India–New Zealand FTA talks continue in Delhi as officials pursue trade breakthrough
This past week has seen another round of negotiations between India and New Zealand to produce a free trade agreement (FTA) between the two countries.
Former Deputy Prime Minister and New Zealand First leader Winston Peters has joined the chorus of voices decrying the Government’s emissions pricing plan.
The pricing plan was released for consultation earlier this month by Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern, Minister for Agriculture Damien O’Connor and Minister for Climate Change James Shaw.
The policy has resulted in heavy backlash from farmers, politicians and industry bodies alike.
At a speech in Gore yesterday, Peters claimed farming families in the region ere being taken for granted by the Government.
“When Covid hit this country, in early 2020, together with its variants in 2021, and we faced economic hardship, one sector, above all the rest, kept our economy going,” he told the crowd.
He said the Government’s emissions plan was cheating regional communities.
“If you think that in 2022 you are being cheated – then you are right. You are being cheated,” he said.
Peters told the crowd that the real “tragedy” of the Government’s emissions pricing plan would be the reductions of revenue on farm.
He said there would be a more than 25% reduction of revenue on sheep and cattle farms and more than 10% reduction on dairy farms.
“When a highly successful beef farmer confides that he and his professional advisors see this government’s new costs for his farm exceeding $800,000 per annum, we both know that his operation is stuffed.”
Peters said the attempts to be ‘world-first’ were coming at the expense of food production.
“Our farm animals have the lowest carbon footprint in the world,” he said. “Getting rid of our farm animals, in favour of farm animals in other countries with a higher carbon footprint, means the world is going to be worse off.”
“And all the while destroying New Zealand farming families, farming towns, associated employment, and reducing our own food supply, and putting food costs up.”
NZPork has appointed Auckland-based Paul Bucknell as its new chair.
The Government claims to have delivered on its election promise to protect productive farmland from emissions trading scheme (ETS) but red meat farmers aren’t happy.
Foot and Mouth Disease outbreaks could have a detrimental impact on any country's rural sector, as seen in the United Kingdom's 2000 outbreak that saw the compulsory slaughter of over six million animals.
The Ministry for the Environment is joining as a national award sponsor in the Ballance Farm Environment Awards (BFEA from next year).
Kiwis are wasting less of their food than they were two years ago, and this has been enough to push New Zealand’s total household food waste bill lower, the 2025 Rabobank KiwiHarvest Food Waste survey has found.
OPINION: Sir Lockwood Smith has clearly and succinctly defined what academic freedom is all about, the boundaries around it and the responsibility that goes with this privilege.
OPINION: For years, the ironically named Dr Mike Joy has used his position at Victoria University to wage an activist-style…
OPINION: A mate of yours truly has had an absolute gutsful of the activist group SAFE.