Too much regulation will be the end of farming

I’m honoured to be National’s agriculture spokesperson, a responsibility I’m delighted to have. I’ve represented a largely rural electorate for 15 years and enjoyed working on farms before and after I left school.

utors to the New Zealand economy - it’s that simple.

From day one I’ve been getting out and talking to farmers and agriculture leaders.

with Todd McClay

National Party Spokesperson

for Agriculture

I’m a keen hunter and fisherman and I’ve been involved in agricultural politics in the Bay of Plenty and in the UK and EU. As Trade Minister in the Key/English governments I always argued for a fairer deal for Kiwi agricultural exporters.

For me agriculture, forestry and our rural communities are the most important contrib-

My first day was at the Central District Fieldays, last week I held farm meetings in Canterbury and Southland, and participated in a Dairy NZ environment conference and this week is Canterbury Fieldays and farmer meetings in Reporoa and the Western Bay of Plenty.

I have a simple message - less regulation and more farming - that’s how we fill the huge financial hole the Labour government has dug for the country.

New Zealand farmers feed 50 million people with safe high-quality food. Agriculture earns nearly two in every three of this country’s export dollars – $41 billion or well over $20,000 for every household in the country.

Farming really is this country’s great strength.

Yet it’s not obvious New Zealanders are aware of the contribution that farmers make.

It’s little wonder, because for the last six years this Labour-led Government has told New Zealanders that farming is a problem.

Since it was appointed in 2017, Labour and the Greens have piled more than 20 separate pieces of legislation or regulation on to the agriculture sector.

Even the great Colin Meads would have struggled with 20 overbearing English forwards charging towards him. Farmers are struggling under the weight of Labour’s bureaucracy, and it must stop.

But it is not just the quantity of regulation that’s the problem it’s also the poor quality. Labour has developed its rules in silos, their officials try to run farms from Wellington, and farmers have born the cost.

And to top it all off their ongoing mismanagement of immigration is hurting productivity at the farm gate.

This might all seem to an accident but it’s not. Labour asked the rural community to prop up the economy during Covid but has now decided to go after them.

As a result trust between Government and the sector is at an all-time low. Things must change, and they will if National is elected in October.

Two organising principles guide my thinking on agriculture. The first is social license.

Every sector must be seen to contribute to the social issues of the day. For farmers, this is around environmental protection, the provision of jobs and contribution to the economy.

I firmly believe farmers want to and do contribute. They are custodians of the land and have great reason to care about the environment - to protect it for future generations of young farmers.

They deserve more recognition than they receive from Labour for their environmental efforts.