Federated Farmers supports PCE Report

19 June 2015

Federated Farmers supports PCE Report

Federated Farmers welcomes the Parliamentary Commissioner for the Environment’s report on Managing Water Quality which supports our long held position that the National Policy Statement (NPS) is a major step forward for water management in New Zealand.

Dr Jan Wright has reflected on what has been an effective couple of years since her last report, with a sense of significant momentum in the regions. She has made six recommendations which overall we agree with excluding concerns around the exceptions policy.

Ian MacKenzie, Federated Farmers Environment Spokesperson, says “We agree with the Commissioner’s recommendation for a more strategic approach in prioritising the more vulnerable catchments. To date some councils have spread their efforts too far and thin when they needed to prioritise and make some real progress on the ones that are under the most pressure.”

“Federated Farmers has been asking for greater certainty and clarification on the implementation of the National Policy Statement (NPS) for Fresh Water Management for some time and agrees with the Commissioner’s focus on the need for this in ‘Maintaining & Improving water bodies and Freshwater Management zoning.”

“While the NPS has a lot of uncertainty and needs some clarification it has been a major leap forward for managing water quality in New Zealand. It has put a framework and set a direction for how we are to proceed, all it needs is some tightening in some areas so it puts us all in the same boat. We are less comfortable with Jan Wrights’ recommendation around the exceptions policy because it appears to be giving urban authorities and urban infrastructure the ability to opt out of the NPS.”

“The overarching theme of this report is that we need to focus on the bigger picture and clearly define what that is. Everything we do needs to be about the end game values that we set under the NPS.”

“Federated Farmers is involved with helping the government further populate the National Objectives Framework (NOF) and in that capacity we’ve already supported the inclusion of Macroinvertebrate Community Index (MCI) and estuaries. The inclusion of the MCI tool will help us keep our eyes on the prize rather than getting bogged down in the details and getting tunnel vision on what we think are the priorities.”

“Federated Farmers has launched its very own ‘Water Team’ to do just that. We want to empower the provinces to be at the table providing robust and fit for purpose information that will help shape the end goal, so that regulators can make decisions which are in line with the science.” Mr Mackenzie concluded.

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