Growing up on a sheep and crop farm on the Canterbury Plains through the ‘80s and ‘90s, as a child I quickly came to appreciate that, politically, National was a friend of the family.
At that time, I could not have even told you the name of the Opposition’s political counterpart (turns out it was Mike Moore), but indeed, National’s Jim Bolger was a household name at our place.
Even as a politically indifferent teenager I understood that, while Labour may have been a viable political strategy for much of New Zealand’s urban populous along with other unfamiliar ethnicities, it was National who was looking out for us rural folk.
Skipping forward to the 21st century, still a teenager but now 18 years old, adorned in an oil-stained flannel shirt with a pouch of Port Royal stuffed into the top pocket, my debut vote was allocated to, the man who would turn out to be, National’s most hapless leader, Mr Bill English.
In that 2002 election Bill English was defeated by Helen Clark, resulting in New Zealand for the next few terms being Labour led; resulting in a period of stymied prosperity for farmers, for agriculture, horticulture and in fact, for any industry where ‘work’ was more likely to generate perspiration than a sore butt.
That period passed and, with Labour having been operating typically beyond its means thus leaving Government finances in a typically shambolic state, thankfully now running free with a National led John Key Government, with blossoming maturity and a politically piqued mind, I was unable to avoid noticing the stark disparities in policy of the differing political parties.
I was unable to avoid witnessing, also, the way respective Opposition leaders demonstrated fluctuating levels of passion – on a topic, argument, or opinion they held – depending on, firstly, how much political leverage the issue might afford them and, secondly, public perception, or in other words, fashion, vogue.
It was perplexing to me, in my final few teen years, amid my inception to the world of political analysis, that the leaders of any nation should be influenced in any way by anything other than tangible reality but, of course, this, many years ago, this was the beginning of the phenomenon (I) coined ‘Modern Politics’; in my youthful perception, this Modern Politics was where Political Correctness was mingled with Idealism then coupled with Public Perception and Desire for Popularity only to become fused amid a straitjacket of Bureaucratic Disharmony – where a vote cast is based not on genuine political policies but on projected bullshit, on trends, on facades, on the superficial likability, on the ostensible popularity, of a party’s leader.
Indeed, Modern Politics in New Zealand (and across the world), was becoming more about a party leader’s affability, their charm, charisma, and of course, the way their smile looked in front of a television camera.
Fortunately, John Key stood up not too badly in front of a camera and, although his awkwardness often shone through in the public eye, Key’s two terms of leadership – steering New Zealand so seamlessly through 2014’s financial crisis that many Kiwis weren’t even aware it was a thing before allowing the hapless Bill English to step up years later to take another National loss – in the meantime, setting up a solid foundation for tourism and importantly, for farming, in New Zealand.
In 2017, when Jacinda’s Labour used MMP to effectively steal the election – despite losing badly in the polls to National she and her cohort quickly rustled up a coalition of losers to take the majority on the day – across New Zealand, farming again fell out of vogue.
The Labour influence was felt across New Zealand’s farming community and expectedly, taxes increased while bureaucratic processes were made increasingly challenging (also costly) for farmers; after all, in Labour’s (Green) opinion, farming isn’t beneficial to New Zealand, farming is not keeping New Zealand’s economy strong, farming is damaging to the environment, farming is harmful to the image that the Labour Government are endeavouring to propagate and convey (sell) to the rest of the world.
Before naïve young Jacinda’s time were the glory years when it was the farming sector that helped to establish New Zealand’s reputation as a global agricultural exporter; through the ‘50s, when sheep’s fleece was like gold – fetching ‘a pound for a pound’ at market – where it was the strength of New Zealand’s farming community that helped pull the nation clear of the economic bedlam caused by the Second World War.
In the ‘50s folk were not concerned with hysterical portents such as warming globes, rising tides, changing climates, and the like; incidentally, New Zealand’s hottest day was felt all the way back in 1973, in the Canterbury town of Rangiora – of course, with ‘Climate Change’ not to be invented until next century, 42.3 degrees Celsius was seen as just ‘a bloody hot day’ out on the farm.
During the ‘80s, under the Labour rule of Lange, Palmer, then Moore, farming in New Zealand hit particularly hard times and, like the tourism sector of today, needed to receive support from the Government; then the ‘90s, back under ‘family friend’ Jim Bolger’s National rule, farming began to recover somewhat.
New Zealand’s farmers pushed through the next decade, as a Helen Clark led Labour Government came up with new and interesting taxation methods, seemingly intended to strip farmers of as much of their hard-earned income as they could afford to lose.
2008 began a two-term reign of National, with the Right Honourable John Key at the helm, while another venerated MP by the name of Bill English took care of the nation’s finances; it seemed the perfect union, and it was but, sadly, National’s reign could not last forever – 2017 saw the fresh-faced Jacinda Ardern step up to lead Labour and, subsequently, take hold of the nation.
New Zealand’s 2017 election, as mentioned, was a farcical demonstration of the MMP system in action; National won 44.4% of the vote while Labour won just 36.9% yet still, Labour came away from that election in Government leaving National resigned to Opposition.
