increase font size
Feds president Katie Milne says she’s taken aback by the judgment.
An Environment Court judge has slammed Federated Farmers for pursuing a case regarding limitation on the use of GE in Northland.
In an unprecedented move, Judge Laurie Newhook said in his summary that costs are “reserved”, meaning the other parties -- Northland Regional Council and Whangarei District Council -- could claim costs against Federated Farmers. Normally in such cases costs are not awarded; this case looms as an exception.
Judge Newhook says “despite losing a jurisdictional argument in this court on its own appeal and losing its appeal to the High Court and its substantive appeal to the Court of Appeal and its substantive appeal to this court, Federated Farmers has endeavoured to run somewhat similar arguments on the papers before me in the current stage of the Whangarei District Council (WDC) appeal. These things collectively seem quite remarkable.”
Essentially, when Feds lost the Northland case it tried to re-litigate the arguments by joining an appeal by WDC for a minor wording change which the judge agreed to.
Judge Newhook describes the Feds submission in this latest case as “curious to say the least” and that he agrees with the counsel for the Soil and Health that the Federation’s submissions were “rather difficult to follow in logic”.
He says the Feds’ argument that genetically modified organisms (GMOs) should only be controlled by central government is wrong because under the Resource Management Act regional councils have the power to control GMOs through their regional policy statements and plans.
The tenor of the judgement suggests that the judge is perplexed or exasperated by the arguments run in this latest case by the federation.
He concludes by saying that the submission by Feds is “largely a re-run of the arguments about jurisdiction previously heard in this court and in the High Court and ruled upon. It is not open to Federated Farmers to run these arguments again especially in view of the binding findings of the High Court and I will not consider that part of the submission further”.
The decision by Judge Newhook to open up the issue of costs is almost unprecedented and suggests his frustration at the nature of their appeal.
OPINION: Recently several Labour MPs, including leader Chris Hipkins and deputy leader Carmel Sepuloni spent two days in Waikato with representatives of DairyNZ, Beef+Lamb NZ, Federated Farmers, Groundswell and Rural Women NZ among others.
Dairy farmers claim they're often waiting six months for decisions on visa applications for overseas farm workers.
A large group of opposition politicians met agriculture sector leaders in Waikato this week in what Federated Farmers describe as building a “team ag approach”.
ACT MP and Northland dairy farmer Mark Cameron is lodging a new member’s bill that would prevent regional and district councils from regulating greenhouse gas emissions.
Admit that you stuffed up and apologise to the people of Wairoa.
The real winner of this year’s FMG Young Farmer Region-off have been the regional communities.
As calving approaches, farmers need to get their teams ready for what lies ahead in the coming months.
Feeling sluggish this winter? Then try some seasonal fruit, renowned for lifting mood, energy and immunity levels just when we need it most.
The missing link in getting maximum weight gain in your calves may be as simple as keeping them warm, says the Christchurch manufacturer of a range of woollen covers for young livestock.
Rural Women New Zealand (RWNZ) and Massey University are joining forces to help raise awareness and funds to combat leptospirosis.
Auckland-based supplement and nutritional company New Image International is celebrating 40 years of business in their home country.
OPINION: Several days after securing shareholder approval for a $130 million loan from Bright Dairy, Synlait has delivered more bad…
OPINION: Recently several Labour MPs, including leader Chris Hipkins and deputy leader Carmel Sepuloni spent two days in Waikato with…
