Damien O’Connor’s letter apologizing for the leak accusations has been leaked

Agriculture Minister Damien O’Connor’s attempts to bury the ax with Federated Farmers dropping claims that the farm lobby leaked confidential information material has resulted in the leak of his letter of apology.

the Herald have obtained a copy of a letter, sent by O’Connor to Federated Farmers National Chairman Andrew Hoggard, on Sept. 17, about a long-standing dispute between the government and the agricultural lobby.

Relations between the government and the agricultural lobby have been contentious in recent years, and things reached a boiling point last May when details of freshwater reforms, including planned limits for nitrogen leaching, were released. leaked in May last year after being distributed to interested parties. for consultation.

Federated Farmers was one of those stakeholders.

O’Connor’s letter noted that he was responding to correspondence from attorneys for Federated Farmers and, although he did not reach a formal apology, the minister said: “I acknowledge that there was a leak of the information in question, but there is no to specify to whom and to which organization they belong. Therefore, I withdraw the statement. “

A spokesperson for O’Connor’s office confirmed the authenticity of the letter, but declined the opportunity for the minister to expand or broaden its content. The spokesperson said only that the current relationship with Federated Farmers is “constructive.”

The letter refers to an internal investigation at Federated Farmers that failed to blame anyone, and O’Connor said accepting their allegations that they were the source of the leaks was now a “misunderstanding” but “given the time lapse, I can’t remember where I first found this suggestion. “

Hoggard was surprised to hear that O’Connor’s letter had in turn been leaked, but acknowledged that he had distributed it within Federated Farmers.

“People were a bit upset by the accusation, and I let our provincial presidents know that the letter had been received and that I wanted to leave the matter at that. Obviously someone else did not,” he said.

Hoggard said the dispute over fresh water “was very delicate, and everyone was nervous there” and the fallout had seen the political relationship between federated farmers and the government “cut short”.

He said the relationship had heated up a bit in the 18 months since then, and said he considered the matter closed: “We may not always agree with Wellington, but this is how it works.”