Uncertainty of One Plan a killer

At least 300 people attended the meeting, organised by dairy farmers and supported by local body and national politicians, business people and others with rural interests concerned about One Plan. HRC’s chairman, chief executive and some planning staff attended.

Rabobank manager George Murdoch, for 30 years a rural banker, told the meeting the One Plan carries a risk to farmers equivalent to the mid-1980s abolition of government subsidies and concessionary interest rates on Rural Bank loans.

He predicts if One Plan goes ahead farm incomes will drop, costs will rise and up to 30% of dairy farms in the district may not be viable.

“Productivity on some of these properties is going to decline further as farmers and their families no longer see a prosperous future. The next generation of farmers, so vital to the industry and its survival, are going to do something else or farm somewhere else.  Farms will sell, but at significantly lower levels. 

“Rural towns are going to suffer as lower levels of income and employment filter through and capital investment in agriculture and industry  is likely to be reduced. Top farmers in our region are likely to leave the area  and farm in other areas where the land use restrictions are less. You can say that I am over-dramatising this, but I am not sure that anyone here can get up and say this is not going to happen.”

Murdoch says that though he notes HRC has tried to provide a level of comfort about the implementation of One Plan – via discretionary consents and other assistance – a further obstacle remains.

“The main issue I see in this thing is that it’s going to require a high level of trust between both parties and that’s not something I see here today.”

Local businessman Allan Benbow, who manufactures a fertiliser spreader, says he has sold these machines elsewhere in New Zealand and in Australia – but not one in the Tararua district. “My sales manager says farmers won’t buy because of the ‘uncertainty’ created by One Plan.”

Benbow has researched the economic effects of One Plan and predicts dairy farmers will lose up to $60 million income annually, 330 jobs will be lost in the district and land values will fall significantly.

“There is no doubt One Plan will make Tararua a less attractive place to live,” he says.