E McGruddy, Senior Policy Adviser, FFNZ The Government’s aspiration to deliver demonstrable environmental improvements in short order just hit a road block. Or did it? The Overseer model has been found wanting by an independent panel – unfit for purpose in regulation. It may or may not be resurrected in a more limited domain, more […]
Water
Don’t fence me in
By Rebecca Flannery, Sometimes we here at Federated Farmers need to just get out and visit rural communities to learn and understand more about them and get a picture of where exactly we fit in terms of what they need, as opposed to what we think they may need … So recently we got ourselves […]
Extra compliance burden on small water suppliers unfair
Hawke’s Bay-based Federated Farmers Senior Policy Advisor Rhea Dasent has written this open letter to her local MP: Dear Anna Lorck, MP for Tukituki. I am writing to implore you to vote for an amendment to the Water Services Bill to exempt small water suppliers like my father from an unnecessary and unfair regulatory burden. […]
Feds’ worst fears realised on drinking water reforms
Federated Farmers is profoundly disappointed to see the Water Services Bill reported back to the Parliament with the definition of a “water supplier” unchanged. “The government has now signed itself up for the enormous task of tracking down every single source of drinking water in the land and making them belong to a register if […]
Research key to improving water quality in Ararira catchment
Know your catchment before you take action to improve water quality. That’s one of the key findings from a two-year research collaboration between Living Water (a partnership of Fonterra and the Department of Conservation) and the University of Canterbury’s Carex group (Canterbury Waterway Rehabilitation Experiment). They were working together on the Ararira / LII River […]
Mātaitai reserves– implications of customary fishing areas
By Elisha Young-Ebert, Senior Policy Advisor – North Canterbury Province Federated Farmers occasionally notifies its members when the Ministry of Fisheries has received an application for a Mātaitai reserve on a waterway and invites those who live near the proposed reserve to make a submission. The Federation notifies its members as a service to any […]
Sector confronts ‘Growing Kai under Increasing Dry’
There’s a helluva lot more we can do with irrigation as we get more and more precise about delivering water in the right spot, in the right amounts, Gavin Forrest says. The Federated Farmers Manager Policy and Advocacy was answering questions put to a panel of primary sector experts at the final Growing Kai Under […]
Horizons Regional Council to lead partnership in constructing wetland for Lake Horowhenua restoration
Horizons Regional Council have reached a major milestone in the path to restoring Lake Horowhenua by securing a land package to construct a nationally significant wetland complex. Governance Group Chair for the project and Horizons’ Chair Rachel Keedwell says the land package was purchased for $6.75m, with $5.6m of that coming from central government’s Jobs […]
Sharing best practice through virtual farm tours
The role farmers play in producing food and in food security – especially when supply chains are disrupted by events such as the Covid-19 pandemic – is not well understood, Leeston arable farmer David Birkett says. “Previous generations understood it but it’s something that has been lost. I think that’s probably one of the bigger […]
Future drought could drain primary sector profit
New research by the Deep South Challenge and Manaaki Whenua – Landcare Research, with the support of Motu Economic and Public Policy Research, finds a strong relationship between more intense future drought and drops in farm profit. In the year 2100, our 10-year-old children will be 90 years old. Their children – our grandchildren – […]