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OPINION: City and regional councils have been put on notice - stop using extreme climate forecasting scenarios that can drive unnecessary costs onto ratepayers.
Climate Minister, Simon Watts has written to mayors and councillors across New Zealand outlining his concerns.
Councils shouldn’t default to worst-case assumptions that can unnecessarily increase rates and delay investment.
Watts has directed officials to take stock of how these scenarios are being used and provide advice on whether stronger national direction or legislative change is needed to restore consistency and common sense.
This will be welcomed by the rural community who are being slapped with increasing rates by their regional councils, some under the guise of climate change.
Federated Farmers has called on Central Otago District Council (CODC) to drop or vote down a plan to truck sludge from Alexandra and Cromwell to farmland near Lauder, warning it would compound an "outrageous" situation created by a separate council's decision weeks earlier.
Environment Minister Nicola Grigg has announced details of a new rural plastics recycling scheme.
Red meat farmers are welcoming Labour’s plan to review the Emissions Trading Scheme and not to campaign on pricing agricultural emissions.
The New Zealand Institute of Forestry (NZIF) says unnecessary changes to New Zealand’s Emissions Trading Scheme (NZ ETS) will seriously erode investor confidence and result in significant reductions in forest planting rates.
For the first time in a quarter of a century, Federated Farmers has something positive to say about the Labour Party’s climate change policy leading into a general election.
Three men have been sentenced in District Courts after Ministry for Primary Industries prosecutions over animal welfare, food safety and cattle tracing offences.
Fonterra’s 2026 financial year was a year of delivery, with record volumes of milk collected, processed and shipped by the co-op.
OPINION: The Government's decision to reinstate agriculture and horticultural science as a standalone subject from Year 11 is the right one.
Dairy farmers, still holding onto their Fonterra shares despite switching milk supply elsewhere or exiting the industry, now face a stricter share sell-down requirement.
Hamilton-based agritech company Aimer Farming has completed a $3 million capital raise to support its next stage of growth, including a beef farming product due to launch in 2027.
When dairy manager Miriam Lauridsen learned the farm, she was joining held weekly health and safety meetings, she initially thought that was “a bit over the top”. Experiencing that culture changed her mind.
