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Applying the brakes to Plan Change 1 (PC1) by Waikato Regional Council (WRC) will likely meet with approval on both sides of the Bombays.
A central government decision to pause parts of the plan until December 2032 has drawn the approval of Waikato Federated Farmers president, Chris Woolerton.
“This is a really positive step and a direct response to the concerns we’ve been raising,” he says.
“Farmers will be hugely relieved to have some breathing room.”
Waikato’s PC1 is primarily focused on reducing contaminants entering waterways, especially the Waikato River.
However, rules will increase compliance and farm management costs.
As previously reported, PC1 directly impacts farmers in north Waikato, but it would also have a knock-on effect for those in the Auckland region too.
Because the government is working towards a national strategy anyway, Federated Farmers has been calling for a pause on PC1.
“It makes no sense to force farmers into a new set of rules when the government is overhauling the RMA (Resource Management Act), freshwater rules and the farm planning system.
“[The pause] means farmers can get on with farming rather than spending thousands of dollars and countless hours navigating a consenting process that was never going to make sense alongside the government’s new national system.”
However, there is another issue. PC1 could increase the complexity and costs for changes to land use.
Farmers need to be able to respond to changing markets and opportunities and not (effectively) locked into one farming system, Woolerton says.
“Kiwis want affordable, locally grown vegetables [so] we need farmers to be able to respond when the market needs more vegetables. The same applies to farmers wanting to change between types of livestock.
“We’re still working through what these rules will mean for growers, but this is potentially a major issue for vegetable production.” The pause is essential, he contends, but there is more to discuss.
“We’ll keep pushing to make sure the final system gives farmers the flexibility they need to farm productively while continuing to deliver environmental improvements. Farmers needed certainty, breathing room and a system that doesn’t make them comply with one set of rules today, only to replace them with another set tomorrow.”
