This is to tell you about a new bill from Mark Cameron that could be exactly what we need to stop overreaching councils using climate change to justify their regulations.
We also have an update on our priorities three years on from 2021’s Howl of a Protest.
Mark Cameron’s bill
Mark Cameron’s new bill could make a real difference to those facing unworkable regulations from their councils in the name of climate change.
Mark’s bill would amend the Resource Management Act to prohibit councils from considering climate change when making their rules and regulations.
As Mark points out, emissions and climate change are international and national issues, not something a regional council in New Zealand can fix.
Further, because the Emissions Trading Scheme operates nationally, any reductions councils squeeze out of their locals just makes room for emissions elsewhere in the country. Similar to the Farming Tax sending production offshore to less efficient foreign farmers, any theoretical reduction in one region will just get emitted elsewhere.
Regional councils are not equipped for these kinds of decisions so it makes sense to remove emissions from the things they can consider and get them back to their core business.
As Mark says:
"It’s about getting local government back to basics and stopping councils feeling like they need to suppress local productive activity like farming for the sake of the planet.”
This isn’t a drastic change, either. It just puts things back mostly the way they were before Labour changed them in 2020.
We’ve seen many councils try to continue the previous government’s approach to over-regulating, especially on rural land use rules, even when the new government is slowly changing direction. Getting councils back in their lane would be a much-needed change.
This has the potential to make a big difference for a lot of people, but especially farmers. Some councils have set their own targets for reducing emissions, including agricultural emissions, separate from the central government targets, and could use those to deny resource consents to farmers. And that’s even if those farmers are complying with whatever central government rules apply to their emissions.
We've seen councils using the most extreme estimate of climate change impact (called RCP8.5) for their planning and rules, when even the climate change big shots at the IPCC say that pathway is no longer a possible outcome. Councils just aren't set up to deal with emissions - they never should have been put in the position of trying to - and Mark's bill could free them from worrying about it.
So where to from here for the bill? It currently sits in Parliament’s ballot for members’ bills and has a chance of being drawn as Parliament deals with other MPs’ bills - so fingers crossed.
Three years since Howl of a Protest
We recently marked three years since our Howl of a Protest and many of the issues we were protesting have either been addressed or have changes coming that we’re keeping on at the Government about.
Thank you again to everyone who came out that day. Hundreds of tractors and thousands of people turned out to put grassroots issues in the media. The politicians couldn’t ignore us and the effects of unworkable regulations after that protest.
Thank you as well to everyone who came to support us since then. Your support is why we’ve seen such a change in what is possible in New Zealand politics on regulations affecting food producers – especially on emissions.
There is still a lot of work to be done and we’re not going anywhere, but it’s worth reflecting on how much we’ve accomplished since then and what to target going forward. That’s why we’ve updated our list of priorities for the new political environment.
Click here to give them a read.
Thank you again for your support.
Kind regards,
Bryce, Laurie, Mel and the Team at Groundswell NZ
