We’re writing to update you on the Quit Paris campaign and the Government’s reforms to Freshwater Management.

Quit Paris

The Quit Paris campaign is rolling out across the country. Thanks to donors and supporters with spaces for signs, Kiwis everywhere will be finding out about just how bad the Paris Agreement is for New Zealand.

We’ve also been keeping on at the politicians directly. Some are clearly uncomfortable, knowing the Paris Agreement is a bad deal, but thinking there’s nothing to be done about it. Others roll out weak excuses like trade agreements.

This is what the start of winning a debate looks like. It may take an election to get there, but there’s already no serious defence being made for why we should stick with the Paris Agreement.

As we’ve covered, our trade does not rely on the Paris Agreement. If our export markets want low-emissions food, they should already be buying from New Zealand, climate treaties or not. Any fuss from the EU would be more about protectionism than real climate standards.

Instead of locking us into counterproductive deals like Paris, our politicians should be backing Kiwi farmers and securing trade agreements that work for us.

In fact, Climate Change Minister Simon Watts should be at international conferences saying: “You can all thank Kiwi farmers for reducing global emissions by feeding tens of millions with lower emissions than you could manage yourselves.”

Under Paris, other countries get to count a net decrease in emissions  by buying the food we make, while our Government is embarrassed that th emissions occur here. That’s why they promise policies like the Farming Tax on agricultural emissions, which would cut domestic production while increasing global emissions.

We don’t believe our politicians can or will stand up for New Zealand’s interests under global deals like Paris. That’s why we say: it’s time to Quit Paris.

If others want us to stay, they should make the case by proposing a national commitment that actually fits New Zealand. For example, we could count against our targets the emissions reductions we enable in other countries through our exports.

Somehow, we think that might be unlikely to happen any time soon and that’s why we’re campaigning to Quit Paris all together.

Our Quit Paris campaign material made a splash at Fieldays and you can get your own at our shop. Quit Paris banners and bumper stickers are now available under Vehicle Stickers at this link.

Freshwater (Mis)Management

The Coalition Government is in the middle of rewriting the Freshwater Management rules, which is good and necessary, but it's still unclear whether they will get rid of Labour's Te Mana o te Wai (The Mana of the Water) principle.

Te Mana o te Wai creates a vague and complex bureaucratic hierarchy of obligations, starting with putting the “health and well-being” of water ahead of any human use, including human health.

The Ministry for the Environment defines Te Mana o te Wai like this:

• Te Mana o te Wai has a hierarchy of obligations. This hierarchy is incorporated into the objective of the NPS-FM.
  
  • The first priority is the health and well-being of the water body, ahead of any human uses of that water.
  • The second is people’s health needs (such as drinking water).
  • The third is providing for other types of well-being.

That’s right. Your ability to drink, irrigate, or use water for anything comes after the “well-being” of the water itself.

Labour, Greenpeace and others claim this is “world-leading.” But for those who live under these rules, “world-leading” usually just means unworkable.

Now, shortly after the new Government came in, they paused the worst of Labour’s water rules, including this Mana principle, which was an essential step to block the worst of what some councils were trying to do with Labour’s unworkable regulations.

We're worried, though, that the Government is going soft on repealing Labour's changes when it comes to the Mana of the water principle.

The consultation documents say the Government wants to “rebalance Te Mana o te Wai to reflect the importance of freshwater to all New Zealanders” (slide 18, for those counting).

Te Mana o te Wai doesn’t need rebalancing, it needs repealing.

We've been making it crystal clear to politicians that regulating water quality to community expectations is one thing, but we cannot and will not accept making a legal standard out of concepts as vague as the mana and well-being of a body of water. It creates an effective veto over water use with no accountability.

Whether or not iwi and lobby groups might be responsible with such a veto is beside the point.

There are people who want to stop the use of water to make the food that pays New Zealand’s way in the world. They will wield even the potential of a veto like this to create immense uncertainty over the very lifeblood of farming. At the least, it will create enormous costs in bureaucratic compliance, consultants, and legal fights.

Water regulation should be a local, public, and democratic process. Anyone can bring their beliefs to the debate, but they need to persuade the rest of us. That’s how democracy works.

There can be no fair or just outcome when the starting point is a nationwide regulation that privileges what some people feel about the supposed well-being of water over the health and livelihoods of the locals.

There are two main options for telling the Government to repeal Labour’s Te Mana o te Wai all together (of course, feel free to do anything else too, like contacting your MP).

First, if you want to go through the Ministry for the Environment’s consultation website, you can click here to go to the consultation page. Section 2 part 2.2 is about Te Mana o te Wai and proposed Option 3 is to remove it completely (that’s what we’re backing).

The second is to sign the ACT party petition to Dump Te Mana o te Wai by clicking this link.

We can’t let the Government off with half measures like just a rebalancing, it’s time for them to deliver on property rights, local decision making, and rural livelihoods by dumping Te Mana o te Wai.

We’ll be keeping you up to date on where this goes.

Thank you again for your support.

Kind regards,

Bryce, Laurie, and the Team at Groundswell NZ