The Country
  • The Country home
  • Latest news
  • Audio & podcasts
  • Opinion
  • Dairy farming
  • Sheep & beef farming
  • Rural business
  • Rural technology
  • Rural life
  • Listen on iHeart radio

Subscriptions

  • Herald Premium
  • Viva Premium
  • The Listener
  • BusinessDesk

Sections

  • Latest news
  • Coast & Country News
  • Opinion
  • Dairy farming
  • Sheep & beef farming
  • Horticulture
  • Animal health
  • Rural business
  • Rural technology
  • Rural life

Media

  • Podcasts
  • Video

Weather

  • Kaitaia
  • Whāngarei
  • Dargaville
  • Auckland
  • Thames
  • Tauranga
  • Hamilton
  • Whakatāne
  • Rotorua
  • Tokoroa
  • Te Kuiti
  • Taumurunui
  • Taupō
  • Gisborne
  • New Plymouth
  • Napier
  • Hastings
  • Dannevirke
  • Whanganui
  • Palmerston North
  • Levin
  • Paraparaumu
  • Masterton
  • Wellington
  • Motueka
  • Nelson
  • Blenheim
  • Westport
  • Reefton
  • Kaikōura
  • Greymouth
  • Hokitika
  • Christchurch
  • Ashburton
  • Timaru
  • Wānaka
  • Oamaru
  • Queenstown
  • Dunedin
  • Gore
  • Invercargill

NZME Network

  • Advertise with NZME
  • OneRoof
  • Driven Car Guide
  • BusinessDesk
  • Newstalk ZB
  • Sunlive
  • ZM
  • The Hits
  • Coast
  • Radio Hauraki
  • The Alternative Commentary Collective
  • Gold
  • Flava
  • iHeart Radio
  • Hokonui
  • Radio Wanaka
  • iHeartCountry New Zealand
  • Restaurant Hub
  • NZME Events

SubscribeSign In

Advertisement
Advertise with NZME.
Home / The Country

Winston Peters defends multi-million dollar PGF money for Northland water storage

Susan Botting
By Susan Botting
Local Democracy Reporter·Northern Advocate·
25 Feb, 2020 11:00 PM4 mins to read

Subscribe to listen

Access to Herald Premium articles require a Premium subscription. Subscribe now to listen.
Already a subscriber?  Sign in here

Listening to articles is free for open-access content—explore other articles or learn more about text-to-speech.
‌
Save

    Share this article

Prime Minister Winston Peter and Regional Economic Development Minister Shane Jones at the Dargaville wharf after announcing more than $18 million of Provincial Growth funding.

Prime Minister Winston Peter and Regional Economic Development Minister Shane Jones at the Dargaville wharf after announcing more than $18 million of Provincial Growth funding.

Deputy Prime Minister Winston Peters has defended multi-million dollar provincial growth fund money for Northland water storage – announced during a tough new government ban on land-use intensification.

Peters and Regional Economic Development Minister Shane Jones were recently in Dargaville to announce up to $12.745 million PGF funding top-up for Northland water storage.

Peters said that final local manifestations of how New Zealand's national freshwater reforms eventually played out in the North – and other parts of New Zealand - meant the government's funding top up for Northland water storage project was not inappropriate.

"We are providing up to $12.745 million through the provincial growth fund to ensure the region (Northland) has a reliable water supply which can be used to develop underutilised land, grow new markets, create jobs and put more money into the local economy," Peters said.

Advertisement
Advertise with NZME.
Advertisement
Advertise with NZME.

The Dargaville visit by Peters and Jones came just four months after another pair of government ministers jointly announced New Zealand's biggest freshwater management reforms in a generation. Minister for the Environment David Parker and Minister of Agriculture Damien O'Connor in September 2019 announced huge changes - among these an almost-immediate ban on any further primary industry land use intensification to halt worsening waterway pollution.

The freshwater reforms' consultation document Action for Healthy Waterways said the government wanted to tightly restrict any further intensification of land use through interim measures.

• Whangārei civic centre budget could blow out to $48 million - 26 per cent more than planned
• A century of heritage at iconic Northland baches
• Whangārei residents saving water to help Far North users

The resulting ban is in place until 2025.

Advertisement
Advertise with NZME.

The reforms have been identified as a project risk. Among the implications of this risk are water storage project uptake. The degree of uptake is a critical influence on project success.

Northland Regional Council (NRC) is helming local PGF-funded water storage project work - with Far North and Kaipara district councils and Northland Inc.

It is promoting the water storage as transforming marginal farmland use into highly productive horticulture through access to reliable water. It's this week holding two workshops encouraging landowners and those in the primary sector to explore ways their land can be transformed with access to a reliable source of water.

