Groundswell NZ hint at upcoming 'Mother of All Protests' in November

Friday, 10 September 2021

Farmers, ute owners, and contractors drove their vehicles through New Plymouth in July as part of Groundswell NZ’s nationwide ‘Howl of a Protest.’ (File photo)

Groundswell NZ will stage ‘The Mother of All Protests’ in November, following on from its ‘Howl of a Protest’ in July, and the ‘Can You Hear Us’ protest in August.

The farmer protest action group posted on social media on Friday, telling its supporters to ‘save the date’ for the protest, which will be held on Sunday, November 21.

Co-founder Bryce McKenzie said the group would release more information about the protests, which would be held nationwide, next week.

“We’ve still got a few of the finer details to put in place just to add to it, but we’ll tell people more about that next week,’’ he said.

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“There’s already a lot of interest and a lot of people that want to be part of it this time.’’

West Otago farmers McKenzie and Laurie Paterson founded Groundswell NZ last year to protest against regulations that have been introduced by the Government, which they say are unworkable for farmers.

It wants freshwater improvement to be managed by catchment groups and rules significant natural areas and the ‘ute tax’ to be re-written or abolished because they are impractical.

This week Stuff reported that Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern refused an Official Information Act request for information she held about the group.

Groundswell NZ estimated 60,000 New Zealanders turned out for the groups’ ‘Howl of A Protest’ throughout the country in July.

Since then, the Government has decided to consult on some of the winter grazing rules the group campaigned against.

Environment Minister James Shaw and Agriculture Minister Damien O’Connor announced that the Government would open consultation on some rules it had implemented as part of its National Environmental Standards for Freshwater, which were introduced in August 2020.

It proposed changes included removing the date for resowing paddocks, the rules around pugging, changing the measurement of slope to maximum allowable slope rather than mean slope, and including a new condition to protect critical source areas

A further six-month deferral to the commencement of the regulations is also proposed, now beginning on November 1, 2022.