Groundswell's Jamie McFadden. Photo supplied
A dogs breakfast of environmental legislation and regulation affecting farmers is unworkable and is about to fall over, Groundswell’s Jamie McFadden said.
The Groundswell environmental spokesperson will be speaking in Te Kūiti next week about the environmental issues facing farmers.
“What we are aiming to achieve is to inform all farmers around the country about how this new legislation works,” he said.
“So we are completely independent from the government, we haven’t negotiated any compromises or anything like that – so we’ll just tell it how it is.
“We are also giving farmers some options and actions they can take to look after themselves to help prepare for the regulations and also to help us get changes to the regulations.
“With the fresh water farm plan legislation, the whole thing’s got to be thrown out.”
(Freshwater farm plans are required from August 1 for properties in the entire Waipa river catchment to Ngāruawāhia, including lakes, wetlands, aquifers, rivers, and streams.
From January 1, 2024 the area is extended to include the Waikato River from Lake Karapiro to Ngāruawāhia, and the Waikato River from Huka Falls to Lake Karapiro.
Also included from Jan 1, 2024 are the Awakino and Mōkau River catchments; and all coastal catchments in the West Coast FMU that are south of, but not including, the Kiritehere Stream catchment.)
Based on feedback from an informal network of farm consultants from Auckland down to Southland, Jamie says the freshwater farm plan regulations are unworkable.
“It’s extremely proscriptive in the legislation. There’s a whole lot of things that farmers, certifiers, regional council auditors have to do – and it is extensively proscribed in the legislation.
And when consultants have looked at what this legislation means, all of us are saying this is completely unworkable.
“We support farm plans and Taranaki has got a really good system of farm plans. It is a voluntary approach. It is working with farmers, they are tailored to each individual farm. There’s some really good examples round the country where farm plans are working really well.
“Then you have got some really good industry farm plans. We are saying the farm plans should be driven by the industry in collaboration with farmers, regional councils – that sort of approach, and that farm plans need to be focused on all issues, not just fresh water.”
Farm plans should cover all the issues and include indigenous biodiversity, emissions, fresh water.
“They should empower farmers to look after the environment pretty much, you know, that’s it in a nutshell,” Jamie said. “We are saying the focus should be on what are the key environmental risks on your farm? Whether it’s erosion or pests or biodiversity. What are the key ones, and identify those key actions that farms need to take, to start with.”
Waikato was facing what every region was facing, he said. Regional councils no longer knew how to actually roll it out in a way that was workable.
In Canterbury the whole consents system had collapsed following the flooding in July, Jamie said.
“When I say collapsed, its paralysed. People can’t get gravel consents, get consents to do flood mitigation. Farmers can’t get land use consents because the consent system is so unworkable. The whole system here in Canterbury is paralysed.
“And that’s what’s starting to happen all round the country. It’s not necessarily the councils’ fault, it’s because we’ve got so many different legislations coming from the government – you have got fresh water, you’ve got biodiversity, you’ve got the RMA you have got national policy statements…And they are conflicting, they are confusing and complex.
“In New Zealand the whole environmental planning system is going to fall over because regional councils can’t now resource what they need to be doing as described under all these different laws.
“They just can’t find enough staff to do all these jobs that the government is demanding that they do.
“And then the staff are struggling and councils themselves are struggling to understand what the legislation means when they are dealing with an individual farm basis, what does te mana o te wai mean, what are indigenous biodiversity criteria, what does all this mean? And then you got all the different rules. Which rules relate to this activity and what. It’s just become.. it’s a complete dogs breakfast.”
The feedback from farmers is they are being overwhelmed
“We’ve got burnout among famers, depression, suicides. All the data you look at, the recent data is record low confidence levels among farmers, and the main reason why is all of this legislative mess that the government has created.”
