By Simon Court, ACT MP and condidiate for Kaipara ki Mahurangi
A farmer gets a better payout, then watches rising costs eat through it. A local business gets busier and still has little left to invest.
Working harder ought to leave you better off.
Helensville depends on the farms and growers around it. When their money hoes on unnecessary consent bills, there is less left for local contractors and new equipment. The cost reaches well beyond the farm gate.
ACT will cut those costs.
We will introduce at least ten permitted activity standards for routine farming work. Drain maintenance and on-farm water storage will be covered. So will vegetable growing.
If the work meets the standard, no resource consent is required. Farmers can budget for the job and get on with it. We will develop the detail with farmers and councils so the rules work in practice.
Farmers will also be able to change what they farm without a consent, provided the change meets National Standards.
Councils will have to provide fair compensation when they impose overlays on private land. That includes Significant Natural Areas and Outstanding Natural Landscapes. Restricting what someone can do with their property has a cost. The council must account for it.
I’m a civil and environmental engineer. I want water rules based on science, with limits that reflect each catchment. ACT will remove Te Mana o te Wai from the methodology and focus on measurable environmental outcomes.
That gives farmers clear limits to work within. It also gives councils a sound basis for acting when someone causes genuine harm.
We have replaced the RMA. Now we need to get the detailed national rules right. That is where farmers will see the difference in what they can do and what it costs.
The roads need attention too. A contractor stuck on SH16 still has wages to pay. A pothole can leave someone with a repair bill on the way to work. Those costs can feed through to the prices people pay.
ACT will protect maintenance and renewal funding in the National Land Transport Fund. It will be kept for the existing network, so it cannot be raided to pay for new projects.
On major projects, we will require the lowest-cost safe option to be published alongside the preferred design. Show the cost and delivery time for each. Let taxpayers see what the extras cost and whether they are worth paying for.
Wellington needs to keep its own costs down. ACT will reduce government to 19 departments and 18 ministers, with clear responsibility for budgets and results.
Our fiscal plan balances the books without new taxes. By 2031, debt would be $12.4 billion lower than current forecasts.
Taxpayers are already paying more than $1 million an hour in interest. Every dollar spent servicing debt is a dollar unavailable for better services or tax relief.
ACT is campaigning to unlock New Zealand’s potential. Here in the North-West, that means cutting the costs that hold back people who work and invest.
I’m asking for your Party Vote to keep that work moving. People here are ready to get on with it. Government needs to make that easier.
