Thursday, 17 August 2023 12:55

Farmers are being hit hard!

Written by  Todd McClay
Todd McClay says a National-led government will cut regulation and back farmers. Todd McClay says a National-led government will cut regulation and back farmers.

OPINION: Fonterra's recent announcement that the milk price will drop to $7/kg – on top of falling lamb and beef schedules – is devastating news for farmers.

With the forecast dairy payout falling, and lower lamb and beef prices, many farmers face a season of losses with their books going into the red. Rising interest rates and Labour’s excessive regulation of the rural sector means many dairy farmers now need $8.20/ kg just to break even.

The Government must take urgent action to get farmers’ costs down. It should rein in its ill-disciplined spending and stop their assault on farmers. Six years of piling on costs for farming has increased the price of food and put farmers and the New Zealand economy at risk.

A prime example is how farmers and their stock have been caught in a stressful bureaucratic nightmare created by Labour. As part of the current Government’s regulation overload, farmers must have a farm plan for winter grazing – or apply for a resource consent.

The problem is that after three years and two postponements, the Government still has not finalised rules for farm plans. This delay has caught out some farmers who are now receiving legal letters from the regional council to immediately stop winter grazing. ’Cease and desist’ letters are only the most recent example of the massive bureaucratic load that Labour has imposed on this country’s largest exporters.

The solution is simple: the Government should hit pause on its winter grazing regulations until it has finalised its farm plan rules. That would avoid the need for consents and stop legal letters going to hardworking farmers.

National will stop resource consents for winter grazing and scrap winter grazing slope rules in favour of a catchment approach.

Our Getting Back to Farming policy includes a commitment to defer central government rules requiring resource consents for winter grazing until freshwater farm plans are in place.

Meanwhile, another major concern for the farming sector is Labour’s proposals for emissions reductions.

National is committed to reaching Net Zero by 2050, but we believe New Zealand’s path to emission reductions in agriculture is through technology, not less production.

A National government will remove the ban on gene technology, which will help give farmers the tools they need to reduce methane emissions – such as gene edited crops, feed, and livestock.

We will also give farmers the tools they need to reduce emissions, including recognising on-farm sequestration, measuring farm level emissions by 2025 and updating biotech rules.

National will keep agriculture out of the ETS but implement a fair and sustainable pricing system for on-farm agricultural emissions by 2030 at the latest. An independent board – with a power of veto retained by the Ministers of Climate Change and Agriculture – will be established to implement the pricing system.

We will also limit the conversion of productive farmland to forestry for carbon farming purposes to protect local communities and food production.

Recognising that the environmental impacts of carbon dioxide and methane are fundamentally different, National will take a split-gas approach to emissions. We will review methane targets to ensure their consistency with no additional warming from agriculture.

New Zealand contributes 0.2% of global emissions. National is confident we can reach our climate goals by reducing agricultural emissions without closing down a sector that contributes over $40 billion to the New Zealand economy.

A strong agriculture sector means a strong New Zealand economy.

Our ‘Getting Back to Farming’ policy is targeted at cutting through Labour’s red tape, bringing down costs, and building an economy that values the importance of our rural sector.

National is proud to back New Zealand’s world-leading farmers.

Todd McClay is National’s agriculture spokesman

More like this

Competition culls 13,000 goats

A collaborative effort between hunters, landowners, and conservation organisations has seen the successful removal of 12,935 wild goats during the second annual National Competition.

McClay off to India - again

Almost a year to the day from when he made his first trip to India, Trade Minister Todd McClay is jetting off there again just before Christmas.

Getting Wellington out of farming

Agriculture and Trade Minister Todd McClay spoke at the Federated Farmers 'Restoring Farmer Confidence' tour meeting at Mystery Creek, Hamilton last month. Here's what he said:

Minister raises tariffs dispute

Trade Minister Todd McClay has used a meeting of the CPTPP hosted by Canada to take that country to task for defiantly refusing to open up its dairy market to NZ.

Featured

New UHT plant construction starts

Construction is underway at Fonterra’s new UHT cream plant at Edendale, Southland following a groundbreaking ceremony recently.

National

Machinery & Products

GEA launches robotic milkers

Milking technology provider GEA Farm Technologies is introducing its first automatic milking system (AMS) in New Zealand.

More front hoppers

German seeding specialists Horsch have announced a new 1600- litre double-tank option that will join its current Partner FT single…

Origin Ag clocks up 20 years

With roots dating back to 2004, Origin Ag was formed as a co-operative business model that removed the traditional distributor,…

» Latest Print Issues Online

The Hound

Dark ages

OPINION: Before we all let The Green Party have at it with their 'bold' emissions reduction plan, the Hound thought…

Rhymes with?

OPINION: The Feds' latest banking survey shows that bankers are even less popular with farmers than they used to be,…

» Connect with Rural News

» eNewsletter

Subscribe to our weekly newsletter