Frogs will rain from the sky, a blight will cross the land, and white walkers will travel south of the wall. All this will come to pass. Oh and cabbages might cost more.<\/p>\n
That\u2019s the tenor of the response of Irrigation New Zealand to Labour\u2019s water royalty plan.<\/p>\n
It paints the picture of an organisation so deeply under siege that it\u2019s willing to predict almost anything to maintain its social licence to irrigate, and by extension, enable further pollution of our rivers.<\/p>\n
In response to Jacinda Ardern\u2019s policy announcement, Andrew Curtis, CEO and King of the Irrigators opened up his doomsday book at a random page and started raining down weapons-grade Nostradamus on the unsuspecting population.<\/p>\n
Let\u2019s see, poor people, obese people, the unhealthy, average kiwis, families building a house, and all those born on a day ending in Y. Forgive me if I\u2019ve left anyone off the list. Under his bleak prophecy they\u2019ll all be forced into penury and ill-health by a scheme designed to regulate water take and penalise polluters.<\/p>\n
Tell me if my maths is wrong but I think commercial users of water, apart from bottlers, will be charged something like one two thousandth of a cent per litre of water that they use. NIWA is reported as saying this will add between 0.3 and 0.5 of a cent to a litre of milk.<\/p>\n
Others say it could go up two cents.<\/p>\n
What will happen to the price of cabbage? It\u2019ll go up 0.6 cents.<\/p>\n
Don\u2019t really care. Don\u2019t like cabbage.<\/p>\n
It\u2019s a curious move by Irrigation NZ, because catastrophizing is the accusation it often hurls at Greenpeace. Specifically when the environmental group warns of the inevitable consequences of intensive dairy farming on waterways and irrigators intrinsic involvement in this.<\/p>\n
So what\u2019s the reason for all this disaster radio? This desperate departure from the language of modulated conservatism? The fact that King Curtis should describe the so-called water tax as \u201cthe biggest change in a generation\u201d betrays his real concerns. It could spell the beginning of the end for his fiefdom – Big Irrigation.<\/p>\n
That is to say the proliferation of massive irrigation schemes planned all over New Zealand underwritten by National\u2019s crown irrigation fund. The money came from asset sales and it\u2019s worth a hefty $480 million. The fund\u2019s earmarked to propel an increase in agricultural production, with an emphasis on D for dairy. King Curtis represents all the companies making money from these schemes. Peering over the castle wall, things are looking a bit scary. Villagers are lighting torches.<\/p>\n
Labour\u2019s planning to pull the plug on the half a billion for state sponsored irrigation. Something Greenpeace has been pushing for. There\u2019s a simple reason. These schemes enable the spread of intensive dairy. More cows, more nitrates, phosphorus and pathogens like E. coli in our rivers. Bad news. As the OECD says with intensive agriculture, we are reaching our environmental boundaries. We need to farm better, smarter, not bigger.<\/p>\n
Based on Labour\u2019s two cent\/cubic metre charge, it\u2019s estimated an average farmer will pay eight thousand dollars in royalties a year. Chickenfeed compared to the amount farmers have already been forking out to irrigation companies. On the same sized farm King Curtis is reported as saying an average farmer pays $78,000 annually for the privilege of irrigation. Nearly ten times as much. Even if they don\u2019t use a drop of water.<\/p>\n
Stories about irrigation companies like Central Plains Water, Hunter Downs and Hurunui threatening to take land from farmers using compulsory acquisition and tales of others pressurised into onerous contracts are adding to rural disquiet. Since 2011 Irrigation New Zealand says farmers have spent 1.7 billion dollars upgrading irrigation infrastructure. They\u2019re already some of most indebted in world.<\/p>\n
Things in the principality of pipes are sitting on a knife edge.<\/p>\n
So King Curtis might be worried. Not unduly so. Forget the health of the townsfolk – this proposed water royalty might mean the difference between a green light and a red one in terms of pending irrigation schemes which are hanging in the balance.<\/p>\n
Irrigation NZ\u2019s original poster child, the Ruataniwha Dam in Hawke\u2019s Bay is dead.<\/p>\n
Opposition is mounting to the Central Plains Water scheme in Canterbury.<\/p>\n
Large pre-election protests are planned. It could get interesting.<\/p>\n
Let\u2019s keep talking about water royalties, but let\u2019s not confuse misplaced concern for poor obese average kiwis and their access to cabbages with the self serving proclamations of an embattled lobby group with barbarians at the door.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
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