April 26, 2023
Luxon throws red tape on farm tip
National Party leader Chris Luxon says Labour has buried farmers in red tape, and they need to be freed up for the sake of the country’s economic health.
Mr Luxon has released National’s agriculture policy, including a promise to chop two regulations for every new one created, and to restart live animal shipments by sea, which end this week.
He says the agriculture sector generates about 65 percent of foreign earnings, and farmers need a hand.
“The farmers have been hit with overwhelming regulaiton and a lot of it is often at cross purposes – there’s been wetlands, there’s been water suppliers, there’s been what’s called significant natural areas, slope rules, and a lot of it doesn’t sync up or join up very well and the consequence is our farmers are spending anywhere from 20 to 30 percent of their week just doing paperwork,” Mr Luxon says.
He says the 19 elements in the farming policy are real irritants farmers have told them they want dealing with.
Agriculture Minister Damien O’Connor says most of the regulations that have been brought in were because the previous National Government was not prepared to step up and take leadership.