Jump forward to 2020 and, unsurprisingly, COVID aside, Jacinda’s ability to please the people while bankrupting the nation has put her in good stead with the less financially savvy voter; she utters a few idealistic phrases, sprinkles some fairy-dust and with that, you are in Labour’s coin-purse for another term.
Comprising Jacinda’s Coalition of Losers is Green party leader James Shaw, and if anyone detests progress, efficiency, productivity, economy, and farming, it is Green party leader James Shaw; harbouring idealistic views of a similar vein to his leader, Prime Minister Ardern, this man appears to long for a New Zealand managed by the Amish community, but with electricity.
According to the Green party ‘Progress is Pollution’ but then, according to that same source, one of New Zealand’s most pristine rivers, the Hurunui in North Canterbury, is ‘unswimmable’ so, you know, believe what you will.
My sister’s husband happens to own the farm bordering the south bank of that glorious Hurunui River; I have fished, swum, and drunk from that river, and it is anything but polluted.
According to the Government, farming livestock is bad and growing trees is good – there is much hype nowadays surrounding businesses/companies/industries being ‘carbon neutral’ and how the gases released from mammals are damaging to the environment but trees are advantageous because they sequester carbon from the air thus improve the quality of our environment – but the Government likes to overlook an important aspect of this debate; while a farm may contain several thousand head of livestock, that farm will also produce several thousand hectares of grasslands and if you were a biologist you would know that grass sequesters carbon in a similar capacity to trees.
The current Government is full of negativity about farming and the damage it causes to the environment yet it fails to see the good; it is a fact that livestock, like people, are warm-blooded, gas and excrement-producing mammals, thus, like people, they do contribute to the warming of the globe yet, like the so-called carbon credits supposedly awarded to growers of trees (a tree is planted, rendering that patch of land basically unproductive for decades, then the tree is milled for some gain), a farmer will maintain grass cover on his land and, rather than that land for decades being unproductive while the tree sequesters carbon similarly to the farmer’s grass, that land remains productive throughout.
Additionally, New Zealand farmers cultivate and manage the land which prevents it from reverting to worthless scrub because, contrary to some ignorant Government opinion, left alone the majority of the country would not revert to lovely native bush – great stands of Manuka, Kauri, Kowhai, Lancewood, Kanuka, Totara, Rata – no, it would revert to the strongest plant in the environment, which does generally not include natives; the unmanaged land would likely revert to the noxious weed that is gorse and gorse is not good for anything (anymore, I mean, the early British thought it was awesome for hedges but, you know, it’s gorse).
Also, most farms do contain a high number of trees in the form of shelterbelts, or just a stand of trees for the sake of trees, because here’s the thing, generally, farmers like nature.
Regarding Green party leader James Shaw and his aspiring Amish lifestyle (but with electricity, or how would he charge his EV?), the idea to cease the import of internal combustion vehicles by 2035, with possibly a total ban on fuel-burning cars by 2050, is ambitious and, realistically, a little misguided.
As pointed out in past instalments electric-ii/ and electric, in this recent Government quest to render transportation electric, the price of EVs should be one of the lesser factors; from the perspective of city folk, admittedly, there is little need to drive an SUV to and from work every day yet from an industrial/farming standpoint, the suitability and availability of Electric Vehicles are pertinent issues that need to be considered.
The Government incentive on EVs? Unnecessary – the biggest issue for Kiwis buying EVS is not of price it is of desire, in that most people are unwilling to forego their internal combustion engine for an electric motor; perhaps understandably, electric is a new concept versus the proven reliability of fuel-burning.
Taxation on future internal combustion vehicles? Ridiculous – the main reason for the taxation is to fund the incentive offered to EV purchasers which, as someone recently pointed out, is largely pointless.
New Zealand transportation being totally electric by 2050? Possible – many Kiwis maintain that EVs are too expensive (seems most don’t realise they’re already paying over $3000 a year on fuel), although that’s just become the fashionable therefore the most convenient excuse to deflect from the reality.
Before the rest of the nation, including the farming industry, goes electric, a few things will need to happen: the Government needs to get off farmers’ backs regarding ‘all the harm they do to the environment’, also lift a lot of the idiot taxes that were imposed to supposedly protect the environment from farming (that or start paying farmers the carbon credits they deserve for their thousands of hectares of trees and grasslands), then maybe Kiwi farmers will be a little more inclined to get onboard with these Government plans; additionally, as earlier mentioned, the suitability and availability of industrial EVs needs to be improved along with, importantly, improvement of New Zealand’s electricity infrastructure.
The national power grid, in a New Zealand winter, is already pushed to its limit; what will happen when every family in the country are charging their EV overnight? From experience, around double the household usage; if New Zealand’s electrical infrastructure is currently at its limit – burning coal to generate electricity for the purpose of lowering the nation’s vehicle emissions – how are we going to cope when that requirement doubles?
More Government consideration of the issues; less Government persecution of farmers.
Like our power grid, farmers are already taxed to the point of exhaustion.
Article by Tim Walker
Edited by John Deere
Photography by Farmer Brown