Be honest — Editorial

Parker has done little to debunk this mindset since coming into government: consider his arrogant pre-election threat to double Labour’s proposed (but ill-fated) irrigation tax if farmers did not meekly accept his plans.

So when Parker, wearing his Environment Minister hat, provocatively goes on television demanding an improvement in water quality and alluding to livestock reductions in certain regions if this does not happen, it is like deja vu all over again!

It might advance Parker’s political posturing to point the finger at farming – dairy in particular – while he claims he will drag the sector ‘kicking and screaming’ to clean up its act and the country’s waterways. However, he is not telling the full story about the work now underway around New Zealand to tackle water quality.

In Canterbury, Waikato, Manawatu and Horowhenua, Southland and Otago a huge amount of collaborative work has been done by regional councils, communities and farmers. Catchment by catchment, plans are being implemented already to move on the sorts of measures the Environment Minister says he will implement.

Some places will face having to cap or reduce cow numbers, others are implementing new nutrient limits, and any proposed new irrigation schemes must have nutrient budgets and limitations as part of their resource consent conditions. 

This is not to mention that around the country farmers have erected tens of thousands of kilometres of fences to keep stock out of waterways; they have planted millions of trees and shrubs in riparian strips; and they have begun managing their land and operations in new ways to reduce their environmental impact on water.

Farmers are not blind to how they affect the environment: the rural sector acknowledges change must happen for reasons of economics, sustainability, international reputation and even their ‘social licence’ to continue farming with public support.

Parker says he will have failed as a politician if he does not push regulation which leads to an improvement in NZ’s water quality. 

Maybe so, but he has already failed the honesty test by not acknowledging to the wider public the work now being done in good faith by the farming sector – and others – to address water quality issues.