Write Here,Right Now

WE MAY now be into the third decade of the 21^st century, but unfortunately much of NZ’s rural broadband and mobile coverage remains at third world levels.

That is unacceptable in a modern, first-world country like New Zealand.

How is it still the case that many farmers and rural businesses around the country have to buy costly equipment to get broadband, while many others cannot even get mobile phone coverage at all?

As the Technology Users Association of NZ (TUANZ) chief executive Craig Young says, rural people should be getting the same level of connectivity in terms of broadband and mobile coverage as the people who live in urban areas.

It is even more important for rural people to have high quality connectivity, given their often remote locations and the fact that they are running significant businesses – not only farming, but other service related enterprises.

“We are expecting New Zealanders to make the most of this digital technology and services with government agencies and corporate organisations expecting customers to do more and more online,” Young explains. “Organisations like IRD and banks need to be aware that if people can’t connect or haven’t got good connectivity they should be able to do these things by the traditional means.”

He is absolutely right.

How can rural people be expected take advantage of digital technology when many do not have access to reliable, affordable broadband?

Meanwhile, the Climate Change Commission, in its recent report, said that if farmers and people in rural areas are going to be expected to meet all sorts of environmental targets and provide data to local and central government agencies, they need good connectivity.

If government and others are expecting the farming and the rural sectors to play their part in reducing the country’s carbon emissions, reliable and affordable connectivity is a must.

The Government needs to step up and make rural broadband connectivity and mobile phone coverage a priority in its post-Covid infrastructure plans.

PM Jacinda Ardern promised to govern for all New Zealanders when she was re-elected last year.

How can this be so when young rural people risk being disadvantaged in their education, and others with their health and businesses?

Ardern and her Government now must act on her election night promise.

Rural people deserve same access to health, entertainment and business options as their urban counterparts.

CLIMATE CHANGE Commission chair Rod Carr’s foolish and ham-fisted comment comparing NZ’s farming sector to the country’s defunct whaling industry was an appalling way for him to kick off the consultation period of his organisation’s draft carbon emissions budget.

It is a pity Carr has now blotted his copybook with farmers.

When appointed Climate Commission chair last year, he sounded much more reasonable and measured—even telling the Newsroom website:

“In the agricultural sector, there is no or little denial of climate change…In the agricultural sector there is a growing awareness of the need for change, but also a concern about what is the nature of the change that is needed. I think the agricultural sector is highly innovative, I don’t think they’re in denial. For my money, New Zealand should be substantially increasing its investment in agriculture research.”

The throwaway line also detracts from the Climate Change Commission’s report, which suggests more science and technology, more trees and less livestock is the prescription offered on how to reduce greenhouse gases in the agriculture sector.

It is going to be a tough ask. As Beef+ Lamb NZ’s Sam McIvor says, the sector needs more detail to understand the assumptions, methodologies and science used by the commission to underpin some of its advice.

He is correct when he says the advice of a 15% reduction in sheep, cattle and dairy livestock numbers within the next nine years needs proper analysis of the social and economic impacts of land-use change on communities and the science behind the methane targets.

The roadmap set out by the commission for the agriculture sector to reduce its carbon footprint is ambitious and challenging. It is not at all helpful, when asking the sector to take on such a tough challenge, for the chair of the Climate Change Commission to liken NZ farming it to a morally reprehensible industry such as whaling.

Carr’s ridiculous, insulting and stupid whaling analogy about the country’s agriculture sector only goes to prove that he is tone deaf. It is not a smart or productive way to get farmers – who both the commission and the country need – onside in an effort to reduce NZ’s overall carbon emissions.

At the very least, he should retract and apologise for the silly remark.

IT will be interesting to see if the Government, which Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern claimed on election night would govern for every New Zealander, will make much needed changes to its freshwater rules after recent feedback.

Late last year, the Southland Advisory Group – made up of farmers, industry good organisations, environmental groups and local government in the region – recommended pugging rules and resowing dates be scrapped from the National Environmental Standards for Freshwater.

Right from the outset, these rules, especially in a southern NZ setting, were totally impractical. As they are now, the rules require paddocks around the country to be resown by 1 October or 1 November in Otago and Southland.

Since day one, government ministers and officials have been told that these rules are completely unrealistic given seasonal variations in rainfall and practically impossible to implement in most years.

Meanwhile, an Economic Impact Report on Land and Water Management in the Ashburton District suggests that the new freshwater rules will reduce farm profitability in that region by 83% a year.

The report points out that farm expenditure is estimated to decline by $139.9 million per year across the Ashburton district alone – perversely making farmers far less effective managers of their land, which will only negatively impact on water quality. If these figures are extrapolated across the rest of the country the costs in export earnings and tax revenue will be devastating for our economy.

