Reon Verry at the Plan Change 1 public meeting
For more than a decade, Waikato-King Country farmers have lived with the uncertainty of Plan Change 1. Mary Anne Gill was at Mystery Creek to hear what two senior ministers had to say about its future.
Federated Farmers Reon Verry, right, with Colin Hurst. Photo: Mary Anne Gill
The questions were respectful, but the concern was unmistakable.
More than 350 farmers from the Waikato, King Country and South Auckland gathered at Mystery Creek last week seeking answers on Plan Change 1, a planning process that has stretched over more than a decade and remains unresolved.
For King Country farmer Reon Verry, the debate is not about whether farmers should improve the environment.
It is about whether farmers should spend time and money complying with rules that could be replaced before they are fully implemented.
What is Plan Change 1
The Waikato Federated Farmers meat and wool chair was among the farmers who urged the government to press pause on the controversial plan change while it works through reforms to replace the Resource Management Act (RMA).
Verry supports cleaner waterways and has invested heavily in environmental work on his property south of Te Kūiti, where his family has fenced 45 kilometres of waterways and native bush, alongside extensive planting projects.
“What we’re not happy about is there’s a whole lot of farmers that will need resource consents that may become redundant under the replacement to the RMA.”
Verry said Plan Change 1 would create an escalating compliance burden, particularly for farmers in the Whangamarino Wetland catchment where obtaining resource consents would be more difficult and expensive.
Farmers would face farm plans, certification, consent applications and repeated audits.
“To me, that’s a bit of compliance overreach right there,” he said.
Waikato, Ōtorohanga and Waitomo mayors Aksel Bech, Rodney Dow and John Robertson were in the front row and listened as Whangamarino Catchment farmer Malcolm Lumsden asks a question of ministers Todd McClay, left, and Chris Bishop, right while Federated Farmers officials Chris Woolerton and Colin Hurst look on. Photo: Mary Anne Gill
Farmers were already planting trees, fencing waterways and working through farm environment plans.
What worries many farmers is the prospect of spending limited resources on duplicated paperwork instead of practical environmental action.
The concern is not confined to one catchment. Federated Farmers argues Plan Change 1 will introduce significant new requirements across the Waikato and Waipā river catchments, affecting more than 4500 farms and potentially restricting future land-use changes.
Veteran Federated Farmers campaigner Graham Pinnell of Cambridge said farmers appreciated the opportunity to put their concerns directly to ministers.
Whitehall farmer Graham Pinnell wrapped up the questions from the floor. Photo: Mary Anne Gill
They would rather spend effort and money improving water quality than fighting red tape, he said.
“Government has risen to the challenge and has obligations to consider river iwi, other interests and freshwater regulations in finding a workable solution.”
Farmers questioned why the new requirements should be introduced just as the government was replacing the Resource Management Act.
McClay acknowledged those concerns and repeatedly stressed the government wanted to work with farmers rather than impose rules on them.
New Zealand’s primary sector was forecast to achieve record export returns, he said.
Farmers needed a regulatory system that supported production while still delivering environmental gains.
Maungatautari farmer Bill Garland called for a culture change. Photo: Mary Anne Gill
“The farming community across the Waikato is up for working hard to improve water quality,” McClay told The News.
“They just want certainty, good rules that support them, don’t just penalise them.”
The government now had an opportunity to examine Plan Change 1 more closely because the court process had reached a point where ministers could see the likely direction of travel.
“It does not make sense for Waikato farmers to have to use a system under the old RMA when there is a new one that will be adopted before the election,” he said.
Bishop delivered a similar message, acknowledging the awkward timing created by a planning process that began a decade ago and is colliding with wholesale reform of New Zealand’s resource management laws.
He told The News he was aware of farmers’ anxiety.
Peter Reynolds of Pukekohe talks about the impact on his operations if Plan Change 1 continues. Photo: Mary Anne Gill
The government was considering how Plan Change 1 would fit with the replacement planning system now before Parliament.
“What we don’t want to do is find ourselves in a situation where people have to operate in one system for like 18 months or even in some cases under one set of rules and then the whole system changes.”
Bishop did not rule out pausing Plan Change 1 while the new planning framework was implemented.
“Everything’s on the table,” he said adding that parts of Plan Change 1 appeared inconsistent with the government’s direction, particularly around commercial vegetable growing and the greater reliance on farm plans proposed under new legislation.
That may have been the most important message of the day.
For now, Plan Change 1 remains in limbo, leaving farmers waiting to see whether years of uncertainty will finally give way to a planning system that delivers the certainty they have been promised.
Federated Farmers Waikato provincial president, North Waikato farmer Chris Woolerton, left, with national president, South Canterbury mixed arable and dairy farmer Colin Hurst. Photo: Mary Anne Gill
