Federated Farmers: We need help dealing with all this red tape

Jim Galloway

I love employment opportunities. Almost as much as I love the people who generate them, but I really do think the Government went a bit too far with 182 reviews and working groups — but I'm not talking about the people employed on these groups.

The big employment generation is going to come now as government departments, advocacy and lobby groups move to hire consultants to create submissions and responses to working group reports and recommendations.

I understand the new Government inherited a system that had some issues for many Kiwis, think housing crisis and underfunding of mental health facilities.

However, with many of the outcomes of the reviews and working groups expected to be released this year, on top of our "normal" workload, Federated Farmers may have to use more money it doesn't have to pay consultants to present submissions or fight rushed outcomes not put through a rural lens.

Federated Farmers has a fantastic array of inhouse knowledge, providing great value to members, but it does not mean we have all the skills, time or resources needed to submit on every proposal that will affect the rural communities.

There may be consultation documents put out by the Ministries of Health or Education that we should be working on, but due to the high workload, we can't.

Talk about creating job opportunities for consultants, lawyers and the like.

We will have to rely on our membership or the public to help fund or volunteer time for policy work. We will need people to take a greater interest in what is going on around them and become actively involved, it may be just providing examples of how a proposal may affect them or their community.

You may not care about politics or even think it's irrelevant, but it does affect all you do. You will need to step up and take part in ensuring you get policies and rules that benefit you and your community.

Jim Galloway is Federated Farmers Hawke's Bay provincial president