Source: Federated Farmers
Federated Farmers is calling on the Government to immediately and categorically rule out any form of ‘water tax’ in its proposed RMA replacement bill.
“There’s absolutely no way we’re going to support any laws that open the door to taxing water,” Federated Farmers RMA reform spokesperson Mark Hooper says.
“A water tax would be a nightmare for farmers and growers, undermining confidence in our productive sectors and pulling a handbrake on economic growth.
“The Government needs to move quickly and strike out any wording that would allow water rights to be auctioned, tendered, levied or taxed.”
In December, the Government released two major pieces of legislation, the Planning and the Natural Environment Bills, to replace the Resource Management Act (RMA).
Federated Farmers policy staff spent the summer break trawling through 744 pages of complex legislation and have serious concerns about what they’ve uncovered.
“It’s incredibly alarming to find clauses that give Ministers sweeping powers to tax water as a tool for managing demand,” Hooper says.
“Based on every conversation we’ve had with the coalition Government, we don’t believe it was ever their intent to impose a water tax on farmers.
“Unfortunately, it seems bureaucrats have snuck this one past Ministers, because that’s exactly what these provisions enable – it’s all there in black and white.”
Previous National Party Prime Ministers, including John Key and Bill English, explicitly ruled out water taxes in their day.
Federated Farmers is now calling on Prime Minister Christopher Luxon to urgently do the same – because rural New Zealand needs to clearly understand his position.
“Federated Farmers strongly supports the objectives of the Government’s RMA reforms: growing productivity and making it easier to get things done,” Hooper says.
“We are in total alignment that there needs to be a stronger focus on property rights, a tighter scope, fewer resource consents, and far less expensive litigation.
“The Government’s messaging has been bang-on but, unfortunately, we don’t think the legislation as currently drafted matches the political rhetoric.”
Hooper says this may be a case of ‘officials gone rogue’, but serious questions remain about how such dangerous provisions have progressed this far.
“The Prime Minister needs to step in now, make a captain’s call, and categorically rule out any possibility of water taxes to give farmers and growers certainty.”