security threats
handy companion
Our primary exports are at risk from border leaks. page 23
New milk monitor on show at Fieldays. page 36
Rural NEWS
riding the roller coaster MPI warns bumper seasons at an end.
page 12
to all farmers, for all farmers
june 19, 2012: Issue 517
www.ruralnews.co.nz
Shocking land-grab a n d r ew swa l low
LANDOWNERS NATIONWIDE are being warned their property rights are under threat from national grid operator Transpower’s efforts to get buffer zones under power lines written into district plans. Transpower denies its actions infringe property rights but Federated Farmers representatives say it’s a “landgrab by stealth”. The issue has come to a head in recent weeks in the Western Bay of Plenty and Waimate districts during hearings on district plans. Transpower says it will seek similar provisions in every district where it has infrastructure. Five have already gone through. Transpower spokeswoman Rebecca Wilson told Rural News the ‘National policy statement on electricity transmission’ requires councils to include buffer zone corridors under national grid infrastructure and Transpower’s submissions are simply to ensure those are appropriate. But Federated Farmers disputes that. “They would say that,” says Miles
Anderson, a South Canterbury farmer with four pylons on his 217ha mixed crop and stock property. “But the national policy statement doesn’t take priority over existing regulations or over the Resource Management Act.” If Transpower’s proposed amendments are written into the district plan it would limit his use of a 64m-wide corridor across the farm. It would have a direct affect on 6ha of our best land. The more intensive your farm is, the more it will affect you.”
Anderson represented South Canterbury Federated Farmers Pylon Group at Waimate District’s plan hearing earlier this month. The group’s submission says Transpower’s proposed amendments to the plan are “an assault on fundamental property rights and will result in devaluation of properties and restrict the ability of landowners to utilise their land”. “We are also seriously concerned that the district planning process is being used by Transpower New Zealand (TPNZ) as a tool to avoid obliga-
Hamish Burgess and Luke Greenwood are pictured testing out an ATV at this year’s National Fieldays, held last week at Mystery Creek, near Hamilton. More Fieldays – pages 36-39
tions and responsibilities that it has with landowners.” Federated Farmers Bay of Plenty Te Puke branch chairperson Steve Bailey echoes that. “We have grave concerns that Transpower is trying to use the district plan to avoid negotiating individual easement agreements and pay compensation.” Bailey says buffer zones are unnecessary because the ‘Code of practice for electrical safety distances’ (COP) to page 3
Cheque books to close? p e t e r bu r k e
SHEEP AND beef farmers may not be too enthusiastic about reaching for their chequebooks in the coming year, a suggestion rising from the latest data from Beef + Lamb NZ’s economic service. The figures show a 2.4% rise in farm input prices for the past year. Though this increase is about half that of the previous year, cumulative increases over the past five years amount to 22.3%. The director of the economic service, Rob Davison, says in the past year fertiliser, lime and seed prices rose 7%, fuel 5.4% and feeding and grazing 5.9%. Local government rates were up 5.6%; during the past five years the cumulative increase has been 30.7% “Rates are a big factor because they are not tradable costs. The only way to pay those increases is by increasing farm profit, which could be by higher production or better market prices. The question is, are these rate increases adding extra value to the running of the farm?” Davison says sheep and beef farmers are conservative in their spending habits and these tend to be linked to income. With lamb prices coming off the boil and wool prices back people will be looking at expenditure pretty closely, he says.
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