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Southland farmers have made their feelings known about the government’s new freshwater rules by clogging Gore’s main street with tractors.
More than 100 machines and a few bulk seeders toured the city protesting the new rules for farmers, which the government introduced in September with the aim of improving freshwater quality.
And as the big machines moved down the street, many shoppers stopped to watch and other drivers honked their horns in support.
It was the first major protest after Southland Federated Farmers President Geoffrey Young called on farmers to boycott the new rules in August.
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Many farmers say that the rules, which include planting paddocks by November 1, are unworkable and do not take into account weather conditions.
When asked about the protest, Environment Minister David Parker said: “We live in a democracy. They have the right to protest. ”
Graeme Burnett drove his tractor, in a convoy of eight, from Dacre to join the protest.
“They are dictating to us which animals we can run and the style of farming, when we are supposed to farm and when not to farm. We have been farming in that place for 60 years, three or four generations, we know what we are doing and our waterways have always been good. ”
Robyn Edie / Stuff
Bruce Wilson of Owaka speaks during the tractor protest in Gore, speaking with McNab’s Peter Morris on the tractor.
Protest organizer Bryce McKenzie, from Pomahaka, said everyone agreed that water quality needed to improve and farmers had been working to achieve this.
But the government needed to realize that the rules that worked in Northland would not work in Southland because of differences in temperature and climate, he said.
“After the season we’ve had and 10 days of heavy snow and rain in Southland, I’d be lucky if I could find any farmer who would plant all of his paddocks in a couple of weeks.”
Under the new rules, any farmer unable to meet the new deadline would have to ask Environment Southland for consent of the resources.
The government had received 17,000 submissions on the proposed new rules, but farmers had not been heard, McKenzie said.
Later that day, a Parker spokesperson said the new regulations for intensive winter grazing didn’t go into effect until May 2021.
“Farmers do not need to obtain consent this year if they cannot re-plant before November 1. RMA section 20A provides farmers with a transition period to adjust practices. This means that consent is not required. of resources until October 31, 2021 for existing legal winter grazing. “
Robyn Edie / Stuff
Protest organizers Bryce McKenzie of Pomahaka, left, and Laurie Paterson of Waikaka, speak with farmers at the Gore A&P fairgrounds.
Laurie Paterson of Waikaka, who also organized the protest, called on farmers to “unite and unite against this impractical garbage.”
“The regional councilors that we elect and fund could refuse to implement these silly rules. Farmers can refuse to obtain consent and move on, although they run the risk of prosecution. We could launch a fight fund to bring the Minister of the Environment [David Parker] to the court for exceeding its authority. You now have the right to declare a climate emergency; I thought the snow the other day was an emergency, but he didn’t declare anything at the time. ”
His ideas were met with applause and cheers from the crowd.
Gore District Mayor Tracy Hicks also addressed the crowd before the convoy took to Main Street.
“We all live in a world that is absolutely changing and around water and the processes that you have to go through, those processes are changing almost daily and some of them are absolutely irrational.
Robyn Edie
Southland farmers drove more than 100 tractors down the main street of Gores to protest against the government’s new freshwater rules.
“I think you have every right and you should make it known. I must say that the view of 70 or 80 tractors today is quite impressive. There is a real show of strength from the people on the front lines, and a real mix of ages and experience, and I see the enthusiasm on the faces of young farmers who want to make a difference and want to break through. in life and turn their part of the land that they have inherited or bought along the way into a better part for the generations to come behind them. ”
McKenzie said he was overwhelmed by support for the protest.
“We thought some might show up on their tractors, but having to start parking them in the parking lot on the other side of the road, well that just shows how people feel.”
Southland Federated Farmers and the Southland Chamber of Commerce will host a Town and Country Hui, with a panel of speakers to discuss the new freshwater rules, at Gala Street Reserve in Invercargill on Friday.
