2y ago

Deny, deny, delay: How agriculture lobbied Labour into putting off a climate tax, again.

www.rnz.co.nz Deny, deny, delay: How agriculture lobbied Labour into putting off a climate tax, again.

Agriculture is warming the earth faster than any other industry in Aotearoa. Yet attempts to reign in the sector’s emissions have fallen short once more. In a three part Kirsty Johnston investigates how a “world-leading plan” was born, and how it fell apart.

8 comments

Great summary. Looking forward to part 2.
Living amongst the Southland Dairy community, I can honestly say I cannot believe the influence that they reign on Local Councils (regional and district) as well. They have repeatedly come up with schemes that delay any meaningful change and often claim best practice changes without actually measuring outcomes.
- Yeah, it is interesting the amount of influence agriculture has in this country. As it shows in the article, agriculture is a large part of our exports.... but it's not actually that big in terms of our total economy.

Why? They don't even vote for Labour, so why pander to them?
- I'm guessing it's something like if you implement something, farmers and corporates will complain to the media about how much it's going to increase the price of food. Food price increases impact the average Labour voter more than the average National voter.

Part 2 is available now: https://www.rnz.co.nz/programmes/in-depth-special-projects/story/2018902908/crown-vs-cow-part-two-how-agriculture-and-government-fell-out-and-the-climate-lost
God, this stuff is complex!
Pretty terrible how at the end it is revealed that the govt and industry had completely different ideas about the goal of the partnership, all along.
- Labour/Greens have tried so hard, but those in the industry simply won't pay for their pollution. Time for some draconian action or NZ agriculture's value on the world stage will plummet (or perhaps that should be is plummeting) . I bet they will have their hand out then too...
- I can't help thinking after reading this that HWEN was really a mistake. Fair enough to consult at length with industry, but to effectively let them run the consultation process itself was taking it too far. In the end, the industry exists within the regulatory framework of NZ, and it has to adapt to that.
  I really think Labour would have been better off in the long run taking a harder line with the industry (while still showing they are listening), dealing with the blowback, but at least getting something across the line. I guess hindsight is 20/20 though.

Part 3 for those who may have missed it: Crown vs Cow part three: Why farming reneged on its deal to cut emissions
Very interesting point toward the end due to proposed legislation of the Free Trade Agreement between NZ and the EU:
if New Zealand can’t reduce its greenhouse gases by 30 percent by 2030 - a very real possibility at this point given its current trajectory - it could be sanctioned, or cut off by the EU.

8 comments