Further challenges ahead in 2011
Released 07 Jan 2011
By Stew Wadey, Federated Farmers Waikato Provincial President
It is amazing that 2010 has disappeared so quickly. While it has been tough one for farmers, it's important we learn the lessons, prep our tools and look forward to the New Year which looks to have just as many challenges.
Primary pastoral agriculture is unquestionably the driver of our regional economy as well as the national economy. So many Waikato families directly or indirectly derive their livelihood from agriculture or industries associated with it. It was good to read the independent New Zealand Institute of Economic Research (NZIER) show how the dairy farming industry has a huge positive influence on our national and regional economies.
It's a huge challenge to be commercially viable on any farm in our region. Waikato farmers have long strived to be competitive with our costs and productivity so that we are major players we are on the world trading scene.
One of the basics of any business is that it needs a good, fair regulatory regime. The four pillars of the Resource Management Act (RMA) are about finding the balance between economic, social, cultural and environmental interests. With this in mind, there is a big upcoming issue that will need Federated Farmers' attention, namely the proposed Regional Policy Statement (RPS).
Every regional council produces one and it basically lays out a broad framework for how we manage our natural and physical resources.
Environment Waikato's last one, signed off in 2000, has expired. So the council is busily working away on its replacement.
This RPS runs across and informs the policy of every Waikato council and sets the ground rules for how resource consents should be determined.
This is a pretty big deal and will determine how the whole Waikato region runs for the next decade - for better or for worse. Whether you live in the city or in rural areas, it needs to be a document we can all accept.
Meetings are being held on 14 and 28 January and as you can imagine, the RPS needs a lot of public participation in a short window of time to make sure it doesn't turn out to be a lemon.
An RPS should lead the way for integration of management, not the creation of new management offices in my view. I went to a briefing pre-Christmas and had a look at the direction Environment Waikato is heading in, and what is worrying is how specific they are getting with their wording. They are looking at creating new management criteria and more specific goals overall, effectively removing the autonomy of local district councils.
Regional and district plans must 'give effect to' the regional policy statement for their region. So I do hope the RPS leaves some sort of room for the region's district and city councils to tailor policy to suit their local needs.
To throw another spanner into the works, I suspect central government will follow on from their Local Government reforms in Auckland and review the entire local government structure from 2011, possibly with an eye for implementation in October 2013.
This issue could be a focus point for us as we head into a general election, which some pundits already suggest will be Saturday 26 November this year.
