DairyNZ chair wants cross-party deal
New DairyNZ chair Tracy Brown says bipartisan agreement among political parties on emissions pricing and freshwater regulations would greatly help farmers.
He says the meeting he attended posed more questions than answers and he still doesn't have a clear picture of what the answer should be in terms of how the scheme should be funded.
"Like many others, [I] don't think the legislation is practical and there hasn't been enough discussion on it to satisfy farmers," he told Rural News.
Mandeno says, as someone who's farmed the land for many years, he wants the next generation to come onto the land - in this case his two daughters and their families.
"It would be lovely for the land to handed down to them and have it continuing to produce what it produces now - or even better - with younger people bringing new ideas," he says. "But I also want it to be sufficiently viable so that they can make it work."
Mandeno says the challenge for him and other farmers is whether the Government is prepared to soften its ideological stance and allow farming in NZ to be profitable and sustainable.
