Federated Farmers are slamming Westpac Bank for setting tougher emissions reduction targets for farmers in New Zealand than for their Australian farming customers.

"If I was one of Westpac’s rural banking customers, I’d be putting some serious questions to my bank manager this week," says Federated Farmers banking spokesperson Richard McIntyre.

"It’s incredibly disappointing to see a big Aussie bank unfairly targeting Kiwi farmers and creating an unlevel playing field with our competitors across the ditch."

Westpac’s new climate targets will require Kiwi farmers to reduce their emissions to 0.75 tonnes of CO2-equivalent per tonne of milk.

At the same time, they’re asking their Australian farming customers to reduce their footprint to only 0.85 tonnes.

In 2023 Westpac estimated the emissions intensity of their New Zealand dairy farming portfolio to be 0.77 tonnes of CO2-equivalent per tonne of milk.

"What that means is New Zealand farmers are already well ahead of where Westpac are asking Australian farmers to get to by 2030. Where’s the fairness in that?" McIntyre says.

"By setting a more ambitious target for New Zealand, Westpac are making it clear they expect our local farmers to go further and faster than Australian farmers - and unfairly carry that cost."

Federated Farmers’ latest banking survey showed that only one in 11 farmers supported banks setting climate change targets.

"Farmers simply don’t trust foreign-owned banks to be setting emissions reduction targets. We don’t want or need them," McIntyre says

"We already have emission reduction targets that have been set by the Government, and further targets set by our milk and meat processing companies. Banks should stay out of it."

Federated Farmers wrote to Westpac New Zealand CEO Catherine McGrath in May raising these concerns on behalf of our members. Disappointingly, she never even replied.

"If we had more banking competition in New Zealand, banks like Westpac wouldn’t be able to get away with setting these kinds of unfair targets," McIntyre says.

"In a more competitive banking environment farmers would simply be able to leave them and seek a better service elsewhere, but that’s just not an option for most at the moment.

"Farmers tell us that the lack of banking competition means they have to accept banks’ policies, no matter how unreasonable, as if it were another layer of government regulation."

McIntyre says Westpac should be ashamed of the unfair way they’re treating their New Zealand farming customers.

"This is something Parliament’s banking inquiry, which is currently underway, should be taking a much closer look at."

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