Meddling will drive up costs for all

New Zealand First Party leader Winston Peters. Photo / File

Opinion

By Winston Peters

Both the old parties and their Klingons have lost the plot over water. In the "red corner" is a concerted push for resource rentals - a tax on agricultural water use to dramatically affect what people pay to eat and applying to more than 70 per cent of our exports.

In the "blue corner" the sins of the fathers are being visited on the current generation of farmers.

Take the 56,000 kilometres of river, stream and creek fencing being demanded by 2030 but stock crossings and culverts by 2019.

The beef farm that featured recently on Country Calendar will be out of business because it's impossible to fence South Westland's Cascade River.

National pretends to be the farmer's mate but is laying the groundwork for resource rentals imposed by iwi behind the farming community's back. New Zealand First views water taxes and resource rentals as coming from the loony-left ideas bin.

This bureaucratic separatist meddling will drive up the cost of everything from tinned tomatoes to sliced bread.

New Zealand will not remain a first world country by bankrupting agribusiness.

We know our waterways must improve and most farmers agree, but they cannot be expected to fix urban water pollution as well.

Take Southland, where, over the past four years, 15 per cent of river test sites had turned the corner on nitrogen, a decisive improvement.

Our Royalties for the Regions policy will seriously help, with one-quarter of the royalty from minerals and exported drinking water going back to the regions.

This will help the clean-up of our environment. We'll use the unemployed in waterside tree planting and other improvements.

Better science, technology and farm practices will keep food costs stable and save the heads of cows, which some want decapitated. We don't need to destroy land values or give race-based big iwi privilege.

New Zealand First will:

1. Reform the Resource Management Act on the principle of one law for all;

2. Order reviews of regional plans using panels of real farmers, genuine residents and truly independent experts;

3. Seriously invest in the nutrient tool Overseer and only allow its use in regional plans when fully calibrated;

4. Provide 100 per cent depreciation for farm environmental works done against farm plans while supporting farmers to take on job seekers to help with fencing, riparian planting and maintenance;

5. Boost research and development to 2 per cent of GDP over 10 years with a focus on real-world land and water solutions;

6. Target nitrogen-leaching pest plants and animals;

7. Close the rural-urban divide certain politicians have exploited.

- Winston Peters is the Leader of New Zealand First