Farmers still waiting for new guidelines for Horizons' One Plan

Retired river crossings, replaced by bridges and riparian plantings are all part Lisa and Paul Charmley's efforts to protect their environment

With 33 per cent of the GDP in Tararua from the primary sector, New Zealand First deputy leader Ron Mark says the cost implications of Horizons Regional Council's One Plan are going to seriously affect our economy, following the Environment Court ruling.

"Everyone wants clean water, but if every piece of water in this country is to be made swimmable, God help us," he said.

"Horizons' One Plan is dangerous in terms of your [Tararua's] economy.

"Do we want every stream, drain, river and estuary swimmable? Look at the estuaries in Auckland - swimmable - bollocks.

"How do we protect our environment without chopping off our noses?"

Following the Environmental Court's decision on Environmental Defence Society (EDS) and Wellington Fish & Game's declaratory proceedings against Horizons Regional Council, the council suspended any new intensive land use consent applications for a 12-week period.

That 12 weeks is up today and Horizons strategy and policy group manager Dr Nic Peet said good progress is being made.

But dairy farmers remain in limbo, with new application forms and guidance material for applicants seeking intensive land use consents under the One Plan still to be finalised.

It is expected this revised material, designed to give effect to the court's decisions, will be available in late July or early August, Dr Peet said.

"Working through the implications of the declarations has raised some really complex issues around things such as assessing the impact of individual farming operations on overall water quality. Put simply, the challenge is translating legal decisions into a practical consenting process.

"Our priority is to provide the best guidance that we are able to for consent applicants.
"In the meantime, the regional council notes there is no formal moratorium on consenting intensive land uses so if a farmer applies for a consent Horizons would need to process it.

"However, our suggestion is that farmers will benefit from the guidance material council is producing in preparing an application."

Mr Mark said he worries about legislation dictating to farmers they must de-stock.

"That actually steals from farmers. The environmental work farmers do is huge. It is a very unusual farmer who isn't talking environment and the painting of farmers as dirty dairying an easy finger to point."

Horizons chief executive Michael McCartney said evaluation of the One Plan and the court process have revealed a number of weaknesses in the current plan which council will need to address when considering the implementation of the National Policy Statement for Freshwater Management.

"This is unsurprising for a plan that started its development back in 2005. Knowledge, policy and scientific approaches have progressed in the intervening years," he said.

"From the outset, we have been keen to work with all parties on finding a solution for moving forward. This includes subsequent invitations to EDS and Fish & Game to come and meet with us, of which they are yet to accept.

"In the meantime, we encourage farmers to continue to reduce the environmental impact of their practices.

"The huge amount of effort which has gone on across catchments and the water quality trends show that over the past decade 58 per cent of 36 monitored sites for total oxidised nitrogen (TON) show improvement and none are in decline. This is testament to people's willingness to act whether or not it is in the face of regulation."

Dr William Rolleston, Federated Farmers' past national president, said farmers throughout the country had made and will continue to make, significant environmental improvements in how they managed the land, with dairy farmers spending more than $1 billion over the past five years while sheep and beef farmers have been the main contributors to the establishment of QEII covenants, protecting private land for conservation at a cost of $1.2 to $1.4 billion.