Groundswell NZ co-founders to meet Prime Minister

Groundswell New Zealand co-founders Bryce McKenzie, of West Otago (left), and Laurie Paterson, pictured during a protest in Dunedin in October, will have a meeting with Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern this week. Photo / Stephen Jaquiery

Groundswell New Zealand co-founder Laurie Paterson says the rural organisation “won’t be holding back” when it finally has a meeting with Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern in Wellington today.

Paterson and co-founder Bryce McKenzie, accompanied by several other representatives of the farmer advocacy group, have secured a 30-minute audience with Ardern.

They have repeatedly asked for a meeting and been snubbed but, after writing to both Ardern and Climate Change Minister James Shaw several weeks ago, they received the timeslot from the Prime Minister’s office.

Paterson, a Waikaka farmer, said they would be telling her “what it’s like out there for grassroots farmers”.

In November, the two men hand-delivered more than 102,000 signatures to MPs on the steps of Parliament, petitioning against what they described as “the farming tax” - imposing charges on agricultural emissions.

Paterson said members of the Climate Change Commission visited the South several days ago and saw sheep and beef farmland being converted to land for trees.

He said they heard about flow-on effects for transport operators and school rolls.

They were also shown what farmers were doing when it comes to the likes of waterways.

Whether Ardern took notice of what Groundswell had to say was “another issue” but the reason that the organisation had so much support was that farmers felt frustrated “the message isn’t getting to anybody in authority”.