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The Green Party should stop criticizing the rural sector, says Regional Economic Development Minister Shane Jones.
Jones was unhappy with Conservation Minister Eugenie Sage recent comments on the Ōhau lake fire.
When Federated Farmers said that wild vegetation on Department of Conservation (DoC) lands had helped fuel the fire, Sage responded by saying that nature did not start the fires.
He also suggested that Federated Farmers was “pushing for free grazing” by suggesting that the land go back to farming.
This type of comment was unacceptable, Jones told The Country’s Jamie Mackay.
“I am absolutely heartbroken that the Green Party’s description of the South Island farmers is that they want access to the land as a free hand.”
“I just hope that comment means Judgment Day for Eugenie and the Green Party. They have absolutely no right to stigmatize or dismiss the hardworking and God-fearing Kiwis on the South Island in that vein of trash.”
Jones also questioned whether the land belonged to the Defense Department and said it should be turned over to regional councils to manage fire risk “and get away from this fairy tale that all custodial land is deeply tapu.”
“It is actually overrun by vermin and weeds, and it has created fuel cells that have started the bad fire in the south.”
Sage’s comment on rural New Zealand was not only “very petty, it shows [the Greens] they have an agenda, “Jones said, referring to the party’s push to move toward regenerative agriculture.
“They want to turn God-fearing kiwis and their genuine farming practice into something called regenerative, without thinking about the cost of the transition and the fact that, in a post-Covid environment, where will the dough come from in terms of Export revenue? It was always going to come from primary industry. “
Primary industries needed a three-year break from any additional regulation “so that we can pay for our way out of this Covid mess,” Jones said.
This included the recent freshwater rules, which should be “adjusted” so that they do not “hamper the ability of rural New Zealand to make money,” Jones said.
Mackay noted that the freshwater regulations were the work of Jones’s friend, Environment Minister David Parker.
Fixing New Zealand’s waterways was Parker’s “passion,” Jones said, but admitted that if NZ First was “lucky enough to have another chance to go back to Parliament,” the regulations “will not stand.”
When it came to passionate causes, Jones said his was fishing, where he had once again clashed with the Green Party.
“I have come to the pain of the Greens, who continually deify things like the Māui dolphin. There is no such thing as the Māui dolphin, it is just a Hector’s dolphin, most of whom will never recover and are probably all dead. modes “.
Meanwhile, Mackay asked Jones what his leader Winston Peters was thinking when he suggested lowering the price of cigarettes.
Rising the price of “a pack of cigarettes” has not resulted in a decrease in smokers, said Jones, who accused Mackay of being a “disciple of the crusade against smoking.”
Cigarette prices gave Jones another chance to criticize the Greens and the Labor Party.
“Here’s the perfidy. Here’s the irony. I have the Greens and Labor campaigning to legalize drugs, while at the same time I have them wanting to tax cigarettes.”
“You can’t have both, friend.”
Finally, Jones had a strong message for any rural Kiwis considering not voting for NZ First.
“I say this to the farmers, if they wake up without Jones and Winston to look after their interests, welcome to their new form of hell, with the Greens as their new agriculture minister and Labor exclusively at the helm.”
Also in today’s interview: Jones remained philosophical about NZ First’s declining popularity in rural New Zealand, because all farmers “look at the All Blacks and vote for the National Party.” He also said the polls were the work of “meddling media Beezlebubs.”
