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Fitzsimons Calls for Changes to Farm Practices

Posted on: Friday, 15 July 2005, 15:01 CDT

South Canterbury farms are among those that will need to work within a farm plan to ensure that local rivers do not become any more degraded and start to repair, Green Party co-leader Jeanette Fitzsimons said yesterday.

Ms Fitzsimons was in South Canterbury to see for herself the state of the rivers and hear from locals about what they thought the problems were, and said it was a well accepted fact that 95 per cent of low land rivers in South Canterbury were degraded.

That is, not up to the standard required for contact through activities such as swimming or drinking.

"There are three main contaminants, nitrates, bacteria like ecoli, and runoff from urban areas and roads.

"With roads there is the danger of heavy metals and those sorts of things."

But she said it was farming activities that did the most damage and the increase in dairying was a real concern, particularly in areas of fragile and unsuitable soils.

"There are parts of South Canterbury that would be in that category but I do not have a soil map of the area and probably couldn't read it if I did, so I am not saying every farm would be in that category.

"But the prevalence of dairying and the intensity of farming are causing the most concern.

"Fertilisers enable intensive farming practices and we would like to see farmers on nitrate budgets.

"Federated Farmers have asked for a $50 million fund to help farmers change to more sustainable practices and we agree with that.

"We would like to see it well funded and we would fund it 50 per cent through a fertiliser tax and 50 per cent from the taxpayer."

Ms Fitzsimons also wants to see wide riparian strips, or narrow forestry strips, along river sides that would be selectively milled over a period of time.

She said there would also be serious implications for South Canterbury with the forecast climate change and soaring oil prices and it was necessary for people to act now, to soften the impact.

"The east coast will become drier and the west wetter and neither is beneficial.

"The cost of petrol will also skyrocket and become scarce and we need to be finding sustainable options such as bio fuel and diesel, energy from ethanol and wood; those sorts of things.

"We won't be able to produce it in the quantities we use now but it will help to supplement it."

Ms Fitzsimons said transport was one of the biggest causes of carbon gases and was growing rapidly.

She said there needed to be firm controls on the vehicles we brought into the country.

"We are still importing cars that take 15 litres to go 100 kilometres, I have just bought one that takes five litres to go 100 kilometres."

Ms Fitzsimons said there were some things the Green Party would like the Government to do but she would not call them bottom lines.

"It's a silly term really. The Labour Government has bottom lines but no one asks them what they are, but there are some things it would not agree to going into a coalition.

"And we are not going to support a government that tells us to go away we're not listening to you."

Ms Fitzsimons said changes that had been proposed by Labour to the Resource Management Act had been toned down, for example, and she expected it to be passed in Parliament.

"The RMA is a good piece of legislation and does not need much changed."

She said it was important that people from all around the country were able to have a say on resource consents and not just those on whose property the activity would take place.

"We all share the environment, it's only fair we all get a say on it," she said.

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Source: Timaru Herald

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