The Green Party has launched its agricultural policy with a call to support farmers in maximising their earning potential, while safeguarding the prime assets of land and water. …
He asks: Will it gain support and what are the chances of it becoming law?
The recognition of agriculture’s importance will be welcomed and some Green Party policies may get a nod at the farm gate, if not always in the voting booth. …
The Greens’ big task is to persuade voters that policies many people agree with in principle are attainable and not a fringe party pipe-dream. …
Meat & Wool New Zealand chairman Mike Petersen says while there is nothing in the headline Green policy that jumps out as overly menacing, it is the interpretation and extent of individual policies that would cause concern.
So Meat & Wool is sceptically endorsing it while being cautious about a few things at the details level – fair enough. Since the Greens can be trusted on policy (i.e. don’t have hidden agendas and detail all possible policy prior to the election), then they need not worry.
Owen then moves onto water quality issues and quotes Russel Norman: “We can get through a few key policies and that’s what we’ll do and some of those have to be around cleaning up our fresh water because it’s a disaster at the moment,” Norman says.
