Government MPs scatter the lollies to a friendly crowd at Fieldays
Wednesday, 10 June 2026
Prime Minister Christopher Luxon announced $143 million in funding for projects to encourage more flexible and productive use of land, which he said had the potential to grow the economy by $10 billion.
He also promised farmers that by August, resource management reforms would be complete, and it would result in 46% fewer consents being required.
Luxon was speaking in the Federated Farmers’ Rural Advocacy Hub, which is fast becoming an annual tradition with senior politicians from each of the main parties setting out their election agenda for the rural sector.
One of Federated Farmers’ biggest wishes is for a less intrusive, costly and onerous consenting process, and Luxon promised them just what they wanted.
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In 2024, the Government set the target of doubling exports in the next 10 years, and putting land to more productive use was a key part of that, Luxon said.
But increasing water storage and irrigation was key to achieving that too.
“When you look at an area like Northland, which has really challenged economically, and has been for years and decades, if you can genuinely just crash through, and get water storage up there that enables kiwifruit to get planted, that is transformative for that local regional economy,” Luxon said.
He told told farmers: “The goal here is to make ourselves much more prosperous and wealthy. I don't like the fact that New South Wales is 30% wealthier per person than New Zealand. I don't like the fact that the average Irishman is now twice as wealthy as the average Kiwi. I don't like the fact that the Singaporeans are three times as wealthy as the average Kiwi, and that means they get twice as many nurses, twice as many teachers, twice as many doctors.
“So, you know, and I'm unapologetic about it, we have to make this country more prosperous,” he said.
Water storage was a big theme at the Rural Advocacy Hub on Wednesday, which was the day coalition MPs took the stage.
National MP and farmer Mike Butterick, who spoke before Luxon, said: “Water is jobs.
“I refer to water as our superpower. We have 12 times the world’s average [per] population, and we use about 2% to 4% of it.”
He said: “Growing stuff's not overly complicated. You just need to have water at the right time. There's a huge, huge potential to do that a lot better.”
Todd McClay, Minister of Agriculture, Forestry, Trade and Investment, and Associate Minister of Foreign Affairs, was first to speak on Wednesday.
His emphasis was on the Government’s plans to reform the Resource Management Act to make it easier, and less costly, for farmers to get consents.
But he also spoke about the need for action to increase water storage to boost production as some parts of the country face a drier future, and rain fall becomes increasingly unpredictable.
McClay spoke about how Australian farmers were careful with every drop of water, and how New Zealand needed to emulate Australia’s water capture and storage planning and effectiveness.
There was huge demand for grass-fed food in China, where there were half a billion wealthy people interested in the provenance of their food. Increasing water storage would help meet that demand, he said.
NZ First’s Mark Patterson, Minister for Rural Communities and Associate Minister of Agriculture, said water storage and irrigation needed to be recognised as nationally important infrastructure.
He would like to see the Regional Infrastructure Fund topped up with taxpayer money to be spent on getting water projects off the ground.
“We have to do far more. We have to get far more ambitious,” Patterson said.
Andrew Hoggard, Minister for Biosecurity and Food Safety, and Associate Minister of Agriculture, spoke before Luxon, and endorsed Federated Farmers’ election manifesto, which the farmer lobby group released on Monday.
Hoggard, who joined the ACT Party after ending a stint as president of Federated Farmers, signalled that farmers could expect it to be much easier to get permission to undertake activities on their farms under reforms to the resource management system the Government has under way.
Hoggard said New Zealand’s productivity problems were the result of it being hard for people to get permission to “do stuff”.
Federated Farmers said in its manifesto that there was no reason a “farm plan” can’t be the primary compliance tool for farmers, replacing many consents, and Hoggard signalled his support for that.
“I can give you assurances that these [farm plans] will replace consents,” Hoggard told farmers.
Politicians find farmers in a particularly good mood this year as a result of high commodity prices boosting the dairy, horticulture and red meat sectors.
Dairy NZ said the 2025/26 season closed strongly, but costs have risen due to high fuel, freight and fertiliser prices caused by the US war on Iran.