Opinion
24 FARMERS WEEKLY – farmersweekly.co.nz – August 3, 2020
New trees law barks like a dog Alternative View
Alan Emerson
I’VE been working through the Forestry (Registration of Log Traders and Forestry Advisers) Amendment Bill. It’s a dog. Minister Shane Jones tells me the legislation will provide better information on log supply and build investor confidence in the forestry sector. I disagree. That it’s become law under urgency before the election is an indictment. Jones waxes lyrical about the legislation building confidence in the forestry industry. I know the foresters in the southern North Island I’d do business with and those I wouldn’t. I don’t need a bureaucratic empire to help me. What the legislation will achieve is to increase costs for anyone harvesting forests, farmers included. Any benefit will be minimal. The legislation is full of sound and fury while not meaning much except increased bureaucracy. The original legislation was a real nightmare but was changed at the select committee. The forestry industry owes much to Federated Farmers and others. Finally, it is rushed legislation and for no reason. In my
experience rushed legislation is inevitably bad legislation. What the law does is to mandate a regulator, the Forestry Authority. It establishes a register of log traders and forestry advisers. That tells me anyone offering an opinion on forestry matters will need to be registered. You’d have to ask why? If I discuss a forest with a mate does that mean I’m an adviser? It also has a degree of protectionism and market distortion, which takes us back to the good old days of Muldoonism. Why Labour supported New Zealand First on this one is beyond me, especially as that party is putting the boot into Labour.
Don’t put a millstone around the neck of the entire country. Don’t nationalise a local problem.
My first question would be to ask why the legislation is needed. Why do we need a Wellingtoncentric bureaucracy inserted into an industry that is working well without it. That’s certainly the case locally. Jones huffing and puffing about cowboys in the industry is just that. Give me the proof. If that is true in Northland, and I suspect that is what Jones is talking about, then sort it out locally. Don’t put a millstone
around the neck of the entire country. Don’t nationalise a local problem. My second question is to ask why the rush? The Bill was introduced on May 14 with submissions required just a week later on the May 21. The select committee reported back just three weeks later on June 15 It was passed into law on July 23. You call that democracy at work? Talking to the industry I’m told the consultation process was a sham. The industry was told the legislation was being rushed through because of cowboys but no proof of cowboys was provided. The industry sources I spoke to said they had absolutely no objection to putting the industry on a more professional footing but why the rush and lack of meaningful consultation? Again, if it was believed the industry wasn’t performing adequately NZ First should provide proof of that. Dictating standards from Wellington to any industry is unlikely to get buy-in and therefore will have extremely limited success. Another industry source suggested it was simply votebuying in attempting to control the trade of timber. Fortunately, the more draconian parts of that legislation were taken out at the select committee. Was there any proof that local mills were missing out on timber? Again talking to the industry locally there isn’t a problem. The Trojan Horse in the legislation is that it could force growers to sell logs at
COSTLY: The new forests law promoted by Shane Jones will cost wood producers, including farmers, more without providing any more than minimal benefit.
depressed prices to sawmills. Amazingly, no cost-benefit analysis has been done. What surprises me is the Government has released two extremely positive strategies for agriculture and for wool. It has acknowledged it will be the primary sector that pulls the country out of the malaise caused by covid. Why then would you put a costly barrier into a branch of the primary sector in the form of forestry. No need for that barrier has been provided and no-one can tell how much it will cost wood producers. Why insert a bureaucracy into an industry that is working well without it? I can think of lots of occupations and industries that could do with licensing way ahead of forestry.
Reading the legislation the rules around that bureaucracy are loose, leaving room for abuse. What might be good for Jones’ electoral chances in Northland is a disaster for the rest of the country and shows the arrogance of NZ First. Again, I’m surprised Labour supported the legislation. It will cost them electorally. And what will they get out of it? Bad legislation and supporting a political party that would not reciprocate that support and is unlikely to survive past the election. It seems crazy.
