Feds urge halt on regulations
Federated Farmers has called for ‘‘policy certainty’’, asking the Government to defer a raft of regulatory changes that are due to take effect.
These include policies on freshwater management, climate change, biodiversity, Resource Management Act reform, the minimum wage and immigration.
Federated Farmers president Katie Milne said yesterday that the Reserve Bank’s decision to slash the official cash rate to 0.25 per cent yesterday was the correct response to worsening economic conditions.
The lobby group supported the decision to delay the introduction of tougher capital requirements for banks.
Milne also called for the Government to follow the Reserve
Bank’s lead and defer regulatory changes that would negatively affect farmers ‘‘at the worst possible’’ time. ‘‘What’s needed is policy certainty, to give the primary sector and the business community generally a much-needed boost in confidence to keep operating, keep staff employed, and keep investing.’’
Southland beef farmer Sarah Flintoff said the Government might now realise the sector’s value as other parts of the economy bore the brunt of the coronavirus fallout. ‘‘This is a good time to take the bull by the horns and say lay off us,’’ she said.
However, Otago farmer Mark Anderson said coronavirus could be used to squander opportunities to move the sector towards more sustainable farming practices.
‘‘I feel it’s a bit of a copout and I know that there are other lobby groups that are trying to sideline away from these realities that are facing us. Regenerative agriculture addresses all these issues ... It could be an amazing opportunity with interest rates plummeting,’’ he said.
Greenpeace executive director Russel Norman said the climate change and biodiversity crises facing the world would not go away because of Covid-19.
The policies that Federated Farmers wanted to stop would take a number of years to roll out and wouldn’t have any short-term effect, he said.
‘We’ve called for a greening of the stimulus package . . . to make sure that that package actually helps us with our longer-term issues as well,’’ Norman said.
Milne said the doubling of emissions prices to $50 under the proposed Emissions Trading Scheme Amendment Bill would also be unhelpful under current economic pressures.
Federated Farmers also proposed a temporary waiver to current rules that mean migrant workers in the agricultural sector must return home for 12 months before visas are renewed.
This would reduce the risk of infection to new and returning migrant workers, Milne said.
Agriculture Minister Damien O’Connor said the Government was working through details of an economic response package to be announced today.