Van der Poel said DairyNZ believed New Zealand would always have a commitment to the Paris Agreement, “regardless of who the government is,” and therefore agriculture would always have to be part of the solution.
“It has to be something that is fair and equitable and works, and so we can’t agree to anything; unless, in our view, it meets that criteria.”
DairyNZ backs the sector’s original He Waka Eke Noa proposal that was co-designed in good faith, with the Government sitting at the table.
Initially, it seemed the Government had only made a few changes to the proposal but this turned out not to be the case, Van der Poel said.
“As we’ve got more and more access to the detail, we’ve realised how fundamentally different it is.
“Whether that’s around governance, around price setting, around sequestration [or] around collectives … when you add them all together - it’s fundamentally different.”
DairyNZ was shocked by just how different the response was, especially after negotiations in May, van der Poel said.
“All the industry partners at the time supported that, and also, as you’ll recall, of the 30 members who were part of that process, two of them were government departments, being MPI and Ministry for the Environment - so nothing in there was a surprise.
“It is disappointing - but we just have to continue to work on trying to get back to the right answer.”
Farmers now have until November 18 to give feedback on the Government’s proposal.
If there was still no agreement after this, van der Poel said DairyNZ would consider walking away from the deal altogether.
Listen below:
“There is risk in walking away or course because ... the legislation has already been drafted - we would go into the ETS.
“If we didn’t agree, one of two things would happen – we’d either leave the legislation as it is and we’d go into the ETS – or the Government would just implement its own version of He Waka Eke Noa without industry support.
“Both of them come with risk, but from our perspective at least, we can’t be part of a solution or an answer that we know is suboptimal and so that’s I guess where we are today.”
He strongly encouraged farmers to enter their submissions by November 18.
“It’s always really powerful when farmers actually give their own version around what this means for them and their families and their communities.
“So we’d encourage as many farmers as possible to do that.”
DairyNZ is holding events nationwide until November 14 to discuss concerns, and the next steps, with dairy farmers.
Visit www.dairynz.co.nz/proposal to register.
Further information
There are seven key differences in the Government’s proposal – what are they?
- The farmer voice in governance and price setting has been removed
- There’s a significant reduction in recognition and reward for planting on farms
- Pricing is only set with consideration for reaching targets
- It collects more money than is necessary for reinvestment
- There is no ability for farmers to form collectives to report and reduce emissions
- There is no decision on pricing fertiliser at the farm level
- It introduces a processor-level backstop if implementation is delayed.
Why does DairyNZ support the He Waka Eke Noa proposal?
- It’s a balanced and practical system that all sectors can support
- It will reduce emissions and meet targets
- The price isn’t driven by methane reduction targets alone
- It looks to minimise losses in production to limit emission leakage
- There’s fair recognition and reward for planting farmers have done on farms
- Farmers have a seat at the table so their voice can be heard
- Farmers can form collectives to report and reduce emissions
- It is a whole-farm system approach that will work for farmers.
