to understand that OVERSEER has been around for 20 years. It is evolving, it is going to be very important into the future, and science is playing a big part in that.

Richard Prosser : What confidence can farmers have that this is not going to become a gravy train, given that Country-Wide magazine reported earlier this year that it took Ravensdown Fertiliser Cooperative consultant Charlotte Glass, who is an experienced OVERSEER operator, 22 hours to carry out just 1 year’s nutrient budget at a potential charge to the farmer of somewhere between $4,000 and $6,000?

Hon NATHAN GUY : That is just anecdotal. What I will say is that farmers realise that there is a challenge, as do all of the professionals who are providing a valuable service in the primary sector. They all realise that their nutrient performance and how they are managing their nutrients inside the farm gate and elsewhere in primary sector systems are going to have to improve. OVERSEER will play an important role in that.

Richard Prosser : I seek leave to table a document showing that the cost to a farmer—

Mr SPEAKER : Order! I need the source of the document.

Richard Prosser : It is from a farming paper that is not widely available.

Mr SPEAKER : I will accept the member’s word that it is not widely available, and therefore I will put the leave and the House can decide. Leave is sought to table that particular publication. Is there any objection? There is not. It can be tabled. Document, by leave, laid on the Table of the House

ENDS

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