Wednesday, 28 September 2022 15:00

Pay it back!

Written by The Hound

font size decrease font size increase font size
Print
Email

OPINION: This old mutt notes that rural ginger group Groundswell is turning the heat up on Beef+Lamb NZ and DairyNZ by calling for farmers to ask for their levies back from the hapless levy-funded organisations.

The group has set up a website asking beef & sheep and dairy farmers to 'demand your levy refund'.

"Sick of paying your levies, just to have the levy bodies fail to represent your interests in the advocacy they take to Wellington?" Groundswell asks. "The advocacy you pay for should be based on the feedback from grassroots farmers, rather than selling a predetermined agreement with Government back to farmers."

The Groundswell website allows farmers to invoice DairyNZ and Beef+Lamb for the portion of their levy both outfits spend on advocacy, which the group claims is about one third of the total farmers pay in levies.

More like this

Farmers want out of climate deal

Get out of the Paris Agreement on climate change – that’s the message from the farmer lobby group Groundswell to the Minister for Climate Change, Simon Watts.

Ruth reckons

OPINION: Ruth Richardson, architect of the 1991 ‘Mother of all Budgets’ and the economic reforms dubbed ‘Ruthanasia’, added her two cents to the Treaty Principles Bill with a submission that essentially says it’s time to “have the sovereign authority” define the principles of the Treaty “by design” rather than continue to let them be defined “by accident” by unaccountable institutions like activists in the Courts, the Waitangi Tribunal and officialdom.

Veg, no meat?

OPINION: Why do vegans and others opposed to eating meat try to convince others that a plant based diet is the best, when they themselves actively seek out veg-based products that taste like meat?

Who's the glutton?

OPINION: We are told there is a wine glut - production outstripping demand worldwide - and the words 'wine lakes' are being thrown around.

Colonial science?

OPINION: Science funding for the bulwark of the nation, agriculture, is in a parlous state and less taxpayer money is shelled out for it every year.

Featured

Farmlands half-year results 'show strong progress'

Farmlands says that improved half-year results show that the co-op’s tight focus on supporting New Zealand’s farmers and growers is working.

Fruit fly discovery 'concerning'

Horticulture New Zealand (HortNZ) says that discovery of a male Oriental fruit fly on Auckland’s North Shore is a cause for concern for growers.

Fonterra updates earnings

Fonterra says its earnings for the 2025 financial year are anticipated to be in the upper half of its previously forecast earnings range of 40-60 cents per share.