The committee was told the farmers were among the 8102 petition signatories because fresh water was a passion for many in the region and they were concerned about their nitrogen budgets.
“The petitioners said that farmers in the lower Waikato catchment are working hard to fence and plant around waterways and to manage effluent ponds to reduce nitrogen leaching,” the report says. “However, this may be in vain if nitrogen leaching in the upper catchment is not properly managed.”
Landcorp opposed the request for a moratorium, saying the issue affected all farmers and it was unreasonable to single out Landcorp because of its Crown ownership.
The committee recommended only that its report be noted, saying Landcorp was not the only business converting land into dairy farms, and a majority of committee members believed it would be impractical to put a moratorium on Landcorp while letting other conversions take place.
But the committee took “great interest” in the care of waterways throughout the country “and intend to look further into the downstream impact of these practices in the future”.
The report was tabled in Parliament in February, a fortnight before Landcorp announced significant modifications to its plans early in March.
Commenting on the committee’s decision, Green Party water spokeswoman Catherine Delahunty said she was pleased the downstream impacts of dairy conversions would be monitored more closely. Many farmers had signed the petition because they were worried the measures they were taking to mitigate pollution and manage effluent on their own land would be undone by the pollution coming down the river from Landcorp, she said.
Delahunty was more delighted when Landcorp announced it wouldn’t proceed with its intensification programme, partly because of environmental concerns. She said this was “a huge victory for the farmers, iwi, fisher people and all those worried about the impact of increasing dairying on the Waikato river.”
Chris Lewis, Waikato provincial president of Federated Farmers, said he wasn’t aware of any neighbours or near-neighbours who had signed the petition or would be willing to say they supported a moratorium.
Andrew Hoggard, chairman of Federated Farmers Dairy, said he imagined there would have been some farmers who supported the petition, although he didn’t know of any individually.
“I think there was justification,” he said.
Many would be concerned at the prospect of catchment nitrogen caps being applied but if many new conversions were allowed, potentially much bigger reductions would be needed.
The biggest challenge was deciding what catchment allocations should be and coming up with a fair method for allocating.
“We think it’s important that we clearly get on with the science and determine what catchments are fully allocated, and what catchments are over- or under-allocated, so the proper decisions can be made around allowing new conversions,” Hoggard said.
“And you don’t want it just to be about dairy because every land use change will have an impact. So if you are moving from forestry to cropping or vegetable growing there is going to be an increase in nitrogen.
“It’s important not to focus on just one sector but to have regulations that take into account all increases.
“If the tourism on the Central Plateau is going to go up 10-fold over the next decade, where’s all the sewerage going? Because tourists defecate as well.
“And towns are going to grow. What’s happening there?”
Dairy had a big role to play, Hoggard acknowledged. “But you have to look at the whole picture and how things fit together.”
The petition
The Green Party petition asked the House of Representatives to ask the Minister for State-Owned Enterprises “to put a moratorium on all future Landcorp managed or owned dairy conversions to help responsible farmers, and to restore the water quality of our lakes and rivers”.
It focused on Landcorp converting land to dairy farms throughout the country, particularly in the Waikato region. The main concern was the Wairakei Estate conversion north of Taupo. The petitioners were worried about the negative effects of conversions on water quality and that dairy conversions undermined the efforts of farmers downstream to repair and restore water quality in their area.
They limited the scope of their request to Landcorp – which accounts for only about one-third of the total conversions in the Upper Waikato area – because it was a State-owned enterprise and the Government could hold it to account for its activities and environmental effects.
Between 2008 and 2012, the ministry estimated the amount of nitrogen leached into soil from agriculture increased by 29%. The increase was mainly caused by increases in dairy cattle numbers and in the use of nitrogen fertiliser.
