Southland farmers breathe a sigh of relief
Southland Farmers will be breathing a sigh of relief that central Government is stepping in to stop Environment Southland from introducing unworkable and expensive new farming rules.
Federated Farmers is in talks with the Government to extend the Kiwisaver first-home withdrawal scheme.
The farmer lobby hopes that the Government will change withdrawal rules so that 85,000 farm employees listed in the 2021 census, sharemilkers and various other industries that operate with service tenancies, such as rural teachers, police officers, in-home caregivers and armed forces personnel will become eligible.
Federated Farmers national share farmer section chair Aaron Passey told Rural News that some people are content to be career share farmers.
For these people, the step to farm ownership is too onerous, he says.
"This is another way for share farmers to plan for their retirement and have somewhere to live after they finish farming," says Passey.
"This is particularly important for variable order sharemilkers and contract milkers who don't have an asset built up in a herd of cows.
"It is a lot easier to buy a house while you are young and pay it off rather than try to do it all when you retire."
Passey says they are not seekig any changes to the current rules around Kiwisaver account and being involved in the scheme for three years.
"We're asking for the availability of withdrawals to be expanded to allow for it to be used for the purchase of a first farm, where you will be living in the farm house or purchasing a house while you are living on farm under a service tenancy."
Passey says Feds have been in touch with Minister for Commerce and Consumer Affairs, David Clark.
"Minister Clark was positive about the issues we raised and reiterated that there are better retirement outcomes for people that own their own homes," he says. "Minister Clark advised us to contact his officials to discuss it further and we have started liaising with them, hoping to get our suggestions included in future chages to the withdrawal rules."
According to Federated Farmers, it first raised the issue with the Government in December last year.
The Feds annual meeting in Auckland this month heard that Agriculture Minister Damien O'Connor's office took five months to respond to its letter and referred the matter to Clark's office.
"This was disappointing considering O'Connor had invited us to write to him and we needed an advocate in Government," Feds says.
