Farmers 'breathing a sigh of relief' council plans halted

Federated Farmers today slammed the Otago Regional Council as “arrogant”, noting last night’s Parliamentary amendment to the Resource management Act was good news for farmers.

"This is a really sensible and pragmatic move from the Government that will land well with farmers in our region," Federated Farmers Otago president Luke Kane says.

"It’s made no sense whatsoever for Otago Regional Council (ORC) to be barging ahead arrogantly by trying to bring in new water quality rules when it’s been clear that the Government will be changing the national direction.

"It’s been a complete waste of time, money and energy for ORC to have pushed on with their new land and water plan.

"Thankfully, common sense has prevailed."

Yesterday, the Government announced they will be amending the Resource Management Act

This change will restrict councils’ ability to notify new freshwater rules until either December 31, 2025 or until the new National Policy Statement for Freshwater Management (NPS-FM) is in place, or unless an exemption is provided by the Government.

Kane says the Government have made it very clear to ORC and other regional councils that they need to stop their work and wait for further clarification on the national direction.

"This change has come just in time to halt ORC, who were due to meet today to vote on whether to notify their new land and water plan.

"Our team at Federated Farmers have been calling for the council to be transparent about the true costs and implications of their plan, and our advocacy appears to have paid off.

"I really want to acknowledge the huge amount of work our local Federated Farmers leaders and policy team have been doing on this, all while running their own businesses in one of the most difficult springs we’ve had in terms of weather.

"We’ll remain engaged with the council and assist if there are any issues that need to be resolved prior to December 2025," Kane says.

He says ORC have an ideology that the economic, social and cultural cost of regulation on farming families and rural communities is irrelevant.

"This has resulted in very poor governance and results for all of Otago, but particularly farming communities. Federated Farmers strongly believe that numerous and complex regulation does not result in better environmental outcomes.

"We must be able to create a framework where farmers can improve practices without being cut off at the knees by regional council monitoring and compliance costs."

Kane says one of the big issues with ORC’s land and water plan is that it’s relied on water quality data from, in some cases, as far back as 2017.

"That means ORC has failed to take into account all the positive environmental and management actions taken by farmers and catchment groups over the past seven years.

"Disappointingly, that resulted in perverse and unnecessary rules in the draft land and water plan.

"This decision by the Government will mean any new freshwater rules can consider up-to-date water quality information and all the great work done by farmers in our region recently."

Kane says Otago farmers were doing plenty of excellent work to improve environmental outcomes long before these conversations started.

"And none of that work is going to stop just because ORC’s plan is pushed back for a while.

"Farmers here will carry on making progress on our farms.

"What this delay means, though, is that we’ll end up with water quality rules that are fairer, clearer and far more practical.

"I don’t think many would disagree that it’s a great result for Otago.”