ACT’s Record

ACT has driven many of the Government’s actions to let farmers farm. These include:

• Stopping unworkable freshwater rules and SNA expansion: ACT halted the previous Government’s direction to councils to identify and map Significant Natural Areas, fixed impractical winter grazing and stock-exclusion rules, and is rewriting freshwater regulations to reflect local science and conditions instead of ideology.

• Simplifying farm plans and regulatory compliance: ACT is delivering slimmer, more practical freshwater farm plans focused on managing genuine environmental risks, while stripping away costly paperwork and one-size-fits-all compliance requirements.

• Keeping agriculture out of the ETS and defending split-gas: ACT secured key wins to keep agriculture out of the Emissions Trading Scheme, axe He Waka Eke Noa, and maintain a science-based split-gas approach that recognises methane and carbon dioxide affect warming differently.

• Refusing to sacrifice farmers for Paris targets: ACT has introduced a policy to set a new, science-based emissions target that reflects agriculture’s actual warming impact. If the Paris Agreement cannot accommodate a fair target for New Zealand, ACT says New Zealand should leave.

• Pushing back against spiritual concepts in environmental law: ACT is challenging vague concepts such as Te Mana o te Wai and national bottom lines that override property rights, frustrate development, and prevent environmental decisions being made according to local conditions and measurable outcomes.

• Cutting red tape on agricultural inputs and food production: ACT is removing barriers in the food-safety system and liberalising approvals for agricultural chemicals, veterinary medicines, gene technology, and new food products so farmers can access better tools without years of bureaucratic delay.

• Replacing the Resource Management Act: ACT secured property rights as a central principle of the RMA replacement. The new system will make it easier to invest, build infrastructure, store water, and innovate without farmers being buried under costly planning hurdles and layers of bureaucracy.

• Scrapping Labour’s anti-farming policies: ACT helped scrap the ute tax, restore 90-day trials, remove unworkable winter grazing rules, and reduce the cost and complexity of freshwater farm plans.

• Delivering a Rural Workforce Visa: ACT has introduced a dedicated three-year visa policy to give farms reliable access to year-round workers. It would cut repeated applications, allow movement between accredited rural employers, and provide a pathway to residence for workers who make a sustained contribution.

• Letting rural kids use empty school-bus seats: ACT’s Open Seat Rule would allow children living along an existing route to use an available seat, regardless of which school they attend. The bus is already running and the seat is already paid for—let the kid on.

• Backing targeted grazing on DOC land: ACT has introduced a policy to make controlled grazing easier on suitable conservation land, using livestock to suppress wilding conifers and invasive vegetation, reduce wildfire fuel loads, and save taxpayers from unnecessary spraying and contracting costs.

• Opening the door to agricultural innovation: ACT’s coalition commitment to reform gene-technology laws will give New Zealand farmers and scientists greater freedom to develop stronger crops, reduce emissions, fight disease, and lift productivity.

• Standing up to rural banks: ACT secured a parliamentary inquiry into rural banking, forcing greater scrutiny of lending practices, competition, and the treatment of farmers and growers.

• Giving growers access to workers: ACT supported lifting the RSE cap and has proposed a dedicated rural visa to address both seasonal and year-round workforce shortages.

• Protecting farmers who open their land: ACT has backed health and safety reforms to reduce unreasonable liability for landowners who allow hunters, trampers, and other recreational users onto their properties.
  
  The coalition Government has not gone as far as ACT would like, but it’s gone further than it would have without ACT.