More than 50 people braved the winter cold to attend a meeting on climate change on Tuesday at the Tauranga Boys' College.

The first of a series of public meetings to be held across NZ, it was hosted by MP for Bay of Plenty and Opposition Spokesperson for Climate Change Todd Muller.

'The Government has recently released its Zero Carbon Bill proposal,” says Todd.

'My job as the Opposition Spokesperson for Climate Change is to look at the Government's proposal and understand the Zero Carbon Bill, a Climate Commission, and what a target could look like in the next 32 years through to 2050.

'And make sure that the framework, the institution that will be part with or without our support is at least designed to the greatest extent possible to protect this community, to ensure that we are economically strong, and can make any adjustments over the next ten to fifteen years, and onwards. That's my job.”

Todd spoke for about 15 minutes, before opening up the meeting to the audience to ask questions. These ranged from coal, mining, electrical options, new technology, energy, pricing carbon, nuclear power, to climate change issues.

'My first public meeting last night on National Party's perspective on the Zero Climate Bill and climate change generally was fantastic,” says Todd.

'I found it to be an awesome conversation.

'The famous author F. Scott Fitzgerald once wrote that the test of a first-rate intelligence is the ability to hold two opposed ideas in mind at the same time and still retain the ability to function. As absurd as it may sound, that is exactly what climate change demands of us. It is a complex conversation that incorporates science, economics, and everything in between.

'Later this year the Government will be introducing the Zero Carbon Bill to Parliament as they look to establish an Independent Climate Commission and to reassess our emissions reductions targets,” says Todd.

BOP MP Todd Muller addressing the audience at Tauranga Boys College on the Zero Climate Bill.

'As complex as the conversation is, it's one that we need to have. That's why I will be hosting a series of public meetings to discuss just what the Zero Carbon Bill might mean for our communities, our businesses, and our families.”

'It was a good round-house type open discussion,” says one of the audience, a Waikato farmer who asked to remain anonymous.

'I came tonight because I have two dairy farms I'm trying to run, and I don't know how I can reduce emissions without dropping a lot of production and at huge cost. Unless we all step back 60 years to when I was a kid. To when my father had draft horses. My father broke in his farm with draft horses. And they do fart and belch but they're not chewing up oil and diesel.”

The farmer has two dairy farms and one dry stock farm, all near Morrinsville.

'I found Todd's talk helpful because it gives me a line in to what a National government might look at and think, and where they might go,” says the Morrinsville farmer. 'I don't know where the hell Labour's going to go.

'That's why I'm here tonight, to get a handle on what this looks like in the future. Because I've got to maybe alter how I'm going to farm, but at the moment I just don't know how to reduce emissions, unless I cut back the cow numbers by one third say, and then there'll be people starve.

'It looks to me like the green movement are going to condemn two billion people to death by starvation if we don't keep feeding people. Because the people who are feeding people are under huge attack.

'Growing up on a farm, it's going back awhile and we weren't thinking about emissions then.”

The farmer grew up on his parent's dairy farm, which he now owns.

'That's the dry stock farm. The other one is all in my family's farm. And the other one, my home farm, I've been on 53 years through thick and thin. I'm a survivor. A lot of people haven't. My own sharemilker, he had a farm and didn't make it. He went broke. He had a farm and lost it. So it's not everybody survives.”

Todd has 20 more meetings booked from Northland to Invercargill, with more in the pipeline.

'These will be a two way discussions with me delivering a short presentation and then taking questions,” says Todd. 'I'd love to hear people's climate-related hopes, fears, aspirations and concerns. I look forward to the conversation.”