Time to go easy on regulations

Speaking at Federated Farmers' Waikato annual general meeting this month he said farmers are complaining that the Labour Government has imposed a lot of poorly thought-out regulation.

"The tragedy is that farmers generally accept raising the environmental standards but don't appreciate the heavy bureaucracy. There is huge uncertainty," says Peters.

"A lot of regulation, especially in the freshwater space, has had to be walked back as it was clearly unworkable. There has been a lot of policy coming down the pipeline, freshwater rules, significant natural areas (SNAs), emissions pricing, RMA reform, animal welfare.

"It's been impossible for the average cocky to keep up. There is a need to slow down on new regulation until these concerns are met."

Peters claims NZ has lost much of its "can-do mojo".

"We were once at the top of the world's economies and our agriculture took us there. Not only in production but with efficiency.

"The 'Corporate Farming Family New Zealand', that is, mum, dad and the kids, could outstrip in agricultural production an English landowner with four adult workers.

"And we did all that with politicians, few of whom had been to university, but were gifted with commonsense and learned wisdom."

Peters wants climate change targets set at the low end so they are achievable and make a credible contribution to international climate change targets.

He says NZ already has the tools, like low-methane genetics, now commercially available in both sheep and dairy.

There has already been an increase in on-farm sequestration.

"So, if we can reduce our emissions further without compromising production, we have a great story to tell, whilst escaping the low-price commodity trap by a real focus on added-value before sale offshore.

"Critical will be a change in central government's attitude. We need to incentivise the uptake of low-methane genetics which will be far more successful than just taxing emissions."

Peters said that if we are to restore this country's agricultural production whilst reducing methane emissions, then we can't keep on repeating the mistakes of the past.

"All business enterprises are about making profits and ensuring that we have the people with the right skills, and remuneration, to do so.

"However, there is no use trying to fix up one part of your industry if we don't understand the need to extract every added value dollar out of it before we export."

Peters called for farmer concerns to be at the forefront of political dialogue.

"However, what is more critical now is for this federation to realise that if these political extremists win in the next election then all of your hopes and dreams and aspirations and those of millions of other New Zealanders will become secondary."