Rural Vote Debate on Q&A: Substance or Just Platitudes?
It was billed as a chance for all the political parties to woo the rural vote, but question marks hang over just how effective this was.
Andrew Hoggard told his group’s annual meeting that environmental groups haven’t stopped paying attention, the trade unions haven’t moved on to something else and everyone else who is looking for a ‘dog to kick’ to raise their profile will target dairy.
He asked who knew that David Shearer was still in Parliament, until he made his comments on the price of milk.
Hoggard believes the biggest issue facing the dairy industry is the cap on nitrogen and how this is allocated.
“We have had calls for moratoriums on dairy conversions, but surely the priority needs to be agreeing on acceptable water quality standards for various catchments and then devising a fair and equitable allocation regime across all sectors.
“Coming up with such a system is the huge challenge we face right now and coming up with smart solutions in this space is where we need to be devoting our time,” he says.
