Tackling technocrats
OPINION: Not long after I started farming, I needed some bridge stringers to cross a small, on-farm stream.
ACT Rural Communities spokesman and farmer Mark Cameron says rural New Zealand is no longer being ignored by Wellington.
Speaking from the National Fieldays, which got underway at Mystery Creek in Hamilton this morning, Cameron says when rural New Zealand is free to flourish, all New Zealanders are better off.
“So, this week, the ACT team will be at Fieldays hearing from the growers and innovators who get up at crack of dawn each day to keep our bellies full and our economy humming.
“Like many other farmers, I’ll be looking forward to announcements from my ACT colleagues David Seymour, Brooke van Velden, Nicole McKee, and Andrew Hoggard, who are all working to wind back the rural red tape that has proliferated under successive governments.
“For six years, Wellington ignored rural New Zealand. With ACT in Government, that’s now changed.”
Cameron listed some of the legislation that are being removed or reviewed – replacement of the previous Government’s freshwater regime and the Resource Management Act with new laws centred on private property rights and making freshwater farm plans more cost-effective and pragmatic.
He says the Coalition Government is also “bringing practicality to animal welfare codes’ and removing the rule for new Significant Natural Areas and dealing to existing ones. He also listed the scrapping of ute tax and Three Waters programme.
“I’m confident that, come the end of the week, we'll have added to our list of wins for rural communities.
"Farmers don't tend to mince their words, so I'm looking forward to honest appraisals of the work we're doing to bring an authentically rural voice to Wellington."
Federated Farmers president Wayne Langford says while people are opening about mental health, there’s still disproportionately high rates of suicide and depression in rural communities.
Skewed policy, favouring forestry over farming, should be blamed for Alliance Group’s proposal to close its Timaru meatworks, says Federated Farmers.
FIL has launched a new online survey to gain valuable insights into the challenges dairy farmers face in meeting their milk quality and mastitis prevention goals.
Alliance Group has announced a proposal to close its Smithfield meat processing plant in Timaru, South Canterbury.
Lambing is now well advanced around much of New Zealand, including in areas where drought-like conditions are presenting real challenges for farmers, on top of a poor run of prices for their product.
A new trade agreement between New Zealand and the United Arab Emirates (UAE) could boost New Zealand’s halal meat exports.
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