Consultation. It is one of those words that trip easily off the tongue these days. Sometimes those who set out to consult people make genuine and strenuous attempts to contact them; more often they go through the motions. The case that Act MP Rodney Hide has brought to public attention is probably typical.
He has disclosed that over the past two months representatives of three Government ministries have been talking at hui around the country in the name of consulting Maori on issues raised by global warming. Not surprisingly, given the subject, hui held in 10 regions at a cost to the taxpayer of $31,715 have attracted a grand total of 75 people. In some places it is said that the officials outnumbered the audience.
Probably the only person surprised by the attendance is the Environment Minister, Marian Hobbs. She says her "eyebrows went up" when she heard the number. "We didn't know it was only going to be 75 people," she said. What did she expect? Even in the cabinet, she concedes, eyes glaze over when papers are presented on the Government's possible response to global warming.
Genuine consultation requires more than an invitation to a meeting. Unless there is a clear and contentious proposal on the table the meeting is unlikely to attract many of those who might want to be consulted. If a Government really wants to engage the public in discussion of an important subject it has to be prepared to put up a solid proposal and face criticism. Too often, consultation is a timid attempt to do just the opposite - to test the water without getting wet.
This Government wants to ratify the 1997 Kyoto Protocol on climate change before its term is up. The protocol would oblige New Zealand to reduce greenhouse gas emissions to 1990 levels by 2012. That could mean a "carbon tax" on emissions from industry, agriculture (yes, cows and sheep) and motor vehicles. Now that is a suggestion that could fill public halls with people anxious to be consulted.
But the Government says it will not introduce a carbon tax before the 2002 election. In the meantime it is talking about animal drenches that could reduce methane emissions from farms, promoting more efficient energy use in buildings, industry and motor vehicles, and the planting of forests as carbon "sinks." No wonder eyes are glazing over.
The wonder is that the Government has attempted to consult any section of the public before its Forestry Minister, Pete Hodgson, went to an international conference at The Hague. There, right now, Governments are trying to agree on ways to meet the Kyoto targets. After a week, the major industrial powers - the United States and the European Union - are no closer to an agreement.
The US favours a system in which countries could offset their industry emission levels with forests and farmland that soak up carbon dioxide. Countries with ample farms and plantations could amass emission credits that they could sell to heavily industrialised places. The European Union prefers a system of straightforward reduction targets for the industrialised nations, presumably so that the US would face the same costs as Western Europe.
New Zealand, with an eye on its pine plantations, has been an advocate of tradeable emission credits. But it is an idea that strikes fear into local forestry owners, who increasingly include iwi interests and treaty claimants. If that was the reason for a series of hui, they were obviously unnecessary. The NZ Forest Industries Council has made its concerns known.
It fears that if forests become valued as carbon sinks, milling will be discouraged and investment in processing will suffer, particularly since processing would add to emissions. If trees are planted for carbon credits rather than the commercial value of timber, the international economics of forestry and land use generally will be distorted. And will credits be available when a harvested forest is replanted?
These questions are unlikely to be resolved even at The Hague conference. It was premature to hold public meetings on the subject. And to continue with as many as 10 hui when only a handful of people were turning up is a sign that consultation has gone mad.
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