Small towns surrounded by pine trees - Hoggard

"Our plan was to keep farmers farming. Now they'll be selling up so fast you won't even hear the dogs barking on the back of the ute as they drive off.

"The Government's plan means the small towns, like Wairoa, Pahiatua, Taumaranui - pretty much the whole of the East Coast and central North Island and a good chunk of the top of the South - will be surrounded by pine trees quicker than you say 'ETS application'," he says.

Hoggard believes that it will be goodbye to all the small town cafes, car yards, schools, pubs, rugby clubs, hairdressers, and supermarkets that are supported by the agriculture around them.

The ACT Party says the rest of the world will be thanking Jacinda Ardern for destroying NZ's farming industry.

The party's primary industries spokeperson Mark Cameron says farmers are the victims of the Government's obsession with overseas plaudits.

"The Prime Minister wants to go on the world stage and say that NZ is the first country to price agricultural emissions. She won't admit that her government's proposal only leads to more emissions," he says.

Cameron says, under the proposals, most sheep and beef farmers would be better off cashing up by selling their land for permanent carbon storage. Many meat processors will shut down, collapsing many small regional towns.

National's agriculture spokesperson Barbara Kuriger says the announcement threatens the sector consensus by failing to recognise NZ farmers are already the most carbon efficient in the world.

She says the plan could have significant implications for our rural towns and communities. But National has a problem and Dairy News understands that many rural-based MPs want Natinal to take a stronger stance against the Government's latest proposal.

With ACT coming out so strongly, it's felt they could take traditional rural votes away from National.