Wairoa District Council's new rating system will see forest owners charged a rating differential of 4.0. Photo / File
Wairoa District Council's new rating system will see forest owners charged a rating differential of 4.0. Photo / File
A small Hawke's Bay community that fears it will bear the exotic forestry "burden" of New Zealand's bid to become a carbon-neutral nation is fighting back.
But Wairoa District Council's new rating system, which will force forestry to pay more than four times the rates of a sheep and beeffarm of the same size, has incensed the industry, which is now threatening to put the council into the crosshairs of central Government.
The Climate Change Commission a week ago recommended the government plant 380,000 hectares of new exotic forestry around New Zealand by 2035.
Wairoa Mayor Craig Little said communities like Wairoa worried they would bear the burden of that and his council's rating system was what his people wanted.
But New Zealand Farm Owners Association president Phil Taylor said the industry was "appalled" by the new rating system, which comes into effect from July 1.
The rating system means forestry owners will pay a differential of 4.0, compared with commercial at 1.6, residential at 1.0, residential properties valued at over $399,999 at 0.8 and rural at 0.7.
The rating change was a national issue, with the association considering taking it to Local Government Minister Nanaia Mahuta, Taylor said.
Taylor said forestry owners accepted their land use caused an increased impact on roading and were prepared to cover these costs.
"Forestry owners are more than happy to pay our fair share of the rates.
"We would expect the rates collected from that are applied to the roadworks."
His concern was that the increased rates collected from forest owners would not be "ringfenced" just for roadworks and would go towards other activities so that there was a transfer of the benefits from one land user to another, such as sheep and beef farmers.
He said a caveat in the system - farmers harvesting smaller blocks of forestry on their land and those regenerating native forestry might be exempt from paying the new rating - didn't make sense.
Wairoa mayor Craig Little said the changes to the rating system reflected feedback from the community. Photo / File
Little said the new rating didn't just reflect the impacts of logging on roading and came from community feedback.
While foresters did contribute to the GDP, that money wasn't going back into the Wairoa community in the same way that it did from farming, he said.
"Through the consult process, it was actually the community telling us the dire effects that forestry is having on our community.
The council received 263 submissions relating to the proposed ratings changes, the majority of which came from those in the primary sector.
Taylor refuted claims that forestry was being penalised because it doesn't contribute to the community wellbeing of Wairoa.
"We've seen this rural decline happening for 30 years."
While he was sympathetic to the community, Taylor felt it was contrary to the council's duty to ensure rates were fair and equitable to target forestry this way, and worried other councils would adopt similar policies.
New Zealand Farm Owners Association president Phil Taylor refuted claims that the industry didn't contribute to community wellbeing in Wairoa. Photo / File
Little said it would be up to other councils to weigh up the benefits and costs of forestry.
"I think we've got it right."
Asked if the policy was contrary to the Climate Change Commission's recommendation that the government plant 380,000 hectares of new exotic forestry by 2035, Little said he felt Wairoa has "enough trees".
He was also concerned about the recommendation for New Zealand to reduce its livestock numbers by 15 per cent and the impact this would have on farmers.
Dave Read, of Waiau Station near Wairoa, was one of those who made a submission to the council.
He said forest owners should pay more to reflect the cost of roading, as well as the increasing afforestation of farmland, driven through price settings set by central government under the Emissions Trading Scheme.
"They should be paying the differential because they will be destroying the rating base and the council will end up in a position where there will be less people.
"The problem with forestry is that they create such a small amount of employment for Wairoa.
"A lot of our crews come in from Napier and Gisborne."
Several farmers raised concerns about their own increased rating adding to the costs of farming and making it more attractive to sell up, adding to the afforestation issue.
Read said he wanted to see the brunt of the burden for stopping climate change put back on the transport sector and other emitters but felt that "real change" would be inconvenient.