Two meetings were held this month, in Dargaville on February 18 and at Ohaeawai Rugby Club on February 19.

Discover more

The Country - Fishing edition

26 Feb 12:13 AM
New Zealand

Motorcycle crash sparks scrub fire

26 Feb 02:24 AM

Kaipara Kai to expand food options

06 Mar 05:00 PM

Work on Kaikohe water storage dam to start in summer

30 Apr 06:00 PM

In December 2019 NRC held a two-day roadshow around Northland and northern Auckland Council (Tapora) showcased this position to almost 50 people.

A project pre-feasibility study by NRC contractors Williamson Water and Land Advisory (Auckland-based) is due for completion in March. This includes ranking the viability of identified water storage and use areas. It assesses demand from growers and water users.

Water take and storage options are also considered along with concept-level design engineering.

O'Connor came to Whangarei in September to present about the freshwater reforms at one of the biggest meetings of its type in Northland, attended by 400 angry people. He told the Whangarei meeting, consultation till then on the nationally-generated freshwater reform measures had shown regionally-different contributions to farming's effect on waterway quality. The Whangarei meeting was thirty-seventh out of 45 nationally during what was one of New Zealand's biggest-ever government legislation change consultation rounds.

Farming intensification development after 2025 must be managed through the Resource Management Act.

Ministry for the Environment principal scientist and meeting presenter Chris Daughney told the Whangarei meeting the bar would be "quite high" when it came to the resource consenting.

Advertisement
Advertise with NZME.

The intensification ban announcement caused national farmer outcry, among angry opponents former Agriculture Minister and now Ruawai beef farmer Lockwood Smith.

The Dargaville-announced January Northland water storage funding top up brought the government's total project investment to more than $31 million - after its initial $18.5 million PGF spend into the project in July 2018.

Carl Muller Kerikeri Irrigation chairman has spoken out in favour of the latest $12 million dollar plus government-funding for the Northland water storage project.

"A hectare of land in sustainable horticulture can return significantly more than one supporting pastoral farming. You can bring positive change to entire communities by giving people the opportunity to do more with their land," Muller said.

The initial Kerikeri irrigation scheme was built in the mid-eighties, enabling widespread horticultural land use conversion and intensification on pastoral land.

Current areas in Northland NRC has currently identified as potentially suitable for the latest water storage development area broadly surrounding Kaikohe, Ohaeawai and Waimate North in the mid North. An area south of Dargaville in Kaipara has also been identified.

Advertisement
Advertise with NZME.
Save

    Share this article

Latest from The Country

The Country

Beekeeper advocacy group comes under pressure

The Country

The Country: Luxon on coalition friction

The Country

Man lost wife and daughter in Waiuku triple-fatal


Sponsored

Solar bat monitors uncover secrets of Auckland’s night sky

Advertisement
Advertise with NZME.

Latest from The Country

Beekeeper advocacy group comes under pressure
The Country

Beekeeper advocacy group comes under pressure

Rifts among industry groups, charities and agencies in the beekeeping industry.

16 Jul 03:00 AM
The Country: Luxon on coalition friction
The Country

The Country: Luxon on coalition friction

16 Jul 01:42 AM
Man lost wife and daughter in Waiuku triple-fatal
The Country

Man lost wife and daughter in Waiuku triple-fatal

16 Jul 12:37 AM


Solar bat monitors uncover secrets of Auckland’s night sky
Sponsored

Solar bat monitors uncover secrets of Auckland’s night sky

06 Jul 09:47 PM
NZ Herald
  • About NZ Herald
  • Meet the journalists
  • Newsletters
  • Classifieds
  • Help & support
  • Contact us
  • House rules
  • Privacy Policy
  • Terms of use
  • Competition terms & conditions
  • Our use of AI
Subscriber Services
  • NZ Herald e-editions
  • Daily puzzles & quizzes
  • Manage your digital subscription
  • Manage your print subscription
  • Subscribe to the NZ Herald newspaper
  • Subscribe to Herald Premium
  • Gift a subscription
  • Subscriber FAQs
  • Subscription terms & conditions
  • Promotions and subscriber benefits
NZME Network
  • The New Zealand Herald
  • The Northland Age
  • The Northern Advocate
  • Waikato Herald
  • Bay of Plenty Times
  • Rotorua Daily Post
  • Hawke's Bay Today
  • Whanganui Chronicle
  • Viva
  • NZ Listener
  • Newstalk ZB
  • BusinessDesk
  • OneRoof
  • Driven Car Guide
  • iHeart Radio
  • Restaurant Hub
NZME
  • About NZME
  • NZME careers
  • Advertise with NZME
  • Digital self-service advertising
  • Book your classified ad
  • Photo sales
  • NZME Events
  • © Copyright 2025 NZME Publishing Limited
TOP