Farmers have as much incentive as anyone else to want better water quality.  They and their families also want to drink, swim and fish in water that is of the highest quality. However, the rules for achieving this must be practical. A one-size-fits-all approach will not work. Local issues need local solutions.

Rather than implementing restrictive sowing dates on winter crops, putting in ridiculous pugging measurements or placing arbitrary rules on what slope a paddock must be, there needs to be flexibility in accommodating seasonal variations in rainfall, climate and other regional factors.

The Government must listen to feedback on what are currently unworkable freshwater rules. Recommendations from the Southland Advisory Group have been presented to the Minister for the Environment David Parker and the Minister of Agriculture Damien O’Connor.

Let’s hope they have the good sense to make the necessary changes and – as the Prime Minister has promised – govern for all New Zealanders.

THERE IS no doubt that 2020 has been a challenging year for New Zealand and the world.

However, despite this, our country’s farmers have soldiered on doing what they do best – farming!

The country’s farmers stepped up during the lockdown, as an important part of New Zealand’s essential services, adapted quickly and kept on farming despite the constraints.

If there is one good thing to come out of Covid-19, it has further emphasised the vitally important role that the agriculture sector plays in NZ. At a time when other major sectors have been adversely affected, farming is playing – and continues to play – an increasingly vital role as a source of income and employment for the country.

In a normal year, farming’s fortunes are always at the mercy of factors that farmers cannot control – the weather, commodity prices and exchange rates to name but three. However, 2020 saw the global pandemic that is Covid-19 cause major disruption throughout the world.

Yet despite this major challenge, New Zealand’s farmers – and the wider agribusiness sector – stood up, adapted and carried on. How the NZ public perceives farming – which has not always been positive – benefitted from this attitude and has led to a much needed lift in public perception and understanding of the agriculture sector and its importance to the nation.

As 2020 winds down and we head into 2021, farming will continue to face challenges. Farming sustainably – be that in improving water quality, mitigating emissions or how animals are treated – is becoming more and more important.

Farmers know and understand that continued improvement in farm practices is necessary. Reducing farming’s environmental footprint is a key part of the sector’s future and being the world’s most sustainable agricultural producers presents NZ farmers with major opportunities.

But such changes cannot be a one-size-fits-all approach or ideas dreamt up in the cloistered rooms of the Wellington bureaucracy and government.  It is vital for farmers and the country that practical solutions are developed and introduced that maintain profitability and make progress.

Government and bureaucrats need to work closely with farmers to support on-farm changes and develop practical regulations. Making environmental improvements while running a profitable business is where real progress will happen.

As we look ahead to Christmas and New Year, farmers can take pride in the achievements and resilience they displayed in 2020. They should take the opportunity to enjoy time with family and friends and recharge as they head into 2021.

PRIME MINISTER Jacinda Ardern delivered a ‘nice’ speech at last week’s Primary Industry Conference, organised and run by Federated Farmers.

Unfortunately, over the past term of government, the country has got used to the PM giving nice speeches, but not delivering much.

Housing, child poverty statistics and failing infrastructure are just three areas where Ardern talked a big game, but has delivered abysmally.

Let’s hope this stretch on the treasury benches is really her Government’s ‘term of delivery’.

Again, all very nice words.

As Ardern acknowledged in the speech, with her recent election victory – and the success of Labour in rural New Zealand – “comes huge responsibility”. The PM told the conference the vote meant a requirement by her Government “to work more closely with our rural communities” and that she wants to see more of this. She also claimed that she had “made it very clear to our all our MPs, as well as those in provincial seats, that the primary sector is a key partner and stakeholder for this Government.”

However, despite touching on a couple of points in the speech that are currently concerning rural NZ, Ardern failed to give any concrete answers that are desperately needed.

She glibly mentioned seasonal labour problems currently being experienced in the both the farming and horticultural sectors – exacerbated by her Government’s border closures – but failed to say what, if anything, she would actually do about it.

Then came the ‘elephant in the room’ – her Government’s new freshwater regulations. Despite numerous examples that these have been poorly thought out and totally impractical to implement in many situations, Ardern failed to properly address these failings.

Claiming that if some aspects of the regulations are found to be impractical to implement, “ministers will receive that advice with the view to making the regulations workable”.

Sorry, those are nothing but weasel words.

Ever since the new regulations came into law in September, accounts of the impracticality and impossibility of the new rules have flooded in from all around the country.

Yet all that Ardern’s involved ministers, David Parker and Damien O’Connor, have said is they may “tweak” some of the rules, if they feel like it. That is both arrogant and ignorant.

