Farmer hits out at water policies of main parties
Canterbury irrigator John Ridgen rates National’s water policy as much of a threat to his farming business as Labour’s water tax.
The sixth generation farmer with a mixed arable and sheep and beef finishing property near Darfield, said he would be ‘‘lost’’ without being able to use water from the Central Plains Water (CPW) scheme.
He acknowledged Labour had been ‘‘cunning’’ in not revealing a royalty rate, although Federated Farmers has calculated a cost for farming, based on a 10c per litre charge. It says it would mean $600 billion for sheep and beef food production alone. However, Labour’s environment spokesman David Parker dismissed this and estimated the cost to farming and horticulture would not go above $500 million.
Ridgen said it was a case of a ‘‘plague on both their houses’’ because National’s water quality standards announced for Lake Ellesmere would be crippling. ‘‘To achieve them would pretty much stop all farming between the Waimakariri and the Rangitata Rivers, so National are just as bad.’’ Ridgen uses 1.3 billion litres of water a year since he joined the CPW scheme two years ago. He has to pay $200,000 a year for that, consisting of a $185,000 to the scheme itself and $15,000 a year for monitoring and other costs.
His 800 hectare farm including 400ha leased is between 50-60 per cent arable and the remainder a finishing business. It supports four workers and him and his family.
Ridgen said if water charges or other constraints became too onerous, he would possibly have to convert to dairy, but that would create more pollution and defeat the purpose of any change to try and clean up water.
Meanwhile farming and horticulture leaders have all weighed in against the Labour Party’s water policy. Federated Farmers challenged Labour to come up with numbers to support the policy or else voters were ‘‘sailing blind into the election’’.
Federated Farmers water spokesman Chris Allen said, to be consistent, large hydro schemes should also be charged.