Red Meat Farmers Welcome Labour's Emissions Pricing Pledge
Red meat farmers are welcoming Labour’s plan to review the Emissions Trading Scheme and not to campaign on pricing agricultural emissions.
Labour’s West Coast MP, Damien O’Connor is the new Minister of Agriculture, Biosecurity, Food Safety and Rural Communities.
He is also the Associate Minister of Trade and Export Growth.
The new Cabinet line-up was announced in Wellington today by Prime Minister-elect Jacinda Ardern.
Horticulture NZ says it looks forward to working with the new Labour-led coalition Government and O’Connor.
HortNZ president Julian Raine says access to land, water and labour are the key components to keep horticulture growing and to enable access to healthy, fresh, affordable fruit and vegetables for all New Zealanders.
"Horticulture is essential to New Zealand. It is a $5.6 billion industry, with exports totalling $3.4 billion and New Zealanders being fed with the remaining $2.2 billion earned - that is, delivering fresh fruit and vegetables to New Zealanders every day to ensure a healthy diet.
"The new Government has expressed a desire to drive for better outcomes for New Zealanders and we look forward to working with them on delivering jobs and healthy food to contribute to that. We are particularly pleased to see planned investment in regions where horticulture has great capacity for growth," Raine says.
Minister of Conservation Hon Tama Potaka has appointed Susan O'Regan as Chair of the Queen Elizabeth II National Trust (QEII) for a three-year term.
Red meat farmers are welcoming Labour’s plan to review the Emissions Trading Scheme and not to campaign on pricing agricultural emissions.
Where any worker in the kiwifruit industry is mistreated, we expect the authorities to take action.
Mid Canterbury Federated Farmers arable chair, Bevan Lill, said Beef + Lamb NZ data indicated that for the last six years, the average arable return on investment was about 0.8% while inflation ran about 4% - so the average arable farm was going backwards at about 3% a year.
Seed and grain companies share the concerns of arable farmers about the viability of their sector, says Seed and Grain New Zealand chief executive Dr Sarah Clark.
The New Zealand Institute of Forestry (NZIF) says unnecessary changes to New Zealand’s Emissions Trading Scheme (NZ ETS) will seriously erode investor confidence and result in significant reductions in forest planting rates.