Beef + Lamb New Zealand says the latest announcement on the revised freshwater farm plans system shows encouraging signs but because a lot of detail is still missing, concerns remain for sheep and beef farmers.
The Government has announced it is making progress on improving the freshwater farm plan system after it paused the rollout in September 2024.
B+LNZ Chair Kate Acland said that while there are causes for cautious optimism, details still to come will inform final analysis of the proposed system.
“We welcome the commitment to ensuring freshwater farm plans will take the place of consents and other regulations, and that there will be a risk-based framework for auditing and certification.
“However, the overall degree of comfort we have with the proposals will depend on the risk thresholds, what aspects of current regulations such as consents they replace and how onerous the contents of freshwater farm plans will be.”
Acland said the recognition of existing industry assurance programmes to reduce duplication is another positive.
“However, there are still significant questions to answer. We will be working closely with Ministers and officials in the coming months to ensure we understand the details and will continue to advocate on behalf of our farmers.
“Low-risk sheep and beef farming operations should not be required to have a freshwater farm plan, and we’ll keep making this case.
“We agree with Ministers that freshwater farm plans must be practical and matched to actual environmental risk. Our farming systems are complex, and sheep and beef farms are generally lower impact, so the effort or cost must not outweigh the benefits.
“It’s vitally important the freshwater farm planning system enables farmers, is not complex or costly and that it takes the place of unwieldy and impractical regulations, particularly blanket rules, and also expensive consenting processes.
“That said, B+LNZ has long argued that farm plans can have an important role to play in helping farmers take actions to address environmental issues, particularly in at-risk catchments for farms managing high-risk activities.”
B+LNZ will continue to keep farmers updated over the coming months as more details on freshwater farm plans are made available.
ENDS
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