Latest / Early Edition with Ryan Bridge / Colin Hurst: Federated Farmers vice-president on the calls to increase the Queen Elizabeth II National Trust funding

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Colin Hurst: Federated Farmers vice-president on the calls to increase the Queen Elizabeth II National Trust funding · Early Edition with Ryan Bridge

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: Farmers are calling on the government to double the amount
• 0:02
  Speaker 1: of funding land owners get to help protect special areas
• 0:05
  Speaker 1: and species on private farming land. They get this money
• 0:09
  Speaker 1: from the Queen Elizabeth the Second National Trust. It was
• 0:11
  Speaker 1: set up to encourage people to look after things like
• 0:14
  Speaker 1: special areas of bush and wetland and the animals and
• 0:17
  Speaker 1: the critics that live there. But Federated Farmers says government
• 0:21
  Speaker 1: funding has remained the same at four point three million
• 0:24
  Speaker 1: dollars for a decade, despite costs and demand increasing. So
• 0:28
  Speaker 1: we've got the vice president of Federated Farmers joining me
• 0:30
  Speaker 1: right now, Colin Hurst. Good morning to you, sir, Yeah,
• 0:33
  Speaker 1: good morning Andrew. A decade. It hasn't changed for a decade.
• 0:38
  Speaker 2: Yeah, I know, it's quite unbelievable. Inflation sort of gone
• 0:42
  Speaker 2: up over the past few years. So we just think
• 0:44
  Speaker 2: it's time for the country to get in a step
• 0:48
  Speaker 2: in and help farmers and lease special areas.
• 0:50
  Speaker 1: And four point three million dollars seems like a drop
• 0:52
  Speaker 1: in the bucket.
• 0:54
  Speaker 2: Yeah, it's not much really on the on the face
• 0:56
  Speaker 2: of it, you know, there's significant areas that farmers. That's
• 1:00
  Speaker 2: I think it's one hundred and eighty seven thousand. He years,
• 1:03
  Speaker 2: which is a pretty big area.
• 1:04
  Speaker 1: Well, I was going to say, you told me the
• 1:06
  Speaker 1: hector is but how many actual farms need this funding?
• 1:09
  Speaker 1: How many farmers are involved with looking for funding and
• 1:11
  Speaker 1: then looking after special places.
• 1:14
  Speaker 2: Well, so there's five two hundred areas protected and there
• 1:19
  Speaker 2: could be more than one on farm, so not exactly
• 1:21
  Speaker 2: sure how many areas, but of farms, but that's a
• 1:25
  Speaker 2: pretty stine area.
• 1:26
  Speaker 1: Five two hundreds a big number. Don't you worry about that, mate,
• 1:28
  Speaker 1: it's it's a big number. So over the ten years,
• 1:31
  Speaker 1: while funding has stayed static, how has demand increased.
• 1:37
  Speaker 2: Definitely? Here? Well it's so it's gone from four thousand
• 1:41
  Speaker 2: to five two hundred over the last ten years, so
• 1:43
  Speaker 2: there's twenty eight percent increased. So certainly demand here and
• 1:46
  Speaker 2: this farmers lining up to particuland these special areas.
• 1:50
  Speaker 1: So if you have twenty eight percent more demand for funding,
• 1:53
  Speaker 1: then surely the funding should have gone up twenty eight
• 1:54
  Speaker 1: percent and that leans it would then be considered to
• 1:57
  Speaker 1: have stayed static.
• 2:00
  Speaker 2: Yeah, oh yeah, yeah, definitely. Well yeah, well that's that's yeah.
• 2:04
  Speaker 2: So that's why we're asking for an increase.
• 2:05
  Speaker 1: So what what does this money specifically used for?
• 2:10
  Speaker 2: Well, for a farmer has an area of land and he
• 2:13
  Speaker 2: voluntarily wants to protect it for the country. They need
• 2:17
  Speaker 2: to identify the area, they need to fence it off,
• 2:19
  Speaker 2: they need to take care of the peace and weeds
• 2:22
  Speaker 2: in that type of thing, and then there's legal costs
• 2:24
  Speaker 2: to get it because these special areas are protected on
• 2:28
  Speaker 2: the title of their land, so it's there forever it
• 2:30
  Speaker 2: cannot be taken off. So it's it's sort of like
• 2:34
  Speaker 2: a national park. Really, it's that it's that well protected.
• 2:38
  Speaker 1: And how expensive is that to protect these bits of
• 2:40
  Speaker 1: land that the farmers have been told that they have
• 2:43
  Speaker 1: to protect.
• 2:45
  Speaker 2: Well, there was a study done in the Waiketo University
• 2:49
  Speaker 2: and they're estimating it's between four hundred and forty million
• 2:55
  Speaker 2: and six hundred and thirty million, and that was a
• 2:58
  Speaker 2: decade ago those figures, so it's obviously whole lot more air.
• 3:00
  Speaker 1: Hold on you're saying four to six hundred million, and
• 3:04
  Speaker 1: yet the funding is four point three.
• 3:08
  Speaker 2: Yeah, it's as you feel. Really, it's the figures in
• 3:11
  Speaker 2: significant really that we just need the government to do it.
• 3:14
  Speaker 1: Really, well, what are you going to do next?
• 3:18
  Speaker 2: Well, we're starting to have a bit of a publicity
• 3:19
  Speaker 2: campaign about it. I think it's a no brainer. The
• 3:23
  Speaker 2: other little part about this, there's the rules that like
• 3:27
  Speaker 2: the significant natural areas. That's something the government are putty
• 3:30
  Speaker 2: hot on. This is what district councils do. That's the
• 3:35
  Speaker 2: stick approach. You know, farmers must do this, but we
• 3:37
  Speaker 2: think the q E two funding is a whole lot
• 3:39
  Speaker 2: better way to do it. This is voluntarily keeping areas
• 3:43
  Speaker 2: and farmers just want to do this sort of stuff.
• 3:44
  Speaker 1: Of course, if you've got the will, all you need
• 3:46
  Speaker 1: is the money and that's a good thing and I
• 3:47
  Speaker 1: thank you so much. Colin Hurst is the Federated Farmers
• 3:50
  Speaker 1: Vice President.
• 3:52
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• 3:55
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• 3:58
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