Minister Shaw appears not to be happy with Southland farming activists Groundswell NZ

Thursday, 1 July 2021

Greens Party co-leader James Shaw says ‘’a group of pākehā farmers down south’’ is the farmer protest group Groundswell NZ based in Southland.

Shaw made the comment about the “farmers down south” on June 3 when he was speaking to radio station Ngati Hine FM, and that the group was spreading misinformation about the National Policy Statement for National Biodiversity.

On Thursday, Shaw confirmed for the first time who he meant and that he stuck by his comments the group was spreading misinformation.

But he has still yet to say in great detail what the misinformation is.

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Groundswell NZ founders Bryce McKenzie, of Pomahaka, left, and Laurie Paterson, of Waikaka.

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Groundswell NZ was not representative of all farmers at large, and it was deliberately misleading people about the new policy, which would identify significant natural areas across the country, Shaw said.

”It’s a campaign. I have a list of 13 posts on their Facebook page and other pages that say things that are not true.’’

“Defining significant natural areas is not a land grab. They have included things like farmers will have to retire productive land and will still have to pay for it and that is quite simply not true. I want to be quite clear about that.’’

“Sixty percent of councils have already specified significant natural areas and there have been no cases in which land has been grabbed and no farmers that have walked off their land because of it, but there have been people who have been irritated by it.’’

Shaw said he had been reluctant to comment on which group he was referring to in the radio interview because even in Groundswell there was a lot of farmers that were doing ‘’amazing work’’ on biodiversity, but they were opposed to the idea that there could be any regulation on their land, and they didn’t want to be told what to do.

Groundswell NZ founder Bryce McKenzie said the Government had not communicated what the implications of the NPS were for farmers very well, and that was causing people to be fearful of what it would mean for them.

“We have people who are getting letters saying their land has been defined as a significant natural area, and they don’t actually know what it's all about. It's been very poorly sold to the public,’’ McKenzie said.

While he was concerned that a Government minister was singling his group out as spreading misinformation, he would like to know what that misinformation was.

When asked why he defined the group by race, Shaw said: ‘’I was on Ngati Hine FM and we were talking about why Māori were concerned about it. A lot of the misinformation doesn’t come from Māori, they are not the origin of it.’’

McKenzie said it was obvious Shaw had not visited Southland to talk to the group, which had a membership that included Māori, Pasifika and Indians.

McKenzie said nobody liked being told what to do.

“Perhaps if they’d come to us [farmers] and asked us how we could help fix the problem, we’d be a bit more supportive, instead of them making up unworkable rules.’’

Groundswell is organising a series of protests in town centres from Gore to Kerikeri on July 16, for “farmers, growers and ute owners who are fed up with increasing Government interference in your life and business, unworkable regulations and unjustified costs”.