Editorial: Who scuttled HWEN?

Two government departments, Ministry for Primary Industries (MPI) and Ministry for Environment (MfE), were both part of the partnership which came up with an agreed solution and put this to the politicians and officials. The farming industry groups trusted the departments and, when they put in their proposal, they had every reason to believe that the deal had effectively been done.

Not so. It seems that a whole new lot of officials, or maybe the same ones as well, and then the politicians started to get their grubby little hands on two years of hard work and negotiation and put their spin on the proposal.

Do such people know much about agriculture? For example, do they believe they’ll find a cryptorchid in a glasshouse? Who knows, but the honest brokers of HWEN must be wondering about the credentials of the people or political motives behind the Government response.

Agriculture Minister Damien O’Connor has stuck to the line that a simple fix is possible. One hopes he’s right, but if he isn’t, there will be no need for an Agriculture Minister in the future – but maybe a Minister of Carbon Forestry.

It would seem senseless that MPI would not work in farmers’ interests. They are a well led organisation and their chief executive Ray Smith is respected and universally liked by the agri sector. The suspicion is that the problem lies with MfE and there are rumours flying that the two departments are not at one over HWEN, but of course no one is saying or even whispering this.

It is also fair to say that while the farming sector is going about trying to work with Environment Minister David Parker, the relationship is testy, as is the relationship with MfE.

In the last few weeks, there has been compelling evidence to prove the initial HWEN proposal was fine and quite a compromise on the part of the ag sector. Sadly, interference – political or otherwise – is setting NZ on one of the most bizarre paths in its history.

All this raises the question: can you trust a politician? Famous Russian leader Nikita Khrushchev once said, “Politicians are the same the world over – they promise to build bridges even when there are no rivers”.