The Groundswell NZ team have been busy in Wellington taking the on-the-ground issues facing grassroots food producers and rural communities to the politicians in Wellington.
Bryce and Laurie teamed up with Groundswell spokespeople Jamie McFadden and Steven Cranston, as well as our good friends and agriculture advocates Jane Smith and Owen Jennings, to tell ministers and MPs what needs changing to sort out the unworkable regulations on agriculture.
The team presented to a special joint meeting of the Primary Production and Environment committees and then met with National, ACT, and NZ First ministers.
This Government is making some good progress on rolling back the worst of the previous Government’s attacks on farming, but so far, it isn’t enough and not nearly fast enough to turn things around for the many farmers facing financial and regulatory hardship across New Zealand.
That’s why we’re making sure they know how bad things are and how urgent it is that they take action. Whether you’re a farmer producing food, working in the rural economy, or a city dweller reliant on stable food prices at the supermarket, we all need the Government to repeal the unworkable regulations on farmers so we can get back to feeding the country and exporting to the world.
A summary of our submission
Freshwater management
Bryce presented on the effectiveness of catchment groups like his local Pomahaka Water Care Group, showing how the trends for water quality are heading in the right direction. Groundswell has always stood for local on-the-ground action as the best place for achieving commonsense conservation. Central and local government micromanagement stops that local coordination and moves the decision-making away to people who don’t understand the unique issues in each area.
Jamie explained how Freshwater regulations were what started Groundswell and that farmers are still plagued by the one-size-fits all, impractical, and high-compliance regulations that take little notice of the voluntary initiatives like Pomahaka. He also covered the problems with freshwater farm plans and the need suspend or repeal the relevant regulations while they are reviewed.
RMA reform
Jamie and Jane emphasised the detrimental impacts of the RMA Section 6 land classifications some councils are pushing through, including SNAs, SASMs (Sites and Areas of Significance to Maori), ONFs (Outstanding Natural Features) and ONLs (Outstanding Natural Landscapes) and called for all further work on these classifications to be suspended for 3 years to undergo a comprehensive review (and not just for SNAs).
If you have been following our Stop the Land Grab campaign, you will understand the urgent need for the Government to stop councils from continuing with this flawed process while the resource management system is reformed. Natural, cultural, and heritage values on private land are turned into a liability instead of being genuinely protected. SASMs are of particular concern due to their undefined cultural values and unclear implications for land owners.
Groundswell NZ continues to push for holistic, integrated environmental planning legislation, rather than policies in different silos.
Emissions
Steve and Owen argued for a free-market approach to agricultural emissions, using accurate climate models informed by the latest science, especially on methane. As always, we reminded MPs that New Zealand farming is already among the most emissions-efficient in the world and heavy-handed regulations risk sending our production offshore to less efficient foreign farmers.
They also pointed out the problems with the Ministry for the Environment’s use of the worst-case RCP 8.5 climate model, which no respectable scientist thinks is a likely outcome anymore.
Our key points
1. Repeal the Natural and Built Environment Act and Spatial Planning Act (achieved last year).
2. Repeal the Freshwater regulations and extend or repeal Freshwater Farm Plan regulations.
3. Suspend new Section 6 classifications and review all related matters.
4. Repeal the National Policy Statement on Indigenous Biodiversity.
5. Ensure RMA reform is comprehensive, including National Policy Statements.
6. Allow the rural sector to draft policy solutions for environmental issues.
7. Manage agricultural emissions through market-based mechanisms, not pricing schemes.
Ministerial meetings
We met with Todd McClay, Minister of Agriculture, and Penny Simmonds, Minister for the Environment about many issues, particularly farm plans and the Stop the Land Grab campaign to reform the RMA
Then, we spoke with Mark Paterson, Associate Minister of Agriculture with delegation for wool, about the difficulties facing sheep farming with the state of the wool market.
We also talked to Andrew Hoggard, Associate Minister for Agriculture and Mark Cameron, Chair of the Primary Production Committee.
Watch our submission to the committees here:
We also had a productive meeting with Federated Farmers at their office in Wellington. We’ll be at Fieldays with them in the Rural Advocacy Hub at site D70, Gallagher Building. Make sure you come see us if you’re attending this year.
Jock Allison
It is with sadness we acknowledge the passing of Jock Allison.
Jock was a dedicated man of agriculture. He was responsible for bringing a number of new sheep breeds to New Zealand when he was involved with Invermay Research Centre and built strong relationships with those he came across.
Lately, Jock had become a strong spokesman for reviewing all new science on methane and was the main driving force behind bringing Tom Sheahen to New Zealand. Tom reviewed the Happer and van Wijngaarden paper on methane being an irrelevant gas, something Jock was very adamant about.
Jock will be sadly missed.
Thank you again for your support.
Kind regards,
Bryce, Laurie, Mel and the Team at Groundswell NZ
