Backing rural New Zealand for the season ahead

Article supplied by the Hon. Mark Patterson, Minister for Rural Communities

It has been another stellar year for our primary sector. I can’t think of another season with the confluence of favourable grass growth and high product prices. The $64 billion of export revenue earned this year is testament to the critical nature of the primary sector to the wider New Zealand economy. An incredible 82% of our merchandise exports.

It’s fantastic to see and, in the case of our sheep and beef sector, a long overdue boost after some tough years. From a market perspective, it is looking genuinely positive again. Even my beloved wool sector is on the up after decades of dismal pricing. Long may it last!

Needless to say, it is not all positive. While the wider horticultural sector is doing well, vegetable growers and the arable farmers are doing it pretty tough. While the added rain has been positive for grass growth, it has been disastrous for our arable farmers trying to get in crops. The second tough harvest in a row and the third in five seasons. A number of severe weather events throughout the country also struck during the year, making it a challenging one for many.

Cost increases also are a constant, especially considerable rate rises and insurances. And then, of course, the Strait of Hormuz ructions, which have sent shockwaves through global supply chains.

Rural contractors, in particular, have been heavily impacted, specifically with diesel prices lifting significantly. Fortunately, the bulk of the harvest and silage season was well advanced, but the impacts are ongoing and unfortunately look like flowing into next season, with spring just around the corner.

The government focused heavily on securing supply, and the additional 90 million litre storage capacity at Marsden Point buys some extra resilience. That the refinery was allowed to shut by Labour in the previous term was exposed as absolute folly, leaving New Zealand extremely vulnerable to tenuous supply chains and geopolitical flare-ups.

We need to get serious as a country about securing fuel resilience. The government has overturned the oil and gas exploration ban and offered up $200 million in co-investment funding to encourage renewed exploration. It is fantastic to see the first permit being granted in the Taranaki Basin.

New Zealand First are campaigning on going much further. Putting $1 billion into using the very latest technology to survey New Zealand’s entire coastal zone and attract overseas investment. Incredibly, only five full exploration wells have ever been drilled beyond the Taranaki Basin. The rumoured strike in the Great South Basin by the Hunt Brothers in the 1970s has never been properly followed up. With modern technology, it’s quite probable that New Zealand has genuinely world class fields. Gas literally bubbles up from the ground in Tairāwhiti and yet it has never properly been explored.

This could be a game changer for the New Zealand economy and for our future preparedness for future geopolitical tumult.

The silver lining for recent events is the wider realisation that the New Zealand economy runs on diesel. Not wind, not solar, but diesel.

On other matters. I know it is of enormous frustration to rural contractors that the weight limits per axle that are inhibiting road use by modern harvesting machinery have been slow to be amended.

This is a matter that has been kicking around too long. It is currently with Minister Bishop and is subject to a review process. With the season on the brink of kicking into gear, I know there will be frustration that this hasn’t yet been sorted. It is a matter that I am keeping a very close eye on as Minister for Rural Communities. Modern machinery simply must be able to move around without impacting productivity.

It does highlight another matter, which is the state of our aging rural roadway bridge network. It is my view that this is not being dealt with enough priority within the land transport budget. This country’s appetite for roads of national significance and new four-lane highways exceeds our ability to fund. We must do a better job of maintaining and fortifying the network we already have, and this includes prioritising the bridges that link our rural communities, support our primary sector and get our product efficiently to market. Look for New Zealand First to have policy on this.

Unlike some other parties, we don’t think we can control the weather. Let’s hope El Niño doesn’t turn into a 1987–88 or 1997–98 type event. Most of the country is starting the season with decent soil moisture levels.

As Associate Minister for Regional Development, I can say that this term the government has invested significantly into water storage through the Regional Infrastructure Fund. We need to be doing more of this investment in the future to build resilience, enhance productivity and diversify into higher value land use options.

While undoubtably challenges remain, it is positive that farmers and growers are starting the new season mostly on the front foot. I have never seen the sector so positive, they have their heads up; they’re investing and seeking to maximise the opportunities ahead. And when that happens, it has very positive spinoffs for the rural servicing industry and the rural communities that rise and fall on their fortunes.

Good luck for the season ahead.