Local farmers meet party candidates at Te Awamutu Federated Farmers meeting

Te Awamutu Federated Farmers hosted a 'meet the candidates' event at the Te Awamutu Club last week. Photo / Caitlan Johnston

Local farmers had the opportunity to meet various Taranaki-King Country party candidates at a Te Awamutu Federated Farmers meeting last week in the lead up to the October election.

In attendance was National MP Barbara Kuriger, Labour candidate Angela Roberts, New Conservative candidate Lee Smith and Act Party candidate Brent Miles.

Each candidate had seven minutes to speak to the full crowd at the Te Awamutu Club on Thursday night, introducing who they are and explain why they and their respected parties should be voted for.

Done in alphabetical order by party name, Brent Miles for the Act Party went first.

He said he was "galvanised" by the laws that came out following the Christchurch terror and this is ultimately why he decided to stand for the Act Party.

Act vow to repeal hate speech laws and defend freedom of expression as well as repeal this year's Arms Legislation Act and replace it with a more balanced firearms law.

Brent also announced that Act would be scrapping the Resource Management Act 1991 (RMA)

"Farmers know what they're doing, you don't need to be told what to do," says Brent.

Labour candidate and Stratford High School teacher Angela Roberts insisted she would be able to get changes moving.

"I know how to make progress on issues in a highly political environment. I know who's got there hand on the levers and which levers we need to pull," says Angela.

She spoke about Labour's promise to invest $50 million into a farm planning framework to help farmers reduce compliance costs.

National MP Barbara Kuriger, being a dairy farmer herself, was able to sympathise with the farmers.

"The last three years has been really tough for farmers, there's too much regulation," says Barbara.

She spoke about how National would be canning the RMA also and she also touched on their water policy scheme.

Like Brent Miles, New Conservative's Lee Smith decided to become a candidate for the party because of what came out of the Christchurch terror attacks.

"I was astonished by the laws being rushed through parliament with no democratic process, this scared me so I've decided to stand up and actually get involved to change things," says Lee.

She said New Conservative will scrap all changes made to the firearms laws.
"People fear what they don't understand and this was the case with the firearms policy," says Lee.

She also talked about how the party wants the RMA "overhauled".

"I've been talking to farmers daily who want to walk of their land," says Lee.

The floor was then opened up for questions which covered topics such as sharing New Zealand's positive farming story, how each party plans to rebuild the economy, mental health within the rural sector, telecommunications and broadband, climate change, wool as a sustainable option, getting young people work ready and abortion laws.