Tuesday, 04 August 2026 13:13

Levy Scrutiny

Written by  The Hound

OPINION: Mike Chapman, former chief executive of levy-funded HortNZ, has thrown out a challenge to farmers and growers to put their levy-funded industry organisations under the same scrutiny as fertiliser, electricity, labour and freight.

"A levy is still a cost of production," he says.

The Hound reckons Chapman is on the money here: scrutiny of the levy spend isn't what it used to be, especially with one rural publisher now in bed with DairyNZ, Beef+Lamb NZ and the Feds.

Chapman notes, we cannot move New Zealand closer to markets, create the scale of larger countries or match developing-country wage rates.

We can, however, influence the cost of our levy-funded industry organisations.

"That requires scrutiny of governance, overhead, duplicated services, separate offices, research, conferences and promotion," he says.

More like this

Featured

National

Machinery & Products

» Latest Print Issues Online

The Hound

'LinkedIn Greens'

OPINION: The same mainstream media muppets that brought you Jacindamania in 2017 have been flat out pimping for the Opportunities…

UK Warning

OPINION: Your old mate reckons the atrocious way farmers in the UK are treated by their lords and masters in…

» Connect with Rural News

» eNewsletter

Subscribe to our weekly newsletter