Federated Farmers says regional councils are continuing to plough ahead with changes to freshwater rules and the Government needs to take urgent action to pull them into line.
“It’s completely outrageous what’s going on with these regional councils,” says Colin Hurst, Federated Farmers vice-president and spokesperson for freshwater.
“We’ve got a situation where a number of councils around the country are deliberately choosing to ignore the direction of central Government and push ahead with plan changes.
“These councils don’t seem to care in the slightest that Ministers have said the national rules are changing, or that they’ll be needlessly wasting ratepayers’ money.”
Otago Regional Council (ORC) has recently faced intense media and political scrutiny for its continued insistence on pushing through expensive new freshwater rules in October.
Environment Canterbury (ECan) has recently started a 10-day consultation on a plan change that will incorporate new rules for winter grazing and dairy land use into its regional plan.
Environment Southland (ES) is also planning to notify a new regional plan in the coming months that will introduce onerous new freshwater rules for farmers.
“The situation has now become so dire that we’re calling on central Government to take drastic measures and intervene,” Hurst says.
“This is serious stuff that could completely reshape our farming landscapes and rural communities, in spite of a new national direction coming for freshwater management.”
This week Federated Farmers has formally written to Environment Minister Penny Simmonds urging her to intervene.
The letter calls on the Government to take urgent legislative action to prevent regional councils from notifying these plan changes until a new national direction is in place.
“We’re asking the Government to put a ‘pause’ in place while it establishes a new framework to replace the Resource Management Act (RMA),” Hurst says.
“The Government has been very clear it will be setting a new national direction for how freshwater should be managed by councils and rewriting resource management laws.
“By continuing to move forward with these plan changes, regional councils are essentially giving central Government the middle finger and actively undermining that work.”
ECan intends to push go on new regulations before the National Environment Standards expire on 31 December, which Hurst says is overriding the Government’s repeal of those regulations.
Several other regional councils have also signalled their intent to push through plan changes in the first half of 2025.
“The sheer arrogance of these regional councils needlessly pushing ahead with these plan changes is completely unbelievable,” Hurst says.
“By turning a deaf ear and blindly changing ahead, all they’re going to end up doing is wasting time and money, and completely eroding what little trust may remain with their ratepayers.”
Federated Farmers is concerned that councils passing new freshwater plans and regional policy statements risk locking in the previous Government’s unobtainable freshwater bottom lines and Te Mana o Te Wai requirements.
With the RMA set to be repealed, there’s also a very real prospect that ratepayer money will be wasted developing rules that councils will need to change almost immediately, Hurst says.
“These regional councils have made it very clear that they’re hell-bent on notifying these plan changes and won’t stop unless they’re forced to.
“This means, unless the Government intervenes, the likes of Canterbury, Otago, and Southland will ram through new rules before the national direction is reviewed.
“In practical terms, this would essentially mean that despite the Labour Government being voted out of office, its National Policy Statement for Freshwater Management 2020 will be locked in.”
Hurst says that would be a bitter pill for farmers to swallow.
“If that were to happen, all of the new Government’s efforts to make freshwater regulations more practical, affordable or workable will make absolutely no difference behind the farm gate.
“The most frustrating thing about all of this is that farmers are really committed to improving freshwater outcomes and want to do the right thing.
“We just need an enabling regulatory framework that allows us to make those improvements in a way that doesn’t stop us from farming altogether.”
Federated Farmers has invited Minister Simmonds to discuss the matter further.
Federated Farmers, New Zealand’s leading independent rural advocacy organisation, has established a news and insights partnership with AgriHQ, the country’s leading rural publisher, to give the farmers of New Zealand a more informed, united and stronger voice. Federated Farmers news and commentary appears each week in its own section of the Farmers Weekly print edition and online.
