Morrison faces up to the challenge

Morrison, who is up for re-election, faces a stiff challenge from former Southland Federated Farmers president Geoff Young for the southern South Island seat.

"The fact the position is contested is a healthy signal that B+LNZ is an organisation valued in representing the sector,” Morrison told Rural News.

“The issue is not about personalities but positions and what is important is that every farmer has their say in the process.”

Morrison says he is standing again because he still has a lot of work to do.

“The job is not done, and I have something to offer. B+LNZ has always said government has tried to do too much too quickly and in doing this has ended up with poorly crafted and conflicting regs that disproportionately affect our sheep and beef farmers,” he explains.

“We have fought hard to get some concessions on the likes of winter grazing (pugging metrics/ sow-down dates) or recognition of sequestration in HWEN, but we need to keep pushing and the job is far from over.”

Morrison concedes that some farmers are disillusioned with both B+LNZ and DairyNZ leadership and want a change.

“I know farmers are overwhelmed and frustrated with the scale and pace of change – as am I. It’s been a relentless period with a tsunami of policy changes foisted on the sector,” he told Rural News.

“Let’s be clear, it is the government with a 66-seat majority in a 120 seat parliament leading this, not us, and we have to work as hard as to try and get the best outcome for the sector.”

Despite the level of farmer criticism that B+LNZ has been too compliant, Morrison says the organisation is definitely not happy with where a lot of policy has landed.

“However, these are better than what government originally proposed. We have stayed out of the ETS, got a split gas target, avoided grandparenting rules in the Essential Freshwater process and I will keep fighting until we sort out the remaining issues like carbon farming.”

“We have walked or been exited from several conversations, but we don’t make a big scene. Our goal is to get the best result for farmers.”

Morrison concedes that it has been a battle for B+LNZ to walk the tightrope of fighting for farmers in the face of a Labour government with a strong majority.

“That means sometimes we have to sit at the table with Government and convince them to fix their proposed policy,” he explains. “Examples of this are the winter grazing changes and the split gas model.”

He says farmers do not see the work that goes on behind the scenes to lobby government and officials.

“I know that lack of transparency can be frustrating. But we are always standing up for farmers. For example, B+LNZ and DINZ were the only two groups to oppose mandatory farm plans.”

Morrison cites as examples of where B+LNZ achieved wins for farmers included the avoidance of grandparenting in the original Essential Freshwater Rules, split gas model and staying out of the ETS. Changes made to winter grazing and the continued pause on Indigenous Biodiversity rules.

“It is working collaboratively with other sector groups, as our levy payers clearly asked us to do, that has collectively delivered this.” he adds.

“This is quite interesting as often it is pitched that there are significant differences in policy positions taken by various organisations, I would strongly contest you have never seen a stronger united view on HWEN – EFW and NPS on IB and would challenge Geoff to highlight the alleged differences.”

Morrison says on the criticism of HWEN, that B+LNZ has always been clear that it would prefer that farmers didn’t face a price on their emissions.

“However, the government has clearly stated it will price emissions and originally intended to bring us into the ETS, which would have been financially devastating to farmers as the price of methane would have been linked to the carbon price,” he explains.

“B+LNZ and others convinced them not to do this, which was a significant outcome, but the condition was on the premise that we had to come up with an alternative pricing framework.”

Morrison stresses that B+LNZ has always stated it will not accept a pricing system that will have a disproportionate impact on sheep and beef farmers. “And we will walk away if necessary.”

If re-elected, Morrison says he will continually press government on a range of issues.