Cockies dump on Opportunity’s ‘really bad’ land tax policy

Tuesday, 28 July 2026

The Opportunity party’s land tax policy could cost some farmers thousands a year.

Fed Farmers say the Opportunity party’s land tax policy is “really bad” and could cost some farmers five times more than Labour’s proposed methane tax.

Opportunity is proposing a land value tax of 1.75% for urban land and 0.5% for rural land as part of their tax reset policy with aim of making property affordable. While the policy is under scrutiny from the rural sector, party leader Qiulae Wong remains confident it would not land most farmers in a worse position.

Mark Hooper, Fed Farmers banking spokesperson, says the land tax is an example of ‘really bad policy’.

But Federated Farmers national board member and banking spokesperson, Mark Hooper, thought it placed unnecessary pressure on farmers.

“The cost is probably going to be five times what the Labour Government’s He Waka Eke Noa methane tax was going to be for the average farmer, and the modelling around that policy suggested we were going to lose potentially 4 to 5% of dairy production and 18 to 20% of sheep and beef.

Opportunity party leader Qiulae Wong says the land tax will be balanced out by their citizens income policy, and some farmers could be in a better financial position or not experience a change in tax.

“A lot of that was because the alternative would have been to put the land into trees of course, but nevertheless, if you look at the cost of this, it’s significant and ongoing. There’s no methodology by which you could offset it or decrease it over time.

“For us as a primary sector, we have a huge opportunity for growth and that growth is essential for New Zealand’s overall economy and we should be looking at ways to foster that. Additional taxation is a disincentive to that process regardless of whether it may work out to be a net zero cost.”

He believed sheep and beef farmers would be the worst affected because forestry had increased the value of land, while typically the cash flow was poor for these farmers.

Opportunity party deputy leader Daniel Eb says the land tax policy is an opportunity for farmers to change their business model.

“They’ve got high land areas, high capital values, high land values and they’re already paying a disproportionately high component of rates. That same principle would happen if there was a land tax.

“The land tax is simply a way to fund a huge social welfare cost and so even if it does make some variation in land values, it’s an inefficient way to do that and it’s not giving the right incentives.”

Opportunity leader Qiulae Wong said the land value tax is one part of shifting the burden of tax off incomes.

He thought some smaller farms located in peri-urban areas on high-value land with low stock numbers could no longer be viable. He noted that Feds was apolitical, but “that doesn’t mean we don’t call out really bad policy when we see it”.

According to Beef + Lamb NZ, the average Waikato hill country farm in 2025 was about 430 hectares of grazeable land with a land and building value of about $6.8 million, so a 0.5% tax would sit near $34,000 per year.

Meanwhile, DairyNZ’s DairyBase and EconTracker showed that the average Waikato dairy farm had a land value of $5.4 million in 2025, which would result in a $27,000 land tax per year.

However, Wong said some, or all, of this cost could be offset by their citizens income policy that would see every adult receive $19,400 a year, so a farming couple could be receiving close to $40,000 a year.

Wong said the land value tax is one part of shifting the burden of tax off incomes and onto property and could be rolled out over ten years.

The goal was to encourage a drop in property values that would make farming and first-home ownership more accessible to the next generation. The tax would discourage land banking and low-productivity use of land.

“The tax reset is not just about solving the property problem or the welfare problem. We’re doing both of those things and building a more economic base of tax.”

Deputy leader Daniel Eb said that it was difficult to model but believed that farmers with average farm sale prices around $7 million would see either a tax cut or minimal changes. The citizens’ income would also aid youngsters in saving for their first farm or house better than KiwiSaver schemes.

If farmers experienced hardship through commodity or weather events, a tax deferral could be available. Steep land areas could be made exempt from the tax by putting them into conservation areas.

“Inadvertently, we’ve created a pipeline to actually fix a problem that’s been around for twenty years, which is New Zealand public and officials telling farmers to be greener and greener but there’s been no mechanism for it,” Eb said.

While their land policies were yet to be released, Eb said they had a strong focus on promoting farm diversification into things like carbon sequestration and biodiversity markets. He said they would support farmers to make this change through more innovation funding, and the land tax was a small part of incentivising that.

“There’s a bright future in farming, but it requires some changes and most farmers I talk to are, to a degree, ready for that.

“I think the question here is less would an additional 0.5% a year tax put these businesses underwater, and we need to have a broader conversation of what is the future of sheep and beef because if they went under, then there’s bigger issues at play.”

A recent poll has shown the Opportunity party flirting with the 5% threshold - and with it the kingmaker position to form the next government.