Rt Hon Winston Peters

New Zealand First Leader

Member of Parliament for Northland
8 NOVEMBER 2016

National Party Greenlights Farmergeddon

New Zealand First is seriously concerned at the massive cost of National’s policies on the Waikato, following a report commissioned by Federated Farmers Waikato.

“If Waikato farmers want to know the full cost of National indulging the well-heeled blue-greens of Parnell and Remuera, then this report provides it,” says New Zealand First Leader and MP for Northland Rt Hon Winston Peters.

“Farmers will be seriously dismayed that despite investing millions of dollars in effluent systems and planting hundreds of thousands of native trees, that they’re not within cooee of meeting Waikato Regional Council’s Plan Change 1.

“Alarmingly, this report had the Waikato Regional Council’s involvement so obviously that Council has failed to sanity check its own policy. Multiple Ministers need to hang their heads in shame because this stabs the Waikato in the back and they’ve done nothing.

“What is proposed is like a farming nuclear bomb and the fallout takes out large swathes of dairy, drystock and horticulture. The worst affected farmers are in fact in sheep and beef – people and families already struggling with low returns and a rising inflated Kiwi dollar.

“If this plan is implemented unchanged it will be a disaster for the Waikato and for the New Zealand economy.

“There is no way New Zealand First will stand idly by while the ‘National Party greenlights farmergeddon,’” Mr Peters said.

ENDS

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