The Government’s recent announcements on RMA Reform and Freshwater Farm Plans hide an enormous bureaucratic expansion and farming representative organisations are complicit in providing only one side of the story to farmers and the public, Groundswell NZ environment spokesperson Jamie McFadden says.

“For a balanced public debate that goes beyond government spin and partisan interests, media must be talking to grassroots farmers and rural communities, not just the politicians and industry leaders captured by Wellington.

“Farmers are unaware that they face a defining moment in history, as the RMA replacement legislation going through Parliament paves the way for a huge increase in bureaucratic control and interference into their businesses and lives.

“Contrary to what farmers have been led to believe, including by some of their industry representatives, many will be worse off under these reforms than they were under the RMA.

“The Government has singled out farmers for special treatment, but not in a good way. Instead of the opportunity to continue to benefit from permitted activity status, Freshwater Farm Plans will bring all farmers over 50hectares under the new de facto consent system of close government oversight.

“Coalition MPs and the industry bodies going along with Freshwater Farm Plans have been unable to explain why they are supporting legislated,top-down, and centrally controlled plans prescribed by bureaucrats, rather than backing the industry-led efforts already underway with grassroots buy-in across the dairy, sheep & beef, deer, pork, horticulture, and arable sectors.

“The industry groups who would prefer to act as regulatory middlemen are in danger of returning to the bad old days of representing Wellington to farmers, instead of taking farmers’ voices to the Government," says Mr McFadden.