This can’t happen: The plan the Government has to force farmers to pay for their emissions.
They cannot persist with this plan as it is.
In its current form it is going to be a devastating for farming communities…and given how important farming is to our national income… it’s going to be terrible for our economy.
If they persist with this, they will shut down up to 20% of lamb production, 20% of our wool, and 14% of our beef.
If it translates directly into the number of farms that go under, that’s one in five sheep farmers who are not going to be able to keep farming.
Think about what that means for everyone else who relies on those farms: The meat processors? We won’t need as many of them. The transportation companies? We won’t need as many of them. They will close. The rural communities? They will die as people pack up and leave. The schools? They’ll shut. The shops? They’ll shut.
Sheep and beef accounts for 92,000 workers in this country.
If this leads to a straight 20% loss of workers, that’s 18 and a half thousand people.
And then there’s the cost to the economy. A 24% drop in net revenue means we could lose up to 2.88 billion a year in sheep and beef exports alone. That’s more our entire education system costs us every year. It’s a huge amount of money to pass up.
And it’s not going to stop climate change from happening. It runs the risk of making it worse. New Zealand farmers are the most efficient farmers in the world. They produce the least carbon emissions per animal.
You take 20% of our meat out of the word, some other country is simply going to step in and take up the slack and they will not farm that meat as efficiently as us, so every animal of ours that they replace, they will put more emissions into the atmosphere than we would’ve.
This plan is an expensive exercise in stupidity. We are definitely making our country poorer and possibly making the planet hotter, for what?
For bragging rights.
Heather du Plessis-Allan is a journalist and commentator who hosts Newstalk ZB's Drive show.
10 comments:
And we have the ludicrous situation where some sheep farmers would make more money by putting their land into pine trees instead of sheep.
Pine trees that simply rape the land and are never going to be harvested for any practical use.
Absolutely Heather, this is extreme stupidity and should be resisted with the same fervour as the Three Waters debacle.
What is really concerning is that none of the major parties seems to reject the actual premise of the whole proposal that methane from stock and nitrogen from fertilisers are significant in the global warming cycle the earth is going through, and that cutting them is required to prevent a climate catastrophe. Even ACT states "ACT believes New Zealand must play its part on climate change", although they consider that our responses should be in line with those of our trading partners. What hope is there that reason will prevail?
Where is the reasoned debate about how much the climate is changing, what is causing climate change and to what extent changing our actions will have an impact? There is absolutely none on MSM, almost as if any questioning is absolutely forbidden. There is an absolute mountain of data and scientific research that is swept under the carpet and classed as dis/mis/mal information and conspiracy.
When I was at school in the 1970's we were being warned about an impending ice age, then that changed to 'global warming', then global warming stopped so it was about 'climate change', now we are warming up slightly again and we global warming and climate change.
For crying out loud NZ, the Emperor is wearing no clothes, can't you see? So sad.
You are so right Heather.Ever since this Labour government have been in power I have gradually become aware that their objective has been to bring our country to its knees. The whole country, it doesn't matter where you look is in a complete and utter shambles. The health sector, education, business, the economy, the media, race relations, freedom of speech; everything is in chaos.
I am 80 years old and it is extremely sad to see what my country, once so peaceful and prosperous has become.
We seriously need politicians who have the courage to stand against this regime's destructive agenda but they seem to be in fairly short supply.
Keep after them Heather we need some honest voices in the media.
Heather, it is time for Luxon to grow a spine and stand up to these arrogant idiots trying to destroy our farmers and economy. David Seymour was on Hosking's show yesterday and sounded like a decisive, positive leader standing up to the racist crap being heaped on us but Luxon sounded like the woke apologist he is proving to be. I had a heart attack a month ago and a blood clot in a lung last week so I decided to blank out regarding the news and politics but this attack on the hard working people of our land forces me to try and partake again in saving our Country.
Well said, Alan
I can recall about 10 years ago I decided that it was about time for me to pay attention to the "global warming topic" and do some research into it to find out what was the truth behind all the headlines and green screamers.
Being a senior pharmacist, with twenty years working for Medsafe, I was accustomed to scientifically assessing all sorts of claims re medicines and fringe medical treatments etc. I used a similar analytical process to look at "global warming" and the apocalyptic claims being made. It is called the scientific approach.
What I rapidly found, and somewhat to my surprise, was that almost ALL of the IPCC computer model predictions simply did not occur. An example was the IPCC prediction in 2005 that by the year 2010, there would be 50 million "climate refugees" caused by flooding of massive seaside areas around the world, all caused by sea level rise due to global warming.
Well - 2010 arrived and ZERO climate refugees. The map that the IPCC had published, showing where all the massive flooding would occur, was taken down.
Also, all of the dire predictions made by everybody from Prince Charles to Attenborough, simply did not occur. It was all apocalyptic panic merchant behavior.
I also found authoritive graphs of global temperatures and CO2 levels going back millions of years, showing that there is no cause-and-effect relationship between CO2 and global temp. It is very clear that climate change is a natural process, and that human CO2 emissions do not cause apocalyptic global warming.
So this whole travesty of punishing our farmers, and in turn our (once proud) nation is based upon a totally false narrative by a government that is quite simply doing a "look at me" virtue signal !!!!
Heather, you describe the situation well, but I am afraid you have missed the main point of taxing our farmers. The purpose is not to stop global warming but is to signal to the world the liberal credentials of our lying, narcissist Prime Minister and her sycophantic toadying Climate Change Minister James Shaw. Think of the international accolades they could earn from this non-sensical policy! I realise that this comment section is subject to administrator approval, so I have refrained from saying what I really think.
We have a very real problem when “ celebrities” such as the much lauded Attenborough are raising the climate activist flag.
Yes, most kiwis are dependent on the main stream media for news and current affairs ( which we know leads to bug eyed obedience) but are also part of the “Celebrity Adulation Club”. These celebrities are usually Botox, spray tanned and scantily clad morons which even the obedient can see through, however the wise old man Attenborough shines above the others as a “Messiah” thus making his opinion worthy; therefore the planet is doomed by the actions of man…. God help us…. my years are almost up but I hope to leave a less compliant human race behind.
Let's not shed too many tears for livestock farmers. They're in a killing industry that's massively subsidised by not having to internalise the animal welfare costs of their activities. If they did have to bear those costs, nobody would be able to afford to eat meat or dairy products. So reductions of 14-20% are very small beer.
The main problem with the government's plan is that, bottling it again, they simply haven't put agriculture (the livestock part of it anyway) into the ETS.
it as nigel latter said we need a leader with courage and vision. where do we find one of those?
The cycles of climate change superseded humans and cattle for millions of years and to think human influence on it is critical puts us right up there with King Canute who thought he was so powerful that he could command the tide to stop coming in! Technology enables us to measure very small quantities but to think the small amounts emitted by cattle are significant on a global scale is ludicrous. Even more ludicrous is the thought that the problem can be solved by taxation!
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