Farmers to be heard on levy

By LIAM DANN

Farmers angry about the Government's proposed animal emissions levy will get the chance to voice their concerns to Environment Minister Pete Hodgson.

After meeting Federated Farmers vice-president Charlie Pedersen, the minister has agreed to attend meetings about plans to levy farmers $8.4 million for research into animal flatulence.

"I would be happy to go to a meeting, or meetings," Hodgson said. "All I ask is a decent hearing."

The meetings would be organised by Federated Farmers.

But Hodgson gave no indication that he intends to back down.

The next step was for legislation to be drafted, he said when asked what would follow the last Government-organised meeting in Mosgiel yesterday.

Pedersen said he hoped Hodgson would attend between four and six meetings around the country in an effort to reach some common ground with farmers.

"The Government has got farmers very upset," he said. "They are putting pressure on us to organise some sort of rally or protest to Parliament. They're talking about driving tractors down there."

At this stage the federation was discouraging that, he said.

"We're keen to see some sort of meaningful dialogue on the issue before we go down that track."

Federated Farmers has accused the Government of inadequately consulting farmers about the levy.

This month, four meetings were held nationwide to discuss how farmers would like to pay it.

Hodgson said a more comprehensive round of 11 meetings about the Kyoto Protocol was held with farmers last year.

Pedersen said the reality was that those meetings had been very poorly attended.

When they were attended, it was mostly by farmers with "green" leanings, he said.

"At the end of some sort of more meaningful consultation we will see whether there is any alignment between the views of farmers and the Government at all," Pedersen said.

"If there is still a difference of opinion we will have to decide how we act from there."

Hodgson accused Federated Farmers officials of running an organised campaign of misinformation to stir up farmer discontent.

The misinformation was coming from the organisation's head office, not its board members.

"It is a matter of fact that a bunch of quite careful misinformation has come out of the office."

That now needed to be answered, he said. "If the board of Federated Farmers wants me to say what the policy is, as opposed to what some of their staff have been saying it is, then I'm happy to do that."