Farmers facing a ‘pick six’

He says opposition parties propose to slap six new taxes on farmers: land tax, capital gains tax, carbon tax, water tax, nitrogen tax and inheritance tax.

“I’m not a TAB betting man but we aren’t just facing a trifecta of taxes; it’s clearly a pick six,” he told Rural News online.

He was commenting on DairyNZ saying the Greens and Labour policymakers want to hit dairy farmers with a trifecta of environmental taxes that could average $18,000 per year for each farm.

And the cost to farmers who draw water for irrigation would exceed $63,000 per year, says DairyNZ chief executive Tim Mackle.

“But unlike winning the trifecta at the horse races, there’s nothing for NZ dairy farmers to celebrate,” says Mackle. 

“Our economists calculate that the proposed carbon tax would add an average of $6850 to each farm’s costs, the nitrogen pollution tax would add $11,232 per farm, and then there’s Labour’s proposed water use tax which would add a further $45,000 average for farms irrigating.”   

Of NZ’s 12,000 dairy herds, 2000 use irrigation.

“The tax trifecta would severely reduce dairy farm profitability, and possibly demand extra borrowing for some farmers to meet expenditure.  It would impact the success of our rural economy and put at risk the livelihood of our rural communities.” 

Lewis says the Greens and Labour are trying to tax farmers out of their livelihoods. He recently saw Waikato farmers angry about the proposed taxes.

“Farmers realise these opposition parties are using these taxes to leverage more support from urban voters.”

Lewis says Greens and Labour leaders told the Feds annual conference three months ago in Wellington that they would work with farmers and there “wouldn’t be a Punch and Judy show”.

“Those words meant nothing,” says Lewis.

Recent years have seen farmers doing a lot to improve water quality and riparian planting, he says.

“We know that like any industry we still have a couple of cowboys, but their number is getting less and less.”