Latest / Early Edition with Ryan Bridge / Kate Acland: Beef + Lamb Chair on the report on New Zealand's freshwater quality targets

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Kate Acland: Beef + Lamb Chair on the report on New Zealand's freshwater quality targets · Early Edition with Ryan Bridge

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: An independent review of freshwater standards has found that our
• 0:04
  Speaker 1: sediment and e coal lie national targets will be hard
• 0:06
  Speaker 1: to meet. Beef and Lambs say, if agriculture get this,
• 0:09
  Speaker 1: if agriculture across the country was stopped, Even if we
• 0:13
  Speaker 1: did that, thirty eight percent of our rivers still wouldn't
• 0:16
  Speaker 1: meet the requirements if they were returned to their natural state.
• 0:19
  Speaker 1: It's currently up to each council to determine if they
• 0:22
  Speaker 1: implement the targets. And Kate Ackland is the chair of
• 0:24
  Speaker 1: Beef and Lamb New Zealand. She's with us this morning.
• 0:26
  Speaker 1: Good morning, explain to us what these standards actually say.
• 0:35
  Speaker 2: For these standards of that essentially they give bottom lines
• 0:39
  Speaker 2: that have to be meat or all minimum standards that
• 0:41
  Speaker 2: farmers would have to meet. I think, as you've explained
• 0:43
  Speaker 2: in the opening, all this report shows is that those
• 0:46
  Speaker 2: standards actually physically can't be mean. I mean a reveal
• 0:49
  Speaker 2: of the published literature also indicated that about twenty percent
• 0:52
  Speaker 2: of our waterways currently coming out of the catchments in
• 0:55
  Speaker 2: their natural state, so that's coming straight out of national parks,
• 0:58
  Speaker 2: don't meet those requirements.
• 1:02
  Speaker 1: So even in the most pristine environments, twenty percent of
• 1:05
  Speaker 1: those rivers wouldn't meet the wouldn't meet the standards, so
• 1:08
  Speaker 1: they're obviously a bit too high according to this review,
• 1:12
  Speaker 1: can you change them?
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  Speaker 2: So what we're asking actually is that we just just
• 1:17
  Speaker 2: pause and essentially remove those two standards, so not all
• 1:23
  Speaker 2: of the standards, but just those two that where the
• 1:25
  Speaker 2: science that's been put into how they're set is fought,
• 1:29
  Speaker 2: and we work on something that's a bit more practical,
• 1:31
  Speaker 2: because you know, this is not about us trying to
• 1:34
  Speaker 2: delay regulation or remove regulations. We adally acknowledge that farming
• 1:38
  Speaker 2: can have an impact on freshwater quality and it needs
• 1:40
  Speaker 2: to be managed. But what we're wanting isn't enduring framework.
• 1:44
  Speaker 2: So the targets need to be realistic, and they need
• 1:46
  Speaker 2: to be achievable, and they need to be based on
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  Speaker 2: really sound science.
• 1:50
  Speaker 1: Is this a government issue or is it a council
• 1:53
  Speaker 1: issue that you're going to have to tackle.
• 1:55
  Speaker 2: Well, look, it's a government issue because it comes from
• 1:58
  Speaker 2: the National Policy Statement for fresh Water Management twenty twenty.
• 2:02
  Speaker 2: It's councils that are implementing that regionally, and I guess
• 2:05
  Speaker 2: that's where our real concern is, is that the government's
• 2:07
  Speaker 2: indicated that they're going to replace the National Policy Statement
• 2:11
  Speaker 2: for freshwater management, but there is a bit of a
• 2:14
  Speaker 2: delay period and some of these targets or bottom lines
• 2:17
  Speaker 2: are becoming embedded in regional policy of planning space. So
• 2:21
  Speaker 2: you know, this is quite an urgent matter, it's quite
• 2:23
  Speaker 2: a pressing matter.
• 2:26
  Speaker 1: Very quickly. And just finally, if the standards were implemented,
• 2:30
  Speaker 1: how much would it cost the country, How much would
• 2:32
  Speaker 1: it cost business?
• 2:36
  Speaker 2: So the reports suggests that forty four percent of all
• 2:39
  Speaker 2: seed and bee farmland would need to be retired. Then
• 2:41
  Speaker 2: there needs to be further really extensive measures like pole
• 2:44
  Speaker 2: planting and additional fencing that would cost in the billions
• 2:49
  Speaker 2: of dollars. And then even if all of those mitigations
• 2:51
  Speaker 2: were put in place, you know, half of the time,
• 2:53
  Speaker 2: Western wouldn't be meeting those those current national boss lines.
• 2:57
  Speaker 2: So they're just not realistic and they're just not based
• 3:00
  Speaker 2: on sound science.
• 3:02
  Speaker 1: Kate, thank you very much for your time this morning.
• 3:04
  Speaker 1: Kate Ackland sherif Beef and Land New Zealand on that
• 3:06
  Speaker 1: independent review into our freshwater standards. For more from News
• 3:09
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• 3:12
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