Political pressure and strong lobbying by agriculture groups have seen sensible and practical changes made to Environment Minister David Parker’s previously over-the-top freshwater proposals that were released last September.
These water reform proposals caused huge consternation in farming circles and led to large farmer meetings around the country. According to the Ministry for the Environment (MfE), it received 18,000 submissions on the freshwater proposals of which 3,500 were individual submissions – not just form-letters or templates.
Parker’s new freshwater regulations, released last week, will be met with howls of anguish by the environmental die-hards. However, the practicality and huge economic impacts of the proposed reforms on the agricultural sector – which is now more important to the country’s fortunes than ever in a post COVID-19 world – meant a backdown to more sensible, but still tough, standards was necessary.
In fact, the nitrogen limits for waterways outlined in the proposed reforms announced last year would have seen total milk production fall by 24% and the country’s export receipts by 5.2% or $8.1 billion by 2050, according to figures produced by Dairy NZ. With the country now facing a huge pandemic recovery bill, such environmental fundamentalism would have been economic suicide.
The limits set for dissolved nitrogen (DIN) in the original proposals would have had a devastating impact in major dairying districts such as parts of the Waikato, Southland and, in particular, Canterbury – making it impossible to farm.
It is a good move that the DIN limits will now be reconsidered over the next year to find agreement on what limits should be.
Other good changes to the original proposals include:
- Where fences are required they must be a minimum of 3 metres from a waterway, but permanent fences will not need to move to comply with riparian setback requirements.
· Developing mandatory and enforceable freshwater farm plan regimes and phasing their introduction over a longer timeframe.
· Removal of commercial vegetable growing from the interim intensification rules.
Federated Farmers – which, unbelievably, has been left out of the consultation process by MfE for more than a year – rightly says that changes to the essential freshwater regulations reflect farmer feedback.
“The high-level policy decisions indicate the Government has heeded some of the rural sector concerns,” environment spokesperson Chris Allen says.