National Party leader Christopher Luxon has unveiled 19 proposals in the party's new farming package. Photo: RNZ / Felix Walton
The National Party is pledging to cut excessive red tape that it says is tying up farmers and costing the economy.
Party leader Christopher Luxon has unveiled the party's "Getting back to farming" package, which includes 19 proposals.
Among them are plans to ban foreign investment in farms being converted to forestry for carbon farming, and the doubling of the RSE worker cap from 19,000 workers to 38,000 workers a year.
National would restart live exports of cattle with "gold standard" animal welfare rules and a requirement for purpose-built ships. A ban on the practice has come into force this week.
Luxon said a broader range of activities would be allowed on highly-productive land, while protections would focus on areas of high environmental value.
"I want world-class regulation for our world-class farmers. Regulation has a role to play, but rules should avoid prescription, target outcomes, minimise compliance, and be clear to provide certainty," Luxon said.
Luxon told Morning Report foreign ownership of farm land to convert into carbon farming was a big issue in rural communities.
When asked he did not give an example of an investor being given the right to come in with the sole purpose of carbon farming.
"If you're a young farmer trying to buy into a farm and you actually see the prices that are being paid by foreign buyers to take out... New Zealand farms then convert them into forestry for the express purpose of carbon farming, that is a real challenge because it's changing the nature of our communities."
Photo: RNZ / Felix Walton
The party wants to also establish what it calls a two-for-one rule - "for every new agriculture regulation, two must be removed".
And the cost to farmers of any new regulations would have to be published.
"We will be working really hard to make sure that every regulation that we introduce we actually get rid of two that are dumb and stupid and don't make any sense," Luxon said.
Labour had done an "abysmal" job on regulating farming, he said.
"We've got things where we've got farmers trying to navigate winter grazing, they've got slope rules, they've got a whole bunch of complexity around fresh water, and all those things are linked together but they're not joined up and synced up."
Farmers were spending up to 30 percent of their week on compliance, he said.
The lobby group 50 Shades of Green says National's new agriculture policy needs to go further.
Gwyn Jones said many New Zealand investors were also buying up productive land, and National should consider a blanket ban.
On farm integrated planting should be encouraged - but productive land should not be used to plant out exotic species for investment, she said.
