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.
Consultation will now close in late March and the He Waka Eke Noa Partnership will report its recommendations to Ministers by May 31 rather than the earlier deadline of April 30.
With the country in red alert settings and gatherings restricted, farmers have been calling for an extension.
Federated Farmers wrote to the Prime Minister recently seeking an extension until the country moved to orange settings.
Some farmers claim the Government has bullied DairyNZ and Beef + Lamb NZ into going ahead with the consultations, starting this week.
The Government says the extension was requested by the He Waka Eke Noa Partnership in light of the move to the red traffic light setting of the Covid-19 Protection Framework.
Programme Director Kelly Forster says Minister of Agriculture Damien O’Connor and Minister of Climate Change James Shaw understand the need for more time to discuss the options to allow for additional meetings of smaller audiences, while noting the timetable is already tight.
The current legislation requires agriculture to be included in the New Zealand Emissions Trading Scheme (ETS) by 1 January 2025 unless an alternative is agreed and implemented before that date.
The Government will consider the He Waka Eke Noa recommendations and consult the wider public later this year, before making a final decision in December on a pricing system for agricultural emissions.
If an alternative to the ETS is agreed, then new legislation would need to be drafted and passed and the scheme set up by 1 January 2025.
