Farmers want policy certainty and are petrified about “kneejerk popular politics” similar to what the Government did with the oil and gas industry, says National agriculture spokesman Nathan Guy.

National has five ‘bottom lines’ for the Zero Carbon Bill likely to come before Parliament in the next month or two, says primary industries spokesman Nathan Guy.

Farmers’ confidence is at its lowest since 2009 and it’s mostly due to the new Government, says National’s Agriculture spokesperson Nathan Guy.

National says the government has turned its back on the major agricultural training provider Taratahi.

Farmers are supporting a bill from National’s Nathan Guy to introduce harsher penalties and offences for those who deliberately contaminate food.

State farmer Pāmu Farms (formerly Landcorp) is defending its submission to the Government’s Tax Working Group (TWG).

State farmer Landcorp has raised the ire of opposition politicians and Federated Farmers over its increasingly overt political behaviour.

National's agriculture spokesman, Nathan Guy, says while some of the NAIT changes were needed, their passing under urgency has prevented proper scrutiny of them.

Most farmers are now flat-out calving and lambing and are looking forward to another season of forecast good returns. 

The Government has allocated “an extraordinarily small sum” to strengthen Biosecurity, National’s spokesperson for Agriculture Nathan Guy says.