Groundswell NZ and local farmers protest proposed tax

The tractor leading the pack at Te Awamutu's Groundswell NZ protest. Photo/Kate Durie.

Farmers gathered at the closed Bunnings Warehouse Te Awamutu carpark for the nationwide Groundswell NZ protest at 11.30am on Thursday, October 20.

They drove up Main St, turned around at the Redoubt Bar & Eatery and headed down to the Repco roundabout, doing laps of that circuit.

Farmers from Ōtorohanga and Te Kuiti also travelled to Te Awamutu.

In attendance were former mayoral candidate Bernard Westerbaan and Te Awamutu-Kihikihi Community Subdivision board member, Sally Whitaker.

Free coffee was provided to Groundswell members from the Heartland New Zealand Party. Founded in 2020, the party is rural-based, and opposes the New Zealand Emissions Trading Scheme, the Paris Agreement, and attempts to limit the environmental impacts of agriculture.

Groundswell NZ is a grassroots volunteer-driven advocacy group seeking a halt to, and rewrite, what it says are unworkable regulations that unfairly affect farmers and rural communities.

This advocacy group was founded in 2020 by southern farmers, Bryce McKenzie and Laurie Paterson.

A protestor's van featured in the protest portraying members of Parliament behind bars. Photo/Kate Durie.

Groundswell NZ says farmers want "no emissions tax on food production" and that "the government must stop the proposed emissions tax, and undo legislation putting agriculture into the Emissions Trading Scheme (ETS)."

"The Government's ideological commitment to punitive and counterproductive emissions taxes on food production is an existential threat to rural communities.

"After years of faux consultation, the Government has given up on all pretence of a fair and workable agricultural emissions policy.

"Instead, we have a tax that, on the Government's own numbers, will result in up to a 20 per cent reduction in production for sheep and beef farmers and a 6 per cent reduction for dairy farmers, while their emissions reductions will be replaced by less efficient foreign farmers due to emissions leakage."

"Looking good at the UN is not a good enough reason to send rural communities to the wall and drive food prices through the roof. That's why we're calling on all New Zealanders to show the Government that we're not going to take it.

"Most New Zealanders oppose reducing livestock numbers to meet emissions targets and now we're going to remind the Government how New Zealand pays its way in the world," says Bryce.

Lee Smith speaking at the Groundswell protest in Te Awamutu. Photo/Kate Durie.

Te Awamutu protest speaker Lee Smith said: "New Zealand is going to lose 1 in 5 sheep and beef farmers; this is not only a cost of living crisis, but this is also a crisis that this Government is enacting over every single one of the farmers and its time we make them stand up and take notice of what we have to say."

She added: "This may be a bit of a polite protest this time, but I can assure you the next one won't be".