Tom Kay: Freshwater reforms provide for the future, says Forest and Bird

We need to step above farming politics and do what's best for our people and planet, writes Forest & Bird's freshwater advocate Tom Kay. Photo Supplied

Drought conditions, combined with the impacts of Covid-19, have made things desperate for some Hawke's Bay farmers, and Forest & Bird agrees that support should be made available to them.

However, Tukituki MP Lawrence Yule's suggestion that proposed legislative reforms on biodiversity, freshwater, and the Emissions Trading Scheme are a "further handbrake on the productive agriculture economy" is putting politics before basic facts.

The Hawke's Bay drought is the long-predicted result of a warming climate. The same scientists that forecast more frequent droughts also said without rapid decarbonisation, things would get much, much worse.

The legislative reforms Yule wants to see delayed or thrown out are our last chance to halt irreversible and permanent damage to the very things his electorate, and the rest of New Zealand, depend on – a stable climate; clean and healthy water, and a functioning ecosystem.

The dry conditions in Hawke's Bay now will become more common as a result of the changing climate. Climate change is caused by greenhouse gas emissions – around half of which, in New Zealand, come from agriculture. Without a robust ETS in place, emissions will continue to rise, conditions in Hawke's Bay will continue to get worse, and farming will continue to suffer – until farmers are driven away from their professions.

It is a wicked problem that requires strong leadership and bold decisions, to protect future generations of farmers and New Zealanders. Throwing about politically motivated statements while ignoring facts is not going to help farmers' livelihoods, or their grandchildren's.

Likewise, the recent Ministry for the Environment/Statistics NZ report "Our Freshwater 2020" stated we face irreversible or permanent damage to freshwater environments if things keep going the way they are. In the recent drought in Hawke's Bay, eels were dying by the hundreds in dry river beds. Altogether, 76 of our native fish are threatened with extinction and 95-99 per cent of our streams and rivers in developed areas exceed water-quality guidelines. Things are almost as bad as it's possible to get.

Yet things can improve, in some cases without drastic change. Many farmers in Yule's electorate are already likely to meet the immediate proposed requirements of the national freshwater legislation, under the existing Tukituki plan change 6. Other rules wouldn't be effective until 2025 – which gives plenty of time to comply if farmers don't already. Yule's failure to grasp the real-world implications of the freshwater legislation raises the question of whether he has even read the proposals.

Further, farmers are not blamed for "almost all urban ills, without those same people looking in their own backyards" as Yule claims. Plenty of Hawke's Bay urban ratepayers are familiar with the issues they create – such as wastewater overflows into the Ahuriri Estuary. They're feeling the impact of having to fund additional wastewater and stormwater infrastructure work through their rates. They are also funding biodiversity restoration across their region. Hawke's Bay's recent substantial rise in rates will pay for a number of environmental improvements – because urban people know they have a part to play in this all too and are willing to do so.

The reforms that Yule rails against are possibly the only hope we have in providing a future for New Zealanders – farmers and non-farmers alike. The alternative – putting off change until it's too late – would be a disaster for everyone on a scale that makes the current drought look like tiddlywinks. We have to step above the politics and do what's best for our people and the planet.

Alongside other measures, such as government-supported projects to improve the sustainability of agriculture, or increased weed control, farmers can help "lead us out of the post Covid-19 recession". Yule's path would, instead, lead farmers and the rest of New Zealand, to a doomed future of irreversible climate change, dead rivers, and lost species.

* Tom Kay is a freshwater advocate for Forest & Bird and was born and raised in Hawke's Bay.