Last weekend, Groundswell NZ released a press statement providing insight into the current status of the HWEN agricultural emissions proposal, also known as the Farming Tax.

We understand the Minister, James Shaw, and industry leaders have been in discussions to replace the current pricing system recommendations (as presented to Minister Shaw in June 2022), with a completely new pricing mechanism, the latest preference appears to be a ‘cap and trade’ option.

The entire workstream of HWEN up to this point has been focused on three specific pricing options, the processor levy, the farm-level levy and the ETS backstop. To switch to a ‘cap and trade’ or any other pricing option at this point will require a fresh round of consultation, economic analysis, and hundreds more pages of reports. The HWEN logo might remain, but all the work that has gone into producing the HWEN proposal would therefore be redundant.

We are confident in our information and are also aware that the recent Climate Change Commission report recommending all carbon sequestration be removed from HWEN and placed in the ETS requires such conversations to be taking place. The vigorous denials from industry leaders were unexpected, though, and a missed opportunity to better inform farmers of the current situation.

Groundswell NZ’s message to the Minister and industry leaders is, let’s get this right from the start!

The HWEN process has been a classic example of top-down policy creation which has failed to deliver an acceptable result. We challenge DairyNZ, Beef + Lamb, and Federated Farmers to come back to grass roots farmers and ask us for genuine input into what shape OUR emissions scheme should take. We do not want more time and additional millions of dollars wasted on developing detailed new schemes until the foundations have been agreed.

Farmers deserve full credit for carbon sequestration. HWEN Chair Kelly Forster recently conceded that it was the Minister who vetoed farmers’ right to receive full recognition for carbon they sequester on their farms. Up until this point, we had been told it was the IPCC guidelines which prohibited this from happening. How has the Minister been allowed to remain unchallenged on this?

Groundswell also believes warming-based methane accounting (GWP*) should be a cornerstone principle of any emissions pricing scheme. The inclusion of GWP* would save farmers around $400 million per year by 2030, under the current HWEN proposal. This should have been a non-negotiable!

Debates must be had; we will not find a long-term solution if we don’t ask the tough questions.

All parties must agree on the basics before wasting more industry time and resources on the details. It appears new pricing options are now being looked at; this gives farmers the opportunity to be part of the conversation from the ground floor.