The PM’s failure to acknowledge this proves that she is – again – talking a good game, but not delivering.

IT’S TIME for some real and fast action around allowing more seasonal workers into the country to help power NZ’s all-important agricultural and horticultural sectors. There are no more excuses for the hopeless lack of activity in this area, from both the politicians and bureaucrats. For months we have been hearing endless reports about a lack of suitably motivated and qualified workers in numerous parts of the primary sector – including fruit pickers, shearers, tractor drivers and vets to name just a few. The closure of NZ’s borders due to Covid-19 has only further exacerbated the problem, but it needs to be addressed and now. The head in the sand approach taken by the Government over this issue can no longer be tolerated. Claims that vacancies in our agricultural and horticultural can be filled by out-of-work New Zealanders is both naïve and ignorant. It would have happened by now if it was realistic. Many of these jobs require skilled, experienced workers and cannot be filled by people just coming off the street. Also, a lot of this work is seasonal, temporary and based in regional areas. It is unrealistic to expect people with families and homes in urban centres to pick up their lives and move far away to take on jobs – many of which they are totally unsuited and unqualified for – that may only last a few months. The fact is, already many of our horticultural crops are at risk of not being harvested and processed due to the unwillingness of government to tackle the huge lack of available labour in the sector. We keep hearing calls from apple, kiwifruit and strawberry growers that their crops are at risk of rotting and going to waste instead of being picked, packed and earning valuable export income the country desperately needs. Agricultural contractors have been warning for months about a lack of drivers meaning crucial hay and silage may not be harvested this year. A lack of shearers means that sheep may not be shorn, and serious animal welfare issues may arise. Meanwhile, other animal health and welfare issues loom due to a lack of vets around the country. NZ can no longer keep its doors shut to crucial key overseas workers we need to keep this country going. This does not mean the quarantine and testing measures are ignored – and all this will be paid for by the industries needing to import these workers. How can the country keep moving if our key primary sectors are not working at 100%?

ALMOST INVARIABLY every general election is described as the most important one ever. The fact is every election is important!

Under our electoral MMP system it is too hard to predict with any certainty the final make-up of the next government, despite what the pre-election polls may indicate.

For all its flaws, MMP makes picking a final result less predictable – especially when voters believe they can ‘game’ the make-up of a potential government. While voters mistakenly think they can dictate what type of coalition will be formed by who they vote for, that is not the case – it’s always the politicians who actually make this decision.

A good example of this was after the 2017 general election. How many voters – especially in rural NZ – who chose to support NZ First expected that party to go into coalition with Labour? One would guess, by the evaporation of electoral support for Winston Peters and his band of misfits, not too many.

There is already talk of some National supporters who hate the thought of the Greens being anywhere near government, contemplating giving their party vote to Labour. Good luck with that strategy. If the Greens do make it back into parliament, even if it does not need their numbers, Labour is highly likely to form a coalition with them. That electoral approach makes about as much sense as a staunch Labour supporter voting National to keep ACT out of power!

This shows precisely why it is an absolute folly for voters to game the system. Despite having MMP since 1996 and this being the 8^th election we have voted under this system, many voters still fail to understand exactly how it actually works.

Under MMP it is the party vote that is your most important choice. This is the box you should tick for the political party you want to win. If you support the red team – party vote red. If you support the blue guys – party vote blue. The same goes if you support another colour – be it green, black or yellow!

However, when voters think they can cleverly forecast a final electoral outcome and potential coalition by playing around with their party vote is when things come horribly unstuck. Just ask those National supporters who backed NZ First last election.

Lastly, whichever way you choose to vote, make sure you do actually vote.

ENVIRONMENT MINISTER David Parker has had a long and tempestuous relationship with the farming sector.

His latest fight with farmers has come about due to the new freshwater regulations that recently came into force – particularly the new rules around winter grazing. Especially aggrieved are southern farmers who have pointed out that many of the new rules concerning winter cropping were “almost unfarmable” in the south.

Southland Federated Farmers president Geoffrey Young even called on farmers in the region to ignore the new requirements on getting resource consents for winter grazing until there was more practicality concerning it. This got Parker’s goat and he came out of hiding to decry Young’s call saying that “no one was above the law”.

Late last month, Agriculture Minister Damien O’Connor announced some very minor tweaks to the regulations around pugging – but these minimal changes have not placated farmer concerns.

The new rules also dictate that crops have to be re-sown by October 1 or November 1 in Southland and Otago. However, while these rules may sound good on paper, any farmer can tell you that it’s the weather that dictates when paddocks can be replanted not a bureaucratic decree.

Another bugbear in the new regulations are the areas of a farm now defined as ‘low slope’, with the new rules only allowing winter crops to be grown on a slope of less than 10 degrees – with all others with greater slopes requiring a resource consent.

