National's steps to standardise farm rules – quarries, fertiliser, energy storage

The National Party has released a list of actions it would take to standardise rules across farms if re-elected. 

They include national standards for vegetable growing, on-farm water storage, gravel extraction, drain maintenance and fertiliser application. 

Agriculture spokesman Todd McClay said National had already taken steps to get “Wellington out of farming”, by replacing the Resource Management Act (RMA), scrapping the so-called ute tax, and ensuring farming is not in the Emissions Trading Scheme (ETS). 

“National is announcing 19 new standards to slash red tape around the work farmers and growers do every day,” he said. 

“In many cases, these standards will remove the need for consents entirely. Even where consents may still be required, they will be easier, faster, and cheaper. This means more time and money spent on growing their businesses, rather than paying for needless bureaucracy. 

“National wants farmers to produce more, invest with confidence and help us double the value of our exports.” 

National also wants to introduce farm quarry standards, so farmers can “extract rock and aggregate from their own land without consenting processes rendering this uneconomic”. 

Another relates to micro-hydro: “A national standard for small run-of-river micro-hydro will help farmers generate the power they need to run their businesses, using the water they already have on their property”. 

There would be a national standard for energy storage to “let farmers install batteries and other storage that support on-farm energy generation and resilience”. 

McClay also pointed to recent export results exceeding forecasts. 

“The Primary sector is $4 billion ahead of schedule to deliver on National’s ambitious 2023 goal to double the value of exports in 10 years,” he said. 

“Food and Fibre exports have just hit a record $65.2 billion, and which shows our transformative work in the primary sector is paying real dividends.”