Buried in Labour’s water policy announcement was its intention to dump the National Policy Statement on Freshwater Management and replace it with a policy based on recommendations made by Environment Court judge David Sheppard in 2010.
Sheppard’s recommendation was any increase in farming intensity including more livestock, irrigation or fertiliser would no longer be permitted under the Resource Management Act unless a resource consent was obtained.
That suggestion was shelved by National when it instead opted for the policy statement on freshwater management now in play.
Federated Farmers water spokesman Chris Allen said he was surprised to learn about the resource consent provision in Labour’s policy, which had less profile than the water royalty charges mooted.
“But take that along with the water charges and they have just added another level of burden and cost on producing food in this country.
“It would seem the $18 cabbage will become more of a reality.”
He also challenged the costs the consent conditions would bring.
“This will require a significant increase in the number of people skilled to work in this area of consenting.
“Even here just in Canterbury right now we cannot get enough of those people, let alone throughout NZ.”
He said Labour’s water package taken in its entirety should have all New Zealanders concerned.
“And it appears to be policy made on the fly.
“We have just learned that some of the largest industrial water users, including soft drink bottlers, will not have to pay for their water.”
For farmers in some parts of the country news they might require a resource consent to intensify their land use will not come as a surprise.
If passed into law the Waikato’s Plan Change 1, or Healthy Rivers plan, effectively put a stop to all dairy conversions in that catchment.
The plan required any land use change to more intensive farming activity to require a resource consent application.
Landowners need to be able to demonstrate a lower level of contaminant losses than the present land use exhibited, an unlikely outcome when intensifying.
General consensus among policymakers and farmers in Waikato was the rule effectively eliminates the ability for any further large-scale conversion from any existing land use to dairying in the region.
Labour’s water spokesman David Parker had been increasingly involved in pushing the long-standing consent policy through, more recently under the bow wave of Jacinda Adern’s growing popularity.
“This will stop any material and significant shifts to increase livestock numbers and conversions, not only to intensive dairy operations but also to beef lots of the type we have seen in Hawke’s Bay,” Parker said.
He was confident the move would see water quality nationally improve within five years.
The party had been at pains in its policy announcement to reiterate the concerns raised by Parliamentary Commissioner for the Environment Dr Jan Wright in her 2013 report on land use and nutrient pollution.
There she identified the decline in water quality being driven not only from more cows on each hectare of land but also from running cows on ever-increasing areas of land.
But Labour had also identified beef feed lots and “spray and pray” practices also contributing to degradation.
A resource management legal expert said the consent conditions would not come as any great surprise to many farmers in regions where such conditions were already in play or being mooted through regional plan changes.