As North Otago farmer Jane Smith says this means that ‘low slope farmland’ has grown from 5.8 million hectares in 2019 to 9.6 million hectares today…“by the simple stroke of a pen”.

Smith accuses Parker and his officials of not putting enough research, consultation and pragmatism into developing such overarching regulation that will define rural livelihoods.

The ‘consultation’ around the freshwater reforms was rushed, dictatorial and mainly confined to certain farming groups who were too afraid – or unwilling – to push back. Hence, the unpractical rules we currently have.

However, it is time now for all involved, farmers, bureaucrats and ministers to put their egos and disputes aside and undertake a serious and practical rethink of these regulations. Everyone wants higher water quality and better farming practices. But this cannot be achieved if the rules are totally unpractical – as many of these now are.

WHAT IS it with the current Government and its infatuation with setting up committees and producing endless reports?

In the past three years, in the primary sector alone we’ve seen committees established and reports produced on the future of the primary sector, freshwater reforms, wool and agritech – to name just a few.

As one can expect from any type of government-induced report, most of these were heavy on slogans and rhetoric, but lacking in real detail or implementation.

However, one of these reports – and probably the one that will most impact on the primary sector – relating to new freshwater regulations passed into law last week.

Environment Minister David Parker crowed in a press release about how these new rules will “…deliver on the Government’s commitment to stop further degradation…and restore our waterways to health within a generation”.

These are indeed fine words and highly laudable goals, but they totally ignore the reality that it will mean huge costs and (many) unattainable targets for farmers and growers up and down the country.

As Beef+Lamb NZ chairman Andrew Morrison says, there has been little time to fully digest the details of the finalised essential freshwater policy and standards.

“There are areas we’re still not happy with, such as resource consent requirements for all winter grazing on forage crops and the grandparenting rules for hill country cropping,” he says.

“There’s a lot of complexity in these rules and it’s going to take time to work through all the detail, and there will be some challenges in implementation and significant costs for farmers.”

These new freshwater rules, on top of impending climate change and other regulations imposed on the farming sector, seem a strange way of ensuring the country’s economic powerhouse can help New Zealand recover from the financial mess Covid has left us in.

We cannot afford to hamper the main drivers of our primary sector – in the dairy, sheep and beef sectors, as well as the increasingly important horticulture industry – which between them contribute more than $30b in export revenue to our economy.

It seems obvious that for the country’s primary sector to thrive we need a government to be investing in strategic infrastructure and encouraging innovation, not constraining the sector with even more regulations.

Whoever is in power after September’s election desperately needs to be far more proactive in this regard and less focused on establishing committees and producing pointless reports.

It hasn’t been perfect, but we are one of the luckiest countries in the world thanks to him and his team.

NO ONE can doubt the great job that Dr Ashley Bloomfield has done in protecting New Zealanders from Covid 19.

The classic example is their dealing with Auckland’s latest lockdown. It has been an unmitigated shambles of the highest order. Dad’s Army would have done a much better job! Farmers and a whole range of people who work in the rural area around the border of the super city are rightly frustrated, enraged, dumbstruck and in a state of despair at the incompetence of the MoH’s management of the border.

However, in the last few weeks, some cracks have appeared with all sorts of problems in the isolation facilities and the disconnect between the politicians’ expectations and what the Ministry of Health and the others managing the isolation facilities have been doing. The ministry is great when it comes to straight health but is woefully out its depth when it comes to managing things out in the field.

In Auckland it seems a trip to Waiheke Island was okay – no penalty, just the usual slap on the wrist with a wet bus ticket. But trying to look after your calves or other stock, get a vet to sick animals or move your produce to other parts of the country was taboo.  The penalty for trying to do your job – a five hour wait in a queue.

The inconvenience inflicted on the rural sector in Auckland at the border checkpoints was unforgivable. Yet Dr Bloomfield and the PM at the daily Jacinda/Ashley pantomime proclaimed that the exemptions were being processed quickly. Really? So, a farmer who calls a vet has to wait for five days until the vet gets permission to travel! Excuse us, but by the time he arrives the animal will likely be “dead, buried and cremated” – to pinch a phrase coined by former Australia Prime Minister, Tony Abbot.

It seems that agriculture – let’s call it food production – is not a priority for the MoH or the politicians running the Covid campaign. One feels for Agriculture Minister Damien O’Connor and MPI who seem to be bystanders in this whole fiasco.

MoH policy wonks are not experts in supply chain and food production. Come on Ashley – take the advice from MPI and the rural community and get it right. Aren’t we all in this together and wasn’t agriculture supposed to lead the economic recovery?