Keep Perfectly Calm
Fieldays Fiesta: National butters up the farmers.
There is no depression in New Zealand
There are no sheep on our farms
There is no depression in New Zealand
We can all keep perfectly calm
Perfectly calm…
Songwriters: Donald Bain Mcglashan / Richard Paul Von Sturmer.
The National Party and farmers go together like Vogels and Vegemite - a classic Kiwi combo, based on shared interests.
Each election, we hear how much Labour is against the backbone of our nation, the last remaining good keen men, with their fart taxes and their ute taxes and treating animal emissions as if they were as bad as pollution created by the city folk - even though we still mostly ignore those bovine farts.
As for those tree-hugging Marxists, the Greens, forget about it, they’ll make farming illegal, don’t you know. Go ahead and check it out; do your own research.
National loves farmers; it was all there in the slogan…
You’ll note that it doesn’t say they’re going to “Get Our Cities Back On Track.” Oh no, as we can see, this government has been quite grim for those in our cities, with businesses struggling and unemployment on the rise.
Not so much down on the farm, where things are going quite nicely, thanks very much. It was all there - “Get Our Country Back On Track.”
And the country is doing well under National, who have had little to offer most people, other than landlords, but are laying it on thick for farmers, as per this tweet from the party a few days ago:
Freshwater? Meh. Regulations? Woke nonsense. Measures to reduce climate-changing emissions? You’re having a laugh.
It makes you wonder why they bother, I mean, you want to keep your base happy, but do you have to sacrifice the planet? It’s not like farmers are going to vote for anyone else.
Are they?
Unfortunately for National, ATAS International, also known as ACT, has been knocking at the farm gate, always willing to offer a little more.
Where the National Party will nod and wink, saying Climate Change is real while doing bugger all about it, ACT has no such qualms. If there’s a tradeoff between the environment and commerce, then tough luck for you, planet earth - you don’t count compared to making money.
Take a look at those ACT MPs on the backbench…
You’ve Andrew Hoggard, the former President of Federated Farmers, the farming lobby group long aligned with the National Party.
He’s now Minister for Biosecurity and Food Safety and the Associate Minister of Agriculture (Animal Welfare, Skills) and for the Environment. Another case of a lobbyist turned Minister and a permanent green light to farmers to do whatever the hell they want, because Andrew sure as heck won’t be saying “no”.
If you’re not familiar with Hoggard’s handiwork, this is the individual who moved us away from international standards on infant Milk formula, for his sister. And, if you’ll ignore the sound of banjos in the background, it doesn’t get more country than that.
Minister Andrew Hoggard’s sister lobbied him opposing tougher baby formula rules.
Then you’ve got Mark Cameron, pretty much the poster boy for Gammon variety Groundswell’ers - as if there’s another kind.
Cameron, who chairs the Select Committee on Primary Production and is ACT’s agriculture spokesperson, recently shared his views on Reality Check Radio, a bastion of misinformation, stating that National is not going far enough to help farmers despite undoing most of their regulations.
Cameron said, “Farmers are saying, you know, given the fact that (Climate Change Minister) Simon Watts and his crew have signed this up to 51% reduction by 2035 well that's worse than (former Climate Change Minister) James Shaw, has been the tonality that is offered to me and farmers are lamenting that National is out of touch.”
Luxon replied, “Oh, that’s rubbish, farmers tell me they do not want multi-national companies and countries that compete with New Zealand on dairy, kicking our products off the shelf. And I tell you, I act brutally in New Zealand’s national interests and as a result it is entirely appropriate that we are part of the Paris Agreement.”
I was surprised by Luxon’s description that he was acting “brutally” in our interests - I can’t even imagine what that might look like. But for once, I agree with him. People here can ignore Climate Change all they like, but if overseas supermarkets refuse to stock our products because we’re failing to meet our commitments, then what?
