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ACT leader David Seymour says farmers are a minority group in New Zealand and they have taken a beating from the government.
Seymour was announcing his party’s rural policies during a visit to a farm near Mossburn in Southland, where he said farmers had been tied to the bureaucracy.
ACT has targeted the National Environmental Standards for Freshwater, promising to allow regional councils to create more practical regulations based on conditions in the area, if they vote for government in this election.
The policy’s winter grazing rules have been a hot topic in Southland, and federated farmers say the rules for digging depths, paddock slope and timelines for replanting the cropland were impractical.
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Seymour passed through several winter grazing meadows on his way to the farm where he made his announcement, but said he could not comment on his condition.
“It should be up to the farmers,” he said, before adding, “Southland looks beautiful right now.”
ACT rural spokesman Mark Cameron said the rules were completely at odds with how the industry works.
The consensus was that industry leaders and regional councils should work together to find customized solutions, he said.
Cameron believes the problem had far-reaching consequences.
“It’s not just about the farmers, it’s about the local communities that they sustain.”
ACT has also promised to eliminate subsidies for commercial forestry investment.
Cameron, a Ruawai dairy farmer and Northland ACT candidate, said: “Our farmers are some of the most efficient food producers in the world. But the government subsidy for tree planting of up to $ 4,000 per hectare is unfairly tilting the playing field towards forestry.
“The subsidies have given large forest investors an unfair advantage that is driving out small farmers. Agricultural sales have gone beyond marginal lands, with the sale of productive agricultural land. The policy of large-scale afforestation is a threat to employment, families and rural communities.
Jamie Searle / Stuff
ACT leader David Seymour speaks about his party’s policies at a public meeting in Gore on Sunday.
On Monday, the party also announced that it would remove the requirement for mandatory three-meter setbacks on all low-slope lands, allow regional councils and communities to set their own freshwater management limits, and insist on peer-reviewed scientific evidence. and economic quality analysis from Essential. Fresh water reforms.
Louisa Steyl / Things
ACT party leader David Seymour and rural spokesman Mark Cameron were in Wreys Bush, Southland on Monday.
The party would also repeal the Zero Carbon Law and the Emissions Trading Scheme and introduce a serious climate change plan that ties the price of carbon to the prices paid by the top five trading partners.
“ACT was the only party that voted against the Zero Carbon Law. It is the most expensive legislation in our history and will significantly increase costs for households and businesses. The Law also grants massive power over the economy to the Minister of Climate Change.
“New Zealand must contribute to climate change. But any answer must be simple to administer, “said Cameron.
The pair were in Southland as part of the party’s Change Your Future Bus Tour. The tour will travel to Te Anau to announce ACT’s tourism policy on Monday night.
