From a dairy farmer’s perspective I was disappointed at the lack of recognition of the cost of farming and issues we are facing – all the emphasis was on urban.
The conference theme was We are Firmly Focused on the Future: Future Proofing for a Prosperous and Vibrant NZ.
In other words, local government must adapt, get ahead of the game and foresee and manage the looming issues for our communities.
In keeping with the theme Local Government Minister Nanaia Mahuta expressed a need for a change in approach to managing issues such as freshwater – a step-change as she put it.
She sees a need for far stronger collaboration between central and local government if we are to adequately serve the needs of our communities. Her address was aspirational and, as she put it, at the conceptual policy stage.
Local government is charged with regulation and managing local infrastructure.
The local infrastructure in Mahuta’s spotlight is the wastewater, storm water and drinking water services provided for and regulated by district and regional councils.
Mahuta recognised the financial pressure on district councils to meet central government regulation relating to water quality.
This is all good but sounds very familiar.
Farmers have faced the best part of a decade of vitriol from a media frenzy of deception and misunderstanding.
Farmers are often in the firing line over perceptions of dirty dairying and are constantly expected to fork out for regulatory costs.
The cost of meeting the regulation is not even the biggest issue.
How indeed does a farmer stop nitrogen leeching through the soil for example? So we also add the cost of research on plantain, nitrification inhibitors and so on.
Little of farmers’ substantial environmental cost or effort is ever recognised.
It is a little hard to swallow all the noise that has fallen out of urban NZ when urban NZ is faced with substantially lower costs per ratepayer for its environmental impacts.
Who in local or central government has lost any sleep over farmers’ infrastructural costs? Too few it would seem.
The problem here is that until regional and district councils are regularly appraised of each other’s and farmers’ infrastructural costs and functions then the disconnect will remain.
Regardless, there has been significant pressure and a significant investment from farmers towards clean water.
Perhaps a word or two of recognition from Mahuta might have added a tier of credibility to her call for collaboration.
Fair enough, the focus is on the populated areas but are farmers not part of the community too?
Farmers are significant contributors to the community and deserve recognition as part of a combined, not separate, community.
Perhaps this unfortunate chapter is what has stimulated a need for a change in approach.
So how do we collaborate and join up our thinking across three levels of government?
Certainly regional and district councils must work in closer unison.
We both provide infrastructural services to the public and we both have regulatory roles that affect the public.
Tension arises around the regulatory role of regional councils in relation to wastewater treatment plants in particular.
Strained relationships between some regional councillors and their district mayors don’t help either.
Elected reps all need to remember who they serve – we get that firmly implanted then the rest is about how best to do it.
NZ’s population, spread over a large geographic area, is the size of a city population in many countries.
Of course we join up the political thinking across district and regional boundaries and with central government.
All aspirational and conceptual stuff, of course, but can Mahuta, mayors and chairmen deliver?
This will need a collaborative effort from forward-thinking politicians elected by and representing farmers as an integral part of the local and wider NZ community.
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