Farmers Rejoice: Freshwater Rules Put On Pause

Tuesday, 29 October 2024, 10:42 pm
Article: Jonathan Leask - Local Democracy Reporter

Mid Canterbury farmers will be happy the regional council has to stop charging ahead with new freshwater rules, David Acland says.

The Federated Farmers Mid Canterbury president said the government's changes around the Resource Management Act will be well received by local farmers.

"It's a positive outcome and something Feds and other industry groups have been pushing for."

The government's Resource Management (Freshwater and Other Matters) Amendment Bill passed its third reading last week.

It restricts councils' ability to notify freshwater plans until the replacement National Policy Statement for Freshwater Management is in place.

Agriculture Minister Todd McClay said the government was taking steps to provide farmers the clarity they need around freshwater management, minimise inefficiencies and duplication for councils, and prevent unnecessary costs for ratepayers.

Environment Canterbury was planning on bringing in a new Regional Policy Statement, and a Plan Change to the Land and Water Regional Plan, later this year.

Acland said it didn't make sense to introduce new water quality rules at the same time the Government was changing the national direction.

ECan should do it once and do it right, and the Government had to make a legislative change "to make the pause button get pushed", he said.

ECan chief executive Stefanie Rixecker said the councillors were yet to consider or discuss the changes in the context of the council's current work programmes.

"As soon as they have had the opportunity to do so, we will be better placed to make appropriate comment."

Acland said the pause on the paperwork isn't about doing nothing and doesn't mean an open season for farmers.

Environmental regulation and improvements will continue to implement the Canterbury land and water plan the community signed off on 10 years ago, he said.

The RMA Bill also excludes the Te Mana o te Wai hierarchy of obligations from resource consent applicants and pauses work on identifying new Significant Natural Areas.

McClay said changes to stock exclusion and winter grazing regulations represent a move to a more risk-based, catchment-focused approach.

"Regulations need to be fit-for-purpose and not place unnecessary compliance costs on farmers and growers.

"The focus is on farm-level and regionally suitable solutions."

That was music to Acland's ears.

"There has been significant change across the plains which has put pressure on it and we do need to improve and adapt.

"It's just how we do that, which has to be led by the rural community, not by Wellington."

Catchment groups are already popping up across Mid Canterbury and working collaboratively on improving environmental outcomes at a sub-regional level, he said.

"When they say locally led, we mean these groups who are already implementing change."

The government's move hasn't been welcomed by everyone.

The Otago Regional Council was blocked from passing its Land & Water Regional plan last week, Newsroom reported.

Otago councillor Elliot Weir told Newsroom they had been "cornered" by central government, despite having done "everything we possibly could" to pass the plan.

The plan was aimed at increasing freshwater environmental protections and would have set a minimum flow standard for rivers.

LDR is local body journalism co-funded by RNZ and NZ On Air.

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