MANAGEMENT
MACHINERY & PRODUCTS
ELECTION 2020
Breeding beef to reduce N leaching. PAGE 28
JCB releases new loader range. PAGE 34
Your vote, your choice. Extensive pre-election coverage. PAGE 11-27
TO ALL FARMERS, FOR ALL FARMERS OCTOBER 6, 2020: ISSUE 711 www.ruralnews.co.nz
Process questioned STAFF REPORTERS
AN AWARD winning, environmentally-focused farmer is calling for a full review into the people and process behind the Ministry for the Envi-
ronment’s (MfE) Fresh Water National Policy Statement and the methods used by Environment Minister David Parker. North Otago farmer – and vocal critic of the newly imposed freshwater regulations —
Jane Smith specifically wants a full examination behind the legislation for winter grazing practices and land use categorised solely on slope. She believes this is necessary in order to reveal to the lack of adherence to procedure behind the
Outstanding in her field! Twenty-eight year old Laura Keenan recently picked up the 2020 Kate Sheppard Memorial Award for her PhD research into yield prediction tools for a national forage database. Keenan’s research is part of the Hill Country Futures Project aimed at collating both published and nonpublished data around non-traditional forages – either as mixes or monocultures in pasture. She is looking specifically at plantain as well as white and red clover. “Essentially there will be a whole lot more information for farmers around alternative forages to perennial ryegrass and white clover.” See more about this research project and Keenan’s impressive background on page 30.
rushed regulation. Smith has accused Environment Minister David Parker of “skipping procedure and leaping laws” to get his regulations passed into law just before Parliament rose for the general election. “There is a black box investigation required to reveal the lack of scrutiny, consultation and procedural integrity during this unnervingly swift process,” she told Rural News. “This needs to be brought out into daylight, for what I suggest is effectively an abuse of legislative power.” While Smith is opposed to the regulations and has publicly referred to them as “barely fit for human consumption”, it is the process that she is challenging – rather than the outcome itself. “This is one man’s attempt to claim a personal legacy and it goes against everything that a supposedly incorrupt democracy stands for,” she claims. Smith has sifted through over 100 pages of Official Information Act (OIA) information and suggests that Parker may have gone beyond his ministerial mandate. “It is no coincidence that a lot of this OIA material has been highly redacted by the minister himself. This is a sad indictment on democracy,” she adds. Smith suggests that this freshwater “debacle” mirrors the pattern of events throughout the recent RMA Reform Bill where conveniently short timeframes meant no contrary views were able to be aired. Meanwhile, Smith believes there is also a serious conflict of interest issue, with animal rights activist Rowan Taylor who is a senior policy analyst for MfE and is leading the ministry’s submissions to influence plan changes at regional level. “I am appalled that an animal liberation vegan, who is publicly opposed to livestock farming, is essentially being paid by the taxpayer to be an internal activist,” she says. – See full story pages 6 and 7.
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