ACT will make farming fun again

“I’m launching ACT’s campaign to Make Farming Fun Again, because I’ve spent more than 20 years farming and have seen first-hand what happens when people in Wellington, who don’t understand farming, try to regulate every part of it,” says ACT Agriculture spokesperson Andrew Hoggard.

“There’s nothing fun about paperwork, especially when it’s pointless, yet farmers have been hit with endless new rules and freshwater regulations, Significant Natural Areas [SNAs], winter grazing, emissions pricing, the ute tax, firearms changes, health and safety paperwork, and resource management red tape. Successive governments piled on the rules, adding costs and uncertainty to running a farm.

“Farmers are exposed to risk that not many other industries are. In Wellington if there’s a heavy hail storm the bureaucrats work from home, on the farm it could mean you lose a crop and face huge losses.

“We can’t control the weather or foreign commodity prices, but we can stop the Government from causing headaches through pointless rules and red tape. That’s why I joined ACT and ran for Parliament.

“I want my daughters, if they choose farming, to have the freedom to farm well without the red tape I’ve faced for 20 years. As ACT’s Agriculture spokesperson, I cut unworkable winter grazing rules, kept farming out of the ETS by scrapping He Waka Eke Noa, halved Labour’s methane target, and killed the ute tax. We’ve simplified freshwater farm plans, put $79m into wilding pine control, restored 90-day trials, restored common sense to firearms laws, and brought common sense back to health and safety.

“Farmers do not need another politician telling them how to farm. They need a Government that respects property rights, sets clear rules around genuine environmental harm, and otherwise lets them get on with it.”

ACT has six pledges to make farming fun again:

1. Keep Wellington out of farming. Replacing the RMA is one of the biggest wins for rural New Zealand in decades. The next decisions are key for how well the new system works in practice. ACT will fight for National Policy Direction and National Standards that are clear, practical, locally responsive, and grounded in property rights.

2. Focus on practical environmentalism. Farmers have the incentives to look after their natural environment, because they depend on it for their livelihood. ACT will scrap Te Mana o te Wai and increase funding for rural catchment groups, allow targeted grazing on suitable DOC land, and carry on the war against wilding pines.

3. Keep backing farmers on climate. ACT is the only party that has never supported introducing a price on agricultural emissions. We stood alone against the Zero Carbon Act, opposed He Waka Eke Noa and successfully fought to keep agriculture out of the ETS. We will keep it that way. No other party can say this. We’ll also scrap the climate policy that adds nothing but costs to our economy, like the Net Zero target, the Climate Change Commission and the Zero Carbon Act.

4. Give farmers the tools. New Zealand farmers have always been early adopters of technology, often in spite of, not because of, the government. ACT will continue to cut red tape to make agri-innovation easier.

5. Protect rural communities. We’ll crack down on rural crime with 100,000 extra police patrol hours, harsher penalties for burglary via three strikes, an Open Seat rule so rural children can always catch the bus, and improve access to healthcare by giving pharmacists more tools to treat common ailments.

6. Grow the economy. Farmers make long-term decisions about land, stock, machinery and staff. They need stable prices, lower interest rates and confidence that Government will live within its means and stay out of commercial decisions it has no business making. No other party is prepared to make the savings in Wellington that will balance the books faster than ACT, with no new taxes.

"I’m proud of ACT’s record standing up for rural New Zealand," says ACT Deputy Leader Nicole McKee.

“When no other party would, we were there giving farmers a voice. Whether it was standing up for licensed firearms owners or opposing the Zero Carbon Act. Now that we’re in Government we’ve been able to make progress in fixing these issues.

"Party vote ACT to unlock the potential of rural New Zealand.”