Your View Alan Emerson is a semi-retired Wairarapa farmer and businessman: dath.emerson@gmail.com
A day in the life of Jami-Lee Ross From the Ridge
Steve Wyn-Harris
6AM: WAKE up and turn on the radio. Hoping another MP or cabinet minister is involved in a scandal and announcing they are resigning. Seems like there’s been dozens since my own drama and everyone has forgotten about my time in the glare of the spotlight. Pity, none today. No news items from my press release. Again. Media has it in for my new party, Advance NZ. Why don’t they pick up on my push for ‘freedom and sovereignty for New Zealanders’? Am I the only one that can see that the Chinese Communist Party is running the show here? This bloody pandemic takes all the oxygen out of the room. 7am: Television news has Cindy grinning inanely and Judy looking decidedly unnerving. Make a decision.
7.30am: Ring Billy Te Kahika and introduce myself. He reckons he’s never heard of Advance NZ. I suggest we meet. Do some Googling about his party because I don’t know much about the New Zealand Public Party either. He’s been getting decent crowds and it’s only been going for a couple of months. Seems he was too late to get his party registered for the election, so he tried to merge with Vision NZ and then the Outdoors Party, but they didn’t want a bar of it. Who are all these people forming crackpot parties? 8.30am: Pass Simon Bridges awkwardly in the Koru Lounge. He gives me a wink which troubles me. He seems to have perked up lately. 10.30am: Open a classroom at Botany Downs School. I feel comfortable with kids. They don’t ask tricky questions. Staff haven’t heard about Advance NZ. I try to sign some up. Tell them it’s only two bucks but no joy. I buy a school raffle ticket. 12.30pm: Meet with Billy. He’s pretty confident and loud. I suggest we find a quiet spot to chat and offer to shout him lunch. I try to tell him about Advance NZ but he’s not listening. Rabbiting on
THEORY-DRIVEN: Steve Wyn-Harris’ satirical take on former National MP Jami-Lee Ross joining his Advance New Zealand party with the conspiracy theory-driven New Zealand Public Party.
about covid-19 being a 5G-related bioweapon that was released by a shadowy cabal of global elites in order to impose control over the world population. I attempt to sound convinced. Suggest that once a vaccine is available, everything would be good. Turns out he’s an anti-vaxxer, so we had half an hour on that. Then he
was on about the United Nations and their plan of a secret plot to reduce and dominate the world’s population. Luckily the pan-fried snapper comes so we leave the UN business behind. I finally got around to suggesting we merge our two parties. He seems keen and wants to know why. I tell him my party is already in the process, but I haven’t got the 500 members required. He wants to know how many more I need, and I tell him about 400. He reckons he can help with that and then tells me he wants to be leader of my own party! We negotiate over coffee and agree to be co-leaders. Works for the Greens. He doesn’t seem to know about the Serious Fraud Office inquiry into me, so I don’t mention it. We write a press release about our merger and I email it off. Billy goes off to an anti-fluoride rally. 3.30pm: Radio station rings and wants an interview on the merger. Very exciting. I jog to the studio. 4.30pm: Interview not going so well. Bloody host keeps focusing on Billy’s view that covid-19 is a hoax. I reply that he said no such thing and he reads out some of Billy’s Facebook posts.
The host keeps asking me if I believe the virus is a bioweapon being used to undermine our democracy like my new coalition partners believe. I finally get the conversation to why we need to tear up the free trade agreement with China. He wants to know where the $30 billion of two-way trade will then come from and I suggest other nations which seems to satisfy him. Then I find out Billy is no fan of 5G or 1080 as well, but fortunately the host doesn’t seem to know about the fluoridation thing. At least I got on the radio. 6.00pm: Buy a pizza and try and join the guy up to Advance NZ. He hasn’t heard of it and I offer to pay the two bucks. He still won’t and I consider not buying his pizza but I’m hungry. Stop at two of my billboards and wash off the devil horns and moustaches. 10.00pm: Finish writing our new policy on Constitutional Reform and go to bed.
Your View Steve Wyn-Harris is a Central Hawke’s Bay sheep and beef farmer. swyn@xtra.co.nz
