Council makes submission against agricultural emissions pricing scheme

Media Release

Submission against agricultural emissions pricing scheme made

Rangitīkei District Council has made a submission to the Central Government against the proposed agricultural emissions pricing scheme.

The scheme aims to help Aotearoa New Zealand, become a low-emissions country by introducing a farm-level levy on agricultural greenhouse gas emissions from 2025.

Although many farmers and growers are already taking steps to reduce their emissions, the Government says that further work is needed to help New Zealand become a low-emissions country. To help achieve this goal, Central Government has proposed to develop an effective system to measure, manage, reduce, and price agricultural greenhouse gas emissions.

Rangitīkei District Mayor Andy Watson says the Council’s submission highlights how the government has disregarded the importance of the primary sector.

“With almost one third of our district’s GDP coming from primary production, we are concerned that these incoming price changes may negatively impact our farmers and food producers, squeezing them out of some markets”.

“The pricing scheme will unfairly impact our sheep and beef farmers, with the proposal suggesting a decline of 29% in production.”

Mayor Watson says that the Council is disappointed about how little attention is being paid to the social and economic impact of the proposal.

“We think these changes will have a significant impact on rural communities, including on their spending power and general quality of life. This will no doubt impact farmers on a rating basis in Rangitīkei, and we expect to see the value of properties drop as a result.”

Mayor Watson says that it is essential that the final proposal also recognises the effect on farms owned by tangata whenua.

“We expect that this proposal will disproportionately affect Māori as they are historically large operators of the sector, making up almost one-quarter of farm owners across the country, however there do not seem to be any specific measures proposed to mitigate the effects.”

Rangitīkei District Council has suggested several changes to the proposal, says Mayor Watson.

“To make this change fairer on our rural communities, we recommend that Central Government undertakes a study in rural districts. The study should help them understand better the role farming plays in areas such as employment, schools, and business so they can see the real impact that reduced production will have on our communities.

“We have also suggested other ideas such as making sure that sheep and beef farmers report their emissions to the Government, but making them exempt from levy payments for the first two years, meaning they wouldn’t have to pay their first levy until 2027.”

To read more about the proposed pricing scheme and about Council’s submission to Central Government, please visit Pricing Agricultural Emissions.

ENDS

For more information please contact Rangitīkei District Council’s Senior Strategic Planner Katrina Gray on 027 287 3148 or Katrina.Gray@rangitikei.govt.nz