Latest / Early Edition with Ryan Bridge / Kate Acland: Beef + Lamb NZ Chair on the proposed changes to the Resource Management Act

Transcript

Kate Acland: Beef + Lamb NZ Chair on the proposed changes to the Resource Management Act · Early Edition with Ryan Bridge

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: Beef and Lamb New Zealand are happy this morning after
• 0:02
  Speaker 1: yesterday's RMA reform announcement. We've got changes to freshwater management,
• 0:06
  Speaker 1: we've got the removal of land use capability. Kate Ackland,
• 0:10
  Speaker 1: chair of Beef and Lamb New Zealand, with me this morning.
• 0:13
  Speaker 1: Hi Kate, good morning, Good to have you on the show.
• 0:17
  Speaker 1: Can you give us just a rundown in simple terms
• 0:20
  Speaker 1: what this will mean for your average farm.
• 0:25
  Speaker 2: So what we're saying is they're addressing some of the
• 0:29
  Speaker 2: issues that we've been calling for change on for a
• 0:31
  Speaker 2: long time, particularly in the freshwater space, because the rules
• 0:35
  Speaker 2: that were in place were complex, they weren't practical, and
• 0:37
  Speaker 2: actually in some cases they were impossible to meet. So
• 0:41
  Speaker 2: there would have been some really big implications, I think,
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  Speaker 2: particularly for our hell country farmers and our more extensive
• 0:46
  Speaker 2: farmers that we're facing some really costly sensing and stock
• 0:51
  Speaker 2: exclusions particularly.
• 0:52
  Speaker 1: And so this means it's less about this number, that number,
• 0:58
  Speaker 1: that metric and more about the overall health of their
• 1:02
  Speaker 1: waterways of the environment. Is that a good summary?
• 1:06
  Speaker 2: Yeah, absolutely, And just removing some of those very sort
• 1:10
  Speaker 2: of specific rules that, as I said, were impossible to meet,
• 1:14
  Speaker 2: you know, There's one example that they had a number
• 1:17
  Speaker 2: around suspended fine sentiments that independent research showed that even
• 1:21
  Speaker 2: if you stopped agriculture and the catchments were returned to
• 1:24
  Speaker 2: their natural state so to bush effectively, and thirty eight
• 1:29
  Speaker 2: percent of the rivers still wouldn't meet those natural bottom
• 1:32
  Speaker 2: line numbers that they put in place, So, you know,
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  Speaker 2: just really impractical.
• 1:36
  Speaker 1: So the bar was too high, way too high.
• 1:39
  Speaker 2: Well, absolutely way too high. And you know, some modeling
• 1:43
  Speaker 2: suggested that you'd need to shut down forty four percent
• 1:46
  Speaker 2: of all she can be farmland and repire it and
• 1:49
  Speaker 2: you still wouldn't meet some of these numbers. So really
• 1:53
  Speaker 2: pleasing to see that sort of consultation on a change
• 1:55
  Speaker 2: in direction.
• 1:57
  Speaker 1: K do we have to be worried about her intet
• 2:00
  Speaker 1: national reputation? We don't want to look like some sort
• 2:02
  Speaker 1: of backwater that's with dirty river water running through our
• 2:06
  Speaker 1: country towns now.
• 2:09
  Speaker 2: I look absolutely that front of mind, and we can
• 2:14
  Speaker 2: have both. I mean, I think what it's about is
• 2:15
  Speaker 2: finding the balance between world class healthy waterways, which we
• 2:19
  Speaker 2: do have, by the way, and also of ourlan for
• 2:22
  Speaker 2: a really productive and profitable rural sector. You know, you've
• 2:27
  Speaker 2: got to acknowledge that farming can have an impact on
• 2:29
  Speaker 2: freshwater qualities like everything else that we do around our waterways,
• 2:34
  Speaker 2: but we've got to manage it right and what we
• 2:37
  Speaker 2: desperately need. Our rural communities need to thrive, They need
• 2:41
  Speaker 2: to be productive, but they need rules that are uncomplicated
• 2:46
  Speaker 2: and expensive and actually deliver the right outcomes, which has
• 2:49
  Speaker 2: been a whole of ecosystem health.
• 2:51
  Speaker 1: Okay, appreciate your time this morning. Thanks for coming on
• 2:54
  Speaker 1: the show. Kate Ackland, Chaps and at Beef and Lamb
• 2:56
  Speaker 1: New Zealand.
• 2:57
  Speaker 2: For more from early edition with Ryan's Bread.
• 3:00
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• 3:04
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