Federated Farmers have once again called for Otago Regional Council (ORC) to delay notifying its new freshwater rules and to lay the full costs bare.
“It’s been well over a month since we first called for transparency about the potential impacts and costs of these rules,” Federated Farmers Otago president Luke Kane says.
“Unfortunately, the council has been about as transparent as a brick wall. Our requests have been met with nothing but contempt.
“Despite repeated questioning and intense media scrutiny, our community is still none the wiser about what these rules might cost us.”
Federated Farmers say ORC has failed to give straight answers about how it plans to apply the principle of Te Mana o te Wai under new water regulations.
“The council has been totally dismissive of Federated Farmers’ concerns,” Kane says.
“First they said we were wrong and we didn’t understand, then they said it’s complicated and we were only partially correct, and now they’ve gone totally quiet.
“I think that’s because they know Federated Farmers have hit the nail on the head and that these expensive new rules are going to go down very poorly with local ratepayers.”
Federated Farmers aren’t the only ones concerned, with Environment Minister Penny Simmonds writing to ORC chair Gretchen Robertson on 8 August to raise concerns and request further information.
“It’s bad enough the Minister has had to write to the council demanding more detail on the costs of Te Mana o Te Wai,” Kane says.
“But to turn around and say, ‘sorry Minister, we’ve got other stuff to work on, and you didn’t really provide a deadline’, is laughable.
“You’d have thought it would be a fairly simply exercise. It’s simply not good enough that the information hasn’t been provided.
“The council clearly either has no idea what the full cost to the community will be, or the costs are so astronomically high they don’t want to release them.
“I’m not sure what would be worse: trying to notify a plan without understanding the true costs, or understanding those costs and pushing ahead anyway.”
Kane says Federated Farmers want ORC to delay notifying the new freshwater rules and release the full plan, including costs, for further consultation.
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.
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