Politicians make promises at Fieldays, but what do farmers actually want?

Friday, 12 June 2026

The promises: At Fieldays, the coalition Government pitched a wave of targeted primary industry commitments to rural voters, including a $51 million methane emissions reduction fund and a $40.5m boost for farmer-led environmental projects.

Climate commitments clash: Prime Minister Christopher Luxon celebrated a forecast record $64.3 billion in food and fibre exports and rejected a Treasury warning that NZ may face a $5b bill for offshore carbon credits, while ACT used the event to advocate leaving the Paris Agreement if methane terms are not renegotiated.

The reality check: Despite the major funding announcements, some farmers expressed scepticism at Mystery Creek, saying that the Government has promised a lot of things but has failed to implement them.

The farmer priorities: Specific concerns included the destabilising influence of minor parties under MMP, the flawed structure of local government, and the move to pine trees.

At Fieldays on Wednesday, Neville Pearson’s wife saw a swarm of people scurrying across Mystery Creek. A lot of them were in blue jackets and tan chinos. She turned to him and said: “Oh, that’s Chris Luxon.”

Pearson, who had travelled from their dairy farm near Foxton to attend the massive agricultural event, said it was a classic Fieldays moment.

The annual Fieldays pilgrimage is one of the great traditions of New Zealand politics.

Previous editions of the parliamentary calendar have highlighted three things: Public holidays, Parliament’s sitting days, and Fieldays. The 2026 calendar omits Fieldays, but that hasn’t stopped MPs from booking their flights to Hamilton for the huge Mystery Creek event.

Some parties arrive with big promises, big numbers, and big marquees which they pitch to win votes from the nation’s primary producers.

With up to 130,000 people attending Fieldays each year, there are many potential votes at the event.

This year, National and ACT both tried to outdo each other with election policies targeted at farmers. Those arrived on top of actual coalition Government commitments related to the primary industries, also announced at Fieldays.

In short, the Government promised:

• An $8 million co-investment into a wool manufacturing facility in Christchurch, to turn wool into products used for powders and pigments in ink, personal care products, and bioplastics. Primary industries ministers Todd McClay and Mark Patterson announced that funding from the Primary Sector Growth Fund on Thursday.

• Health ministers also announced new training places for medical students, starting from 2028, in provincial hospitals. Medical students from the University of Waikato's new medical school would be able to train in Waikato, Tauranga, Taranaki, Whanganui, Hawke’s Bay, Nelson and Blenheim.

• A $40.5m boost to the Government’s “farmer-led catchment projects support”, which helps farmers to improve the environmental management of their farms. The money would be spent over the next four years.

• Co-investing $51m, from already allocated Government funds, into the “The Early Adoption Accelerator”. This funding, announced by Finance Minister Nicola Willis, would match dollar-for-dollar industry-backed solutions to cut methane emissions.

• Changes to land use rules, which McClay and Māori Development Minister Tama Potaka said would make it easier for people to develop and plant whenua Māori and farmland.

Sounds good, according to many of the Fieldays patrons.

But more than a few farmers, like Pearson, were pretty sceptical about what the politicians were trying to sell at Fieldays.

“The Government has promised us a lot of things that would be really good but they haven't actually implemented them,” he said.

He wanted the Government to rethink how it was organised, with concerns about the influence of minor parties in MMP and also the structure of local government.

And the move to pine was also troubling.

“Pine trees, I don’t like pine trees. With fenceposts, you used to get 60 years out of a fence with previous concrete posts and number 8 wire and batons. Today, if a post is 30 years old, it’s gone,” he said, in a discussion with Stuff at the event.

To hear those concerns, many political parties set up stalls at Fieldays. In those tents, MPs sit and chat to people who walk up.

NZ First deputy leader Winston Peters spent a lot of time this week chatting about climate change and aquaculture. He wanted New Zealand to focus on building flood resilience and boosting aquaculture.

ACT and National also had stalls.

Labour and the Greens did not. Labour leader Chris Hipkins said that was because he didn’t want to sit in a stall, he instead preferred to go and convince people who would not usually give Labour the time of day, that they were a safe pair of hands.

“So, rather than being over in the corner by ourselves, which seems to be where David Seymour is hanging out, we are actually out and about amongst the people, talking to people,” he said.

Prime Minister Christoper Luxon also spent a lot of time walking around.

He was celebrating a Ministry of Primary Industries report which forecast that food and fibre exports would reach a record $64.3 billion in the year to June 30.

But another Government report, from the Treasury, warned that New Zealand wasn’t on schedule to meet emissions reductions targets and so could need to pay $5 billion to buy offshore carbon credits.

Luxon ruled out doing that and said the 2030 target was still reachable. “We’re going to give it a good go,” he said.

Green co-leader Chlöe Swarbrick said that wasn’t good enough.

She said clawbacks to climate policy would be costing New Zealand in the not-too-distant future, and she blamed the Government for that.

She said farmers would support climate action: “We care about each other and the planet that we live on.”

But Jones called those comments “luxury views”, shared by well-meaning New Zealanders but not other big emitters such as China, the US and India.

ACT pushed New Zealand to abandon its global climate commitments.

The party lined up daily policy announcements for Fieldays.

One of them, from agriculture spokesperson Andrew Hoggard, was to leave the Paris Agreement if it didn’t change its terms to allow for more methane emissions from agriculture.

Hoggard also warned that “crime in rural New Zealand is out of control”.

He said the Government should beef up the rural police force and establish a dedicated rural crime unit.

“Talk to farmers, and you'll hear the same story. Illegal hunters are crossing private land. Livestock stolen or killed. Sheds broken into. Fuel and machinery are disappearing overnight. Meanwhile, police resources have been steadily pulled out of rural communities,” he said.

Its other policy, to introduce a Rural Workforce Visa, was also announced earlier in the week. It would allow dairy, sheep and beef workers to enter New Zealand on a three-year visa.