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OPINION: Farmers nationwide will be rubbing their hands with glee at the latest news from the Government about the RMA reforms.
It seems that at last the Government has listened to the rural voice and acted accordingly. Talk of a focus on property rights will be dear to many farmers' hearts.
Over the years there has been a lack of consistency around the multiplicity of rules that affect farmers and rural communities.
Certain rules will apply in one region and the next-door regional council will have a different set of conditions. At the same time central governments failed to put their foot down and demand that common sense prevail. This loose approach ahs allowed councils to act in ways that impede rather than enable good farming practices.
The overall poor performance by regional councils has now come at a cost to them.
Under the new RMA, their role has been usurped by central government who will now set national standards which councils must adhere to. That will cut out the crazy stuff that has gone on for years. Also gone are the controversial regional policy statements which again were a source of angst for farmers and a cost to ratepayers.
The new RMA reforms are a victory for rural New Zealand over the rule-ridden Wellington bureaucracy and some of their mates in local government. We know that farmers had direct input and their input was sensible and pragmatic. The new RMA is not about giving farmers a free hand to act recklessly because there will still be laws and punitive measures to stop those who think they are above the law.
If regional councils cry foul about these latest moves, then they just need to look in the nearest mirror because they have brought these changes upon themselves.
The same applies to Wellington bureucrats who will now have to do a major u-turn to deliver this Government's RMA.
DairyNZ says Waikato farmers need certainty on Plan Change 1, but they say that certainty must be matched with practical, workable rules and a clear transition that doesn't get ahead of the new resource management system currently under review.
Waikato farmers have been told that the Government’s new planning system legislation and the region’s Plan Change 1 (PC1) “won’t mesh together very well”.
OPINION: Confidence in the wool sector is rebounding as prices hit levels not seen in more than 15 years.
The Government is looking at intervening on behalf of Waikato farmers who face new regulations around agricultural land use while Resource Management Act (RMA) reforms are underway.
A Waihi dairy farmer, Keith Torrens, has been convicted and fined $39,000 for the unlawful discharge of dairy effluent following a prosecution taken by Waikato Regional Council.
New Zealand dairy farmers are set to be the first in the world to receive access to a new digital physical milk pricing tool that enables them to fix the price for their physical milk.
State farmer Pāmu is opening its farm gates this summer in an effort to give the rural sector the opportunity to see how large-scale, multi-system farming is delivering productivity and profitability across New Zealand.
A five-year study has found that the cost of reducing emissions without technology may be significant and unsustainable for Northland dairy farmers.
DairyNZ says Waikato farmers need certainty on Plan Change 1, but they say that certainty must be matched with practical, workable rules and a clear transition that doesn't get ahead of the new resource management system currently under review.
While the Government has moved quickly to make commercial hauliers' lot easier during the current fuel crisis, they appear to be stuck in the creep box when it comes to the agricultural industry.
Waikato farmers have been told that the Government’s new planning system legislation and the region’s Plan Change 1 (PC1) “won’t mesh together very well”.
OPINION: No one messes around with Winston Peters, more so in a general election year.
OPINION: Staying on Federated Farmers, this week's annual general meeting in Auckland is shaping up to be an interesting one.
