Jamie Mackay: The Country host on Federated Farmers labelling ECan's nitrate emergency a political stunt

Federated Farmers has been quick to label Environment Canterbury’s decision to declare a nitrate emergency as a 'political stunt'.

ECan recently carried a motion to declare the emergency at yesterday's meeting.

The Country's Jamie Mackay explained further.

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:01):
The Rural Report on Heather do for see Alan Drive,
Jamie mckaye, host of the Countries with us Alo Jamie.

Speaker 2 (00:08):
Happy birthday cousin, Heather, and I just think before we
start this wonderful conversation, especially after that last text, I
probably need to do a bit of a cunliff because
I am a sis, straight white male with a blue
suit and a briefcase. Don't take the briefcase to work anymore, Heather,
but I used to, so I need to apologize.

Speaker 1 (00:28):
Jamie. Listen, thanks very much for the birthday wish. Now,
Federated Farmers are they right to say that this night
rate emergency is just a political stunt?

Speaker 2 (00:36):
Oh jeez, there's two sides to this story. So Federated Farmers,
their vice president Colin Hurst, is based in Canterbury. He's
saying the night trade emergency is a shameless political stunt
and won't how everybody remember it was the last day
of sitting for Ecan, who was certainly in the gun
with Farmers at the moment, and they passed it I
think by nine to seven to declare this emergency so

(00:58):
Feds and Colin is saying all it will do is
create unnecessary panic and drive a wedge between our urban
and rural communities. The nitrates, I might add here that
aren't all coming from the farmers. There's plenty coming from
the city as well. So Hurst is saying that ecan's
decision will undermine good work done by Farmer's Council, EWI

(01:19):
and wider community over the last few decades. The data
shows the trends have been consistent for decades and nobody's
disputing in feeds or elsewhere that there is an issue
with nitrates in Canterbury, but they're saying to suddenly come
out and call it an emergency as political theater there
also took a shot at Greenpeace spreading misinformation about nitrates

(01:42):
along the lines of linking nitrates to drinking water and
drinking water to colon cancer. So Federated farmers are saying
New Zealanders should take their health advice from medical professionals,
not environmental activists with an anti farming agenda.

Speaker 1 (01:57):
Okay, now what about beef and lands. I'm saying that
the government law to stop the wholesale conversions of farmland
to forestry doesn't go far enough. Where do you sit
on that?

Speaker 2 (02:06):
I'm almost I think I'm with Beef and Lamb on
this one because anecdotally anyhow, I mean, they're still carrying
on in their merry way. I mean, this is a
good step. The Climate Change Response Amendment Bill passed its
third reading in Parliament. There will be law, as I
understand it in October. FEDS are not Feds. Beef and
Lamb are saying it just doesn't go far enough to

(02:27):
slow the rate of productive sheep and beef land being lost.
One of their real gripes is they're really disappointed that
their calls to extend the moratorium on whole farm conversions.
This is when you plant the whole farm out. They
want it extended to all classes of land, not just
classes one to five, because eighty nine percent of whole

(02:48):
farm conversions to date have occurred on land classes six
to eight. Land class six in particular, is highly productive
and vital to the sector. Now, Beef and Lamb are saying,
we've already loved three hundred thousand hectares of sheep and
beef farms to forestry since twenty seventeen. If we continue
on a current trajectory, we'll lose another six hundred and

(03:09):
fifty thousand hectares by twenty fifty. That's one million hectares,
which would equate to eighteen percent or an eighteen percent
drop in stock units. And they're quite rightly saying New
Zealand's ets settings are artificially distorting the market. It is
the Emperor's new clothes, if you ask me. It's incentivizing
this wholesale conversion. We're the only country in the world

(03:31):
apart from Kazakhstan, to allow one hundred percent offsetting in
its carbon pricing. And Kate Acklin from Beef and Lamb
did qualify or quantify her comments by saying Beef and
Lamb is not anti forestry, but the surgeon whole farm
conversions for carbon only forestries not being driven by timber demand,
which is pretty weak at the moment. It's the result

(03:53):
of a carbon market skewed by poorly designed policy, and
on that I agree one hundred percent.

Speaker 1 (03:59):
Of Thank you so much, Jammy. As always, it's lovely
to talk to you, Jamie Mackay, host of the Country.

Speaker 2 (04:05):
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