Farmers "Howl of a protest" against "anti farming" laws happening today, Friday 16th July.

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Forums › Politics › Farmers "Howl of a protest" against "anti farming" laws happening today, Friday 16th July.

tehgerbil

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#288674 16-Jul-2021 12:10

https://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/howl-of-a-protest-thousands-of-farmers-preparing-to-parade-through-47-towns-and-cities/JBLXZHGWHHHWL4EWP5TTI6JIOI/

Farmers protesting environment protection laws and a few other "unfair" laws they believe are attacking their profession.

https://www.facebook.com/Groundswell-NZ-109145321007464

Have you been caught up in their protests?
What are your thoughts?

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#2745129 16-Jul-2021 12:16

Probably prefer them not to be driving down the northern motorway in Auckland, but given the commute a miss just in case.

rb99

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#2745130 16-Jul-2021 12:17

My thoughts are that apparently about 60 people have died in floods in Europe in the last 24 hours, but that wasn't deemed worth a mention on the 10 o'clock news I listened too today.

Guess what the main item was...

...a few people moaning that not everyone is as wonderful as they think they are.

“The modern conservative is engaged in one of man's oldest exercises in moral philosophy; that is, the search for a superior moral justification for selfishness.” -John Kenneth Galbraith

rb99

tdgeek

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#2745135 16-Jul-2021 12:37

rb99:

My thoughts are that apparently about 60 people have died in floods in Europe in the last 24 hours, but that wasn't deemed worth a mention on the 10 o'clock news I listened too today.

Guess what the main item was...

...a few people moaning that not everyone is as wonderful as they think they are.

Its on Stuff though, a small article underneath an article of the same size about a holiday couple suing an airline. Massive flooding in Germany and Belguim and that's all we see here

tieke

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#2745137 16-Jul-2021 12:39

Gordon Campbell commentary on it here. As pointed out on the NZ subreddit, the problem with Groundswell is that most of them do not believe that water quality or climate change are serious issues, nor that they are significant contributors to these problems.

Someone pointed out that although farming industry groups realise what is needed to help NZ farming in the face of regulations, increasing eco-tariffs and changing climate-change-led consumer expectations etc, Groundswell is adamantly opposed to making any changes:

"... industry groups realize this and are putting in a f***ing heroic effort to get them in line.

Not simping industry bodies, its purely driven from economic self interest but my f***ing God you should see the level of vitriol directed at industry on the Groundswell FB page. [....] They openly call them traitors for trying to help. Because they view anything short of abject non-compliance with Government regulation as traitorous. People who speak up for them are pretty quickly shouted down."

tieke

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#2745139 16-Jul-2021 12:58

As Gordon Campbell mentions, the fact that Groundswell came to prominence in Southland last year protesting against winter grazing requirements is not really a positive mark on the ledger. Most Southland farmers simply followed the new requirements, as opposed to the minority "Groundswell" protestors who were fine having their cattle be born, live and die in mud.

There's no doubt that the farming industry effectively shot themselves in the foot with their behaviour during the previous clean water discussions, but there obviously needs to be clear communication linking farming expertise and central government environmental requirements. Unfortunately Groundswell are definitely not the people for that, and the less airtime given to them the better.

Goosey

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#2745141 16-Jul-2021 13:00

Maybe staff at corporate businesses need to band together and protest March against forever changing KPI’s and business goal post shifting….hahahahahah

same, similar thing right?

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ezbee

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#2745142 16-Jul-2021 13:01

Top story on my Stuff page is the baby ORCA, a bit concerned on where this might go long term.

More an Anti-Government beat up.
There was mention on Radio news of a beekeeper regulations driving him out of business.
Well I would expect given trouble exporting honey with certain levels of insecticide, they would be supporting regulations.
Makes you wonder what is on the local shelves if they can't export it ?

Surely rural people don't want to drink from even more nitrogenous aquifers, and deal with blue babies, so they can have more freedom ?

How about dropping annoying regulations on stock movement and compensation for microplasmabovis, and you can just live with it ?

Behodar

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#2745144 16-Jul-2021 13:06

Lots of tooting near my work. I hope they remember to pay RUCs for these tractors on the streets.

CruciasNZ

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#2745147 16-Jul-2021 13:15

Some of the government policies are a bit stupid, like the Ute tax debacle - I understand it's to signal to industry where they need to go, but it was a poorly communicated and executed vision (and the timing of said announcement was astronomically stupid)

However most of the complaints seem to be from people that just don't want to accept that their industry is a significant contributor to climate change and the deterioration of New Zealand's water quality. All these posts about how the timetable for transition should be spread out over a longer timeframe are laughable when you consider they've had over a decade of people telling then need to change, and them staunchly refusing to to enough to rectify the issue. Now they're being made to play catchup and are whining about it.

They're not the only industry going through massive shake-ups due to climate or social impact, but from the news you'd think they're being harder done than the tourism industry.

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GV27

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#2745151 16-Jul-2021 13:30

I'm sure these guys are just as concerned as I am that you can buy export (read: premium) quality NZ produce overseas for far cheaper than we can buy it locally. That's what they're protesting about, right?

MrAmerica

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#2745157 16-Jul-2021 13:38

GV27:
I'm sure these guys are just as concerned as I am that you can buy export (read: premium) quality NZ produce overseas for far cheaper than we can buy it locally. That's what they're protesting about, right?

They probably are considering what the sell it to supply chain for.

I cant remember where I saw it but the was a breakdown a few months ago detailing what the primary sector earned versus what the super markets were charging the end user. The biggest margins by a long way were being earned by the super markets.

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allio

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#2745159 16-Jul-2021 13:48

Some of these signs are disgusting. Vile, racist, sexist stuff.

I don't even know what they're complaining about. Is it that they might have to pay a few thousand extra to import a brand new, colossally environmentally unfriendly vehicle? Sorry - convince me why that's so unreasonable please?

Farmers sell their goods at a premium price overseas because of NZ's clean green image. They are at an enormous risk of losing their markups, or their markets entirely, by a combination of NZ's image fading and the rest of the world waking up to the fact that maybe shipping food from the other side of the planet isn't a super sustainable thing to do. And yet they fight tooth and nail against even the most basic effort to ensure NZ meets our obligations in regard to climate change. Honestly it's pathetic. Driving brand new $100k tractors down Queen St in protest at having to pay a bit more for a ute...

quickymart

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#2745175 16-Jul-2021 14:04

As someone who grew up on a farm, I must say I find some of this protest action to be somewhat ridiculous. And what, if anything, will come of it?

Is this something for Judith and co to jump on with glee? Or is she still harping on about something irrelevant.

ezbee

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#2745177 16-Jul-2021 14:09

So you drive your $70,000 or more tractor into town to show that the comparatively small hike in new UTE price is causing your business to fail ?
Never mind its a business expense, even less impact over productive life of vehicle.
The various tax moves you can make to put part of your living expenses into the tax deductible column, and other capital into the capital gain column.

Reminds me of the Farmer who would not let transpower on his property to trim trees, 'my rights'
then set them alight with no care for the million or more people who depend on that power for their livelihood.

quickymart

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#2745218 16-Jul-2021 15:44

https://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/howl-of-a-protest-thousands-descend-on-south-islands-main-centres-to-protest-unworkable-regulations-for-farmers/STOM4CPTAZJW4KZMK5GNFCK3PU/

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