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David Parker has retained the Environment portfolio.
OPINION: The dust from the 2020 general election has settled and Labour has been given the mandate to govern New Zealand for the next three years.
With the Greens roped into a cooperation agreement by Jacinda Ardern and handed two portfolios, including Climate Change for co-leader James Shaw, farmers should be under no illusion that there will be any let-up on the state’s crusade on clean waterways and farm greenhouse gas emissions.
While thankfully the Greens radical ideologies, like reducing cow numbers and phasing out the use of synthetic nitrogen, are off the table, David Parker has retained the Environment portfolio, much to the dismay of many farmers.
Federated Farmers expects there will be little difference to what occurred during the past three years – two major pieces of legislation relating to healthy waterway and Zero Carbon both creating challenges for farmers.
Farmers will be watching closely how Parker uses his party’s absolute majority to make more draconian changes to this legislation.
The Labour Party’s policies on freshwater management are established and some have already come into effect. There are new limits on farm practices deemed higher-risk, such as winter grazing and feed lots, and interim limits on agricultural intensification.
A national cap on the use of synthetic fertiliser will also be imposed, to be reviewed in three years.
Labour also introduced new rules for intensive winter grazing that came into effect in early September. These included not allowing winter grazing on sloped land with more than a 10-degree angle, and limits on the depth of pugged soil. It also gave a deadline of November 1 to farmers for sowing winter crops.
If farmers couldn’t comply, resource consent would be required. The Government then walked back on some parts of the regulations after admitting they were impractical. Pugging around stock troughs became exempt, and the definition was amended.
Farmers would be hoping that the Greens’ influence on Ardern’s Government would be minimal.
The Greens are not expected to let up on their flawed campaign for clean waterways and the environment. Parker has proven that he is happy to sing from the same song sheet as the Greens.
But one would hope that the large number of Labour electorate MPs from rural constituencies would go into bat for farmers. Here’s hoping.
OPINION: James Shaw is the last of the real Greens – a person who until the end has lived up to the ideals of the original NZ Green Party, which first entered Parliament in 1999 when one of its founders, Jeanette Fitzsimmons, historically won the Coromandel seat. Rod Donald and Mike Ward were the other key founding members.
Tributes from across the political divide flowed last week for James Shaw, the Green Party co-leader who has called time on his nine year political career.
OPINION: When we finally get a government (no agreement had been finalised at time of writing), the first thing the new administration needs to review is all the regional and district plans that are being rolled out across the country to comply with the new National Policy Statement (NPS).
OPINION: It's been reported that former New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern will work alongside leaders from Conservation International to advocate for climate action and better treatment of the environment.
Federated Farmers president Wayne Langford is claiming “some real success” on the 12 policy priorities it placed before the Coalition Government.
Federated Farmers is throwing its support behind the Fast-track Approvals Bill introduced by the Coalition Government to enable a fast-track decision-making process for infrastructure and development projects.
The latest report from ANZ isn’t good news for sheep farmers: lamb returns are forecast to remain low.
Divine table grapes that herald the start of a brand-new industry in Hawke’s Bay have been coming off vines in Maraekakaho.
In what appears to be a casualty of the downturn in the agricultural sector, a well-known machinery brand is now in the hands of liquidators and owing creditors $6.6 million.
One of New Zealand’s deepest breeder Jersey herds – known for its enduring connection through cattle with the UK’s longest reigning monarch, Queen Elizabeth II – will host its 75th anniversary celebration sale on-farm on April 22.
