Shane Jones casts doubt at Fieldays on Government planning red tape reforms

Thursday, 11 June 2026

NZ First deputy leader Shane Jones warned farmers at Fieldays that he ”fears“ things would not get any better for them under the new Resource Management Act.

Jones was among politicians who spoke on Thursday at the Federated Farmers’ Rural Advocacy Hub at Fieldays, where politicians were setting out why farmers should vote for them in November’s election.

Through Federated Farmers, farmers have been lobbying for resource planning to be simplified, reduced in cost, and sped up, and the main political parties which accepted invitations from Federated Farmers to speak acknowledged that change was needed.

Prime Minister Christopher Luxon, who spoke on Wednesday, told farmers that the Government’s resource management reforms would be completed by August, and would result in 46% fewer consents being required.

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But Jones struck a more pessimistic note, saying the resource planning law changes currently before Parliament were the work of National and ACT, and that New Zealand First could only take responsibility for the fast-track laws designed to get big, economy-boosting projects moving quickly.

One farmer told Jones he had been waiting just over three years for an existing consent to be renewed.

In reply, Jones spoke about how NZ First had got the Government to extend fish farm consents for 20 years, hinting that something similar should happen with farming consents.

NZ First’s star is in the ascendancy with farmers, many of whom are feeling confident on the back of high dairy and meat prices.

And Jones used his speech to deliver a message that farmers wanted to hear, namely that the party had learnt its lesson, and would never form a government with Labour or the Greens again.

“The bulk of our membership and the bulk of the voters that sent us to Parliament in 2017 were centre-right, and we will never squander, we will never trivialise their support, and take it for granted. Which is why, irrespective of how the votes settle on November 7, and the days after the polling day, our party will never be forming a government, with Chippy [Chris Hipkins], all Chlöe [Swarbrick], indeed, the TOP party, which is a left party in drag,” he said.

Green Party co-leader Chlöe Swarbrick spoke after Jones.

The MP for central Auckland largely spoke about non-farming issues as she sought to find common ground with farmers on ending homelessness and food insecurity in a nation which produces enough food to feed 40 million people.

However, Swarbrick saw the solutions for those issues in higher taxes, and “industrial planning” for the economy; two issues farmers have an opposing position on.

Labour’s signals to the farming community were mixed.

The party was lambasted by Shane Jones for failing to have a stall at Fieldays.

“There was a vacant space where the Labour Party should be,” he said.

Labour’s agriculture spokesperson, Jo Luxton, acknowledged that the party had had to reset its relationship with farmers because three years ago it had reached a point where it was “very strained”.

“That’s probably putting it mildly,” she admitted.

Farmers had told Labour that change under previous governments had been “too much, too fast”, Luxton said.

“We've heard that message loud and clear,” she said.

Labour had been meeting annually with Federated Farmers and rural groups, and it had been listening.

Farmers had become particularly frustrated at the lengthy and costly resource consenting system, and Luxton signalled that Labour, if it came into power, it would not rush to undo the current Government’s work to make consenting much easier.

She said: “Should we form government after the election, we're not just going to walk in and wipe all the policies … simply because the previous government has put it in place. And Chris [Hipkins] has come out and said that quite publicly, and I think it's really important that you hear that message loud and clearly from us. It's important that you have to allow things time to bed in.”

However, she said there could be “tweaks”.

Labour leader Chris Hipkins drew a slightly smaller crowd than Jones or Swarbrick.

He followed Luxton’s theme, speaking about how Labour had engaged with farmers in the past three years. He claimed Labour had had its rural successes including on science and research and development.

But he acknowledged that things like methane pricing had made Labour’s relationship with the farming community very difficult towards the end of the last government.

“We want to learn from those experiences around how we can have difficult conversations, how we can work through difficult issues, but do those in a more collaborative way,” he said.

He referred to Federated Farmers’ election manifesto, which the farmer lobby group launched on Monday to tell politicians what the rural sector wanted, with slashing resource management consenting red tape at the top of the list.

Hipkins said Labour would soon be announcing its election policies, but said: “You’ll find a lot of alignment between what the Federated Farmers are asking for, and what the Labour Party has been working on.”

There was some scepticism about that from watching farmers, and also concern that a vote for Labour could mean putting the Green Party and Te Pāti Māori into government, and farmers wanted to know what bottom lines Labour had for any coalition agreement they would agree to.

“We’ll be clear on what we will do, and what’s off the table, you don’t have to wait much longer for that. We’re getting to the announceable phase of the election campaign,” Hipkins said.

Green Party MP Steve Abel attacked Federated Farmers for the part of its election manifesto that called for an end to unelected people having votes on councils.

That, Abel said, was an attack on Māori.

“I want to really challenge you on your points around democracy. Your points about not having, as you put it, unelected representatives having decision-making power. That is a direct attack on Māori, effectively. And I would say that our nation cannot thrive if we are not in a state of cohesion. Cohesion can only be achieved if we work to uphold our founding agreement, the Treaty of Waitangi, and that means working with iwi Māori. It's really a low point for Feds,” he said.

But he too sought to find common ground with farmers, saying the Government had weakened protections for high-quality arable land, which the Greens would reverse if it won power.

He also favoured clear labelling laws for food so people knew when their food was grown in New Zealand, and the Greens would only allow meat imports if that meat was raised under equivalent animal welfare standards to those that New Zealand farmers had to abide by.