Sudesh Kissun/Rural News
With less than a week to go before voters choose the next government, Federated Farmers has a simple message to its members – get out and vote.
The farmer lobby last week released its ‘Voter Guide’.
It covers each of the 25 policies included in Federated Farmers’ list of election priorities in its ‘Backing Kiwi Farmers’ document and political parties’ position on each policy.
It covers everything from tax and pest management right through to water storage and local government reform.
New Zealand First supports all the policies with National and ACT closely behind. Labour is unclear on 15 policies while the Greens don’t back farmers’ positions on some environmental issues. Both parties also oppose Feds’ calls for fixing the way local governments are run. Like Labour, Opportunity is also unclear about supporting Resource Management Act (RMA) reforms.
Feds president Colin Hurst told Rural News that the voter guide is just that – a guide.
“We’re not telling any farmers who to vote for this election. They’re more capable of making that decision themselves.
“What we are trying to do is to make it as simple and easy as possible to look up the policies they care most about and make an informed decision.
“Our message to farmers this election is simple – get out and vote.”
Based on the responses from parties, there are a few clear areas of concern this election.
Hurst says the first is RMA reform and what that could look like if there is a change of government.
“We’ve seen a real commitment from the current coalition to cut red tape, reduce unnecessary costs and simplify farming rules with permitted activity standards.
“Unfortunately, we haven’t seen that same commitment from Labour, Opportunity, or the Greens – in fact, there are some real question marks. Their policy is very unclear.
“The second policy area where there is a clear left/right divide is local government reform – and the contrast is quite stark when you see it laid out on paper.
“Parties on the right have a clear commitment to cutting local government bureaucracy, protecting property rights, and removing joint decision-making with unelected groups.
“There’s a clear ideological difference with the parties on the left, who seem to have a very different vision for local government and resource management reform.”
Hurst agrees that with a change of government, these once-in-a-generation reforms will be at serious risk – and that would be bad news for farmers and rural communities.
However, there are a few things on Federated Farmers’ wish list that has the support of all parties, like supporting young farmers, teaching ag in rural schools, reviewing sharemilking agreement legislation and vocational training.
That is encouraging, says Hurst.
“Particularly when it comes to things like supporting young farmers, empowering community conservation, and enabling technology and infrastructure.
“Some of these are very important issues for the future of our rural communities – controlling pests, modernising the Sharemilking Act, vocational education, and looking at how we teach agriculture in schools.
“These aren’t particularly contentious or hot-button political issues, so it’s great to see cross-party support. That means no matter who wins the election, we’re likely to see good progress.”
