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Waikaka farmer Laurie Paterson leads the tractor parade down Gore’s Main Street today. Photo / ODT
More than 100 tractors and other vehicles were driven by Gore this morning in protest of freshwater regulations.
A rally at the Gore A & P Showgrounds set the stage with tractor drivers and an audience attended by protest organizers Laurie Paterson and Bryce McKenzie, and Gore Mayor Tracy Hicks.
A call to ignore the new freshwater regulations was met with applause.
When audience members had a chance to speak, Waikaka farmer Brian Howden encouraged farmers to stand together to ignore the reforms.
Howden said that if farmers continued to farm as they had, the government would have no power to do anything about it.
“They can’t put us all in jail and they can’t fine all of us,” Howden said.
The vehicles then left the fairgrounds to Gore’s Main St and returned.
Agriculture Minister Damien O’Connor previously said the intent of the regulations was very clear: to clean up the country’s waterways. Where regulations were impractical or unclear, adjustments would continue.
