Dear Bryce McKenzie, Laurie Patterson (Groundswell New Zealand), Duncan Humm (NZ Farming), and Jane Smith (Methane Science Accord).

Conservative Party policy clarification on rural, environmental, and agricultural issues.

I write to you regarding your public letter sent to various political parties for clarification on rural, environmental, and agricultural issues. While some are slow or non-responsive to your enquiry, the Conservative Party of New Zealand would like the opportunity to make our position crystal clear.

Paris Accord / Net Zero / Emissions Trading Scheme (ETS)

We believe that current climate policies are a distraction from real opportunities to protect and improve the environment. There is no climate emergency. We will end all climate-focused taxes, subsidies, and regulations. Laws/agreements like the Paris Accord, Zero Carbon Act, and Emissions Trading Scheme (ETS) impose significant costs on everyday New Zealanders while not improving environmental outcomes, and they all need to go.

Food production and rural communities

We do not support any policy that encourages the conversion of productive pastoral and arable land into permanent or long-term carbon forestry. Our focus is supporting farmers to continue being the best food producers in the world.

Energy

The best way to secure a nations prosperity is through energy policy. It is the position of the Conservative party that energy needs to be abundant, reliable, and affordable. Renewables have their place but should not favoured over reliable base load supply.

Methane research and AgriZero

We do not support taxpayers' funds being used in this field of research. If private entities wish to continue in this field they can source funding elsewhere.

Planning Bill and Natural Environment Bill

The Conservative Party does not support either the Planning Bill or Natural Environmental Bill in its current form. We agree the legislation is not a practical solution and is causing too many headaches for our primary producers.

We support revisiting this legislation to focus on improving environmental outcomes, making the legislation workable in a practical way, and to secure property owner rights.

Proposed Gene Technology Bill

We oppose the current government's move to end the long-standing restrictions placed on field trials and the release of genetically modified organisms.

We consider that this proposal will overturn a societal consensus and such a decision should not be made without society-wide buy-in.

We note that to justify this proposal National and Act have turned to climate scaremongering, claiming we need genetically engineered organisms to reduce agricultural greenhouse gas emissions.

We believe that this is an inappropriate use of technology—we should not be playing God and altering the natural makeup of organisms for no real environmental benefit—and these parties and their reliance on this justification shows there is no real case for change.

Inflationary Burden

We have multiple policies to address the burden of inflation on the New Zealand people.

• Reduce the size of government. We cannot continue the level of government spending.
• Reduce taxation. The New Zealand citizen can spend their money far better than the government can.
• Encourage self-reliance. Make use of New Zealand's fossil fuels and minerals (including our own oil refinery). Investigate the procurement of our own oil tankers, which secures oil transportation and adds to our floating storage capacity.
• Bring back New Zealand manufacturing.

Many of our members are also supporters of your advocacy groups. We thank you for the years of continuous support you have provided to our nation’s farmers. We acknowledge that New Zealand has been built on the backs of our rural people, and the Conservative Party stand

© Scoop Media