But wait, there’s more…
The recent budget included a 20% tax deduction on new capital assets, such as farm machinery and equipment, available to farmers and other businesses. This enables an immediate reduction in taxable income, thereby improving cash flow and encouraging investment.
Because those farmers will now pay less tax, this means the government has less money to spend on everything else. To be clear, we are talking about a substantial amount of money; the total cost of the programme is $6.64 billion over four years, or approximately $1.7 billion per year.
Farmers have already been doing well with overseas commodity prices, the ones that mean we pay an eye-watering amount at the supermarket; they didn’t need the scrum screwed further in their favour.
But how typical of our government to help those already doing well, who are likely to vote for them, at the expense of those struggling, who are not.
As I watched the news last night, still thinking about my discussion with Blake and the realities of life under this government for many, I was struck by the contrast with the scenes at Fieldays and talk of better times and spending up, not only with the disability sector, but also the news item that followed on staff shortages in hospitals as the peak flu season hits.
Feeling somewhat snarky, I posted:
I hope women who lost pay claims and families who lost respite care enjoy seeing farmers getting new tractors, subsidised with their money, to charge us $10 for butter and fuck the climate harder.
Others were having a similar response:
Denise: “TV1 once again was a political broadcast for the National party and how well farmers are doing on women's equity pay.”
Ricky: “Yes, I watched those TV clips with nausea rising and as for Brad and his economic prophecies and new shoes.”
For those of you who didn’t watch it, Brad Olsen, aka Brad from the Flat, aka an economist less accurate in predictions than tossing a coin, was wearing a new pair of leather shoes, which were somehow seen as a harbinger of better times.
Tracy: “Omg, the amount of massive machinery we saw at Fieldays today was insane! Clearly, there’s an expectation of big spending by farmers…”
Clare: “Exactly, and I don’t see how Farmers buying new utes that are not made in NZ helps our economy. It’s bullshit.”
Laura: “It was obscene. The crowing, the flagrant disregard for most NZ’ers doing it so tough at the moment AND the denial of any responsibility for exacerbating the climate crisis...sickening attitudes.”
I don’t begrudge farmers doing well, despite the prices we pay domestically being an absolute rort.
We know much of that goes to Fonterra and our supermarket duopoly. However, it does make you wonder whether those at Mystery Creek pause to consider where that money is coming from and who it will impact. Let alone the damage that emissions are doing to the ongoing viability of human life on Earth.
The farming sector, and politicians who want their votes, want us to ignore their emissions, the livestock that is, not the farmers and MPs, because they’re growing our food.
Well, it doesn’t work that way because agriculture is producing fully half of our emissions, and wishing for all the magic science in the world that doesn’t exist, but will make it all better, is an inadequate response to the looming catastrophe of man-made climate change.
Farmers work hard and they deserve to do well, but so too do workers in factories, nurses, and caregivers. Having a government that blatantly favours one sector of the community while applying austerity to another, all to stave off a party that is even less responsible with its governing role, is unhealthy for our country.
For goodness' sake, stop playing along with the pseudo-science and the politics, climate change is real, even if we’d prefer it wasn’t.
So don’t put on your brand new Red Bands or your flash gentleman farmer coats - it’s time to put on the big pants, get real about the impacts of agriculture, and give everyone a fair go.
I won’t be holding my breath, despite the preponderance of agricultural flatulence. Have a good one, folks.
Ngā mihi,
Nick.
To end today, the national anthem, Blam Blam Blam, with There is no Depression In New Zealand.
If I hear one more time - from any political party - that farming is the backbone of our country I'm going to vomit.
If we were to use that analogy, a backbone is one part of a whole and relies on all of its other parts - blood vessels, nervous system - in order to function.
We should celebrate our ability to grow things from grapes to avos to cows and sheep. But howabout celebrating the other things that we are good at too.
Groundswell is Atlas in gumboots. It doesn't represent farmers: it's the fossil fuel lobby playing for time.