Groundswell NZ's efforts are being noticed in Wellington. After Stuart Nash's attempts to smear us last year failed badly, now the Prime Minister is briefing media about logistics in meeting with us!

Background
Last month, the Prime Minister bowed to the media pressure and agreed to meet with Groundswell NZ – after previously ruling this out.

We’ve been pushing to get this meeting. We want to discuss directly with Ms Ardern the Government’s unworkable policies, the Groundswell NZ alternatives, and the failure in representation of farmers and growers by the established industry bodies.

But as it turned out, the PM's agreement to meet was conditional on the very pro-Government and establishment organisations that have failed to represent grassroots farmers’ being in the room.

In short, the PM’s spin doctors were trying to orchestrate a meeting where the PM will be shielded from Groundswell’s views by the likes of DairyNZ (who won't stand with Groundswell NZ to oppose the farming tax).

So we decided to call her out
This afternoon, we publicly reiterated our request for a one-to-one meeting and exposed what the PM’s office has been trying to do.

All too often, these industry bodies have stopped representing farmers to the Government and instead are now representing the Government to farmers. That's not what we're interested in being a part of.

The whole reason for the meeting was to tell Ms Ardern how the grassroots farmers are really feeling.

Groundswell NZ is now New Zealand’s largest grassroots farmers' movement (in terms of subscribed supporters). The Prime Minister should meet with us for a discussion – not try to side-line opposing views using the Government’s pet industry body lobbyists.

We’ll meet anywhere, any time, but not for a pantomime pretending to represent grassroots farmers. We'll even host Jacinda Ardern in Gore if she's coming through town.

We will continue to push for every opportunity to represent you as we fight to stop unworkable regulations placed on New Zealand’s farmers, growers, and rural communities.

Thank you for your support.