Bruce Gordon

Marty Sharpe has been doing some digging into David Carter’s fibbing. David Carter may actually not know that his useless ministry have set him up and sold him down the river.

The Primary Industries Ministry was using “extreme scenarios” when working out the cost to farmers of the One Plan court ruling, according to emails obtained by The Dominion Post.

The emails reveal concerns raised by Horizons regional council after Federated Farmers spoke publicly about leaked memos showing that farmers’ costs could rise by 22 per cent to 43 per cent if the ruling was implemented.

The figures were said to have come from a Landcare Research report commissioned by the ministry.

Horizons chairman Bruce Gordon raised his concerns with Landcare Research chief executive Richard Gordon this month. Richard Gordon sent an email to the ministry’s deputy director-general of policy, Paul Stocks, to advise him that none of eight scenarios considered were the same as the court ruling’s.

The scenarios resulting in 22 per cent to 43 per cent cuts to profit were “extreme” and “actually bear little similarity to the One Plan”, Richard Gordon said. The scenario most similar to the One Plan would have an impact on profitability of less than 1 per cent.

So what is happening here is David Carter is going on about 22-43% from a report that has no relevance to the One Plan decision. Five economists in court agreed, but some moron in the MPI has set up his minister by telling him to compare apples with oranges.

David Carter should be calling up the head of MPI and asking him why his staff are providing him with such dodgy information, and why they seem completely ignorant of the Court ruling.

He received a response from the ministry’s director of resource policy, Mike Jebsen, who said the scenario mentioned in the memos was “in our view most closely matched the Environment Court direction”.

Asked about Landcare’s email yesterday, Mr Jebsen said the 22 to 43 per cent figures were the best indication of likely impact.

In September, the court, having heard from five economists from Fonterra, Horticulture NZ, Fish & Game and two from Horizons, concluded the effect on farmers would be an average of 5 per cent of annual expenses.

The court concluded the region had “urgent water quality issues that require immediate action” and failure to try to reverse the decline would be “inexcusable”.

Everyone knows the agrarian sector are not that literate, but a minister can expect senior staff members to be able to read court judgments and sell their minister down the river.  This is a Yes Minister style stitch up and the Sir Humphrys need a good kick in the arse.

David Carter has continued to fib about the cost to farmers of the One Plan decision in an attempt to provide farmers a right to pollute the hell out of our rivers, then expect us to pay for the clean up.

He has been schooled by the Chairman of Horizons, who has called him out for his fibs, and highlighted the truth about the One Plan.

“The Plan has been through the required process under the RMA, with appellants to the Plan presenting their cases to the Environment Court. The Court heard a range of economic and environmental evidence and all parties were given the opportunity to put forward their arguments and the Court formed their decision on the balance of that evidence.”

The Court’s decision determined the average costs to farmers to be on average 5 per cent of annual operating expenses.

David Carter’s dodgy 22-43% increase in costs were pulled out of someones arse, didn’t make the grade in the environment court and are considered unsound by people in the industry.

Before readers start thinking Bruce Gordon is some hippy tree hugger, he is not. He is a farmer. And he has obviously read the One Plan judgment, unlike our socialist mate Carter.

“We are not here to drive farmers off their land, we’re here to deliver a future for our Region that is both economically and environmentally sustainable.”

The socialist Minister of Agriculture David Carter has been telling fibs about the One Plan Decision. He has claimed  that the One Plan Decision will cause on farm costs to rise between 22-43%. He has been peddling some dodgy research that was not held up by the Environment Court.

This is bullshit, and farmer and chair of Horizons, Bruce Gordon, has issued the following statement.

Having been issued a copy of the report (Evaluation of the impact of different water policy options for managing water quality limits) this week, council chairman Bruce Gordon said the report analyses different policy scenarios in the Manawatu Catchment – none of which reflect the decisions made by the Environment Court in relation to the One Plan or outcomes sought through the One Plan.

“Landcare has indicated that none of the eight policy scenarios evaluated in the report for the Manawatu are comparable with the One Plan as decided by the Environment Court.

The real numbers that David Carter cant seem to find are:

“In fact, the 43 per cent scenario highlighted in the media in terms of impact on profit bears no relationship to the context of the One Plan. I understand the scenario that comes closest to the One Plan shows an impact on profitability of less than 1 per cent.”

Mr Gordon said that this type of misinformation was extremely disappointing and caused unnecessary distress on the farming community.

David Carter needs to look at his officials that have allowed him to mislead the media, farmers and the public with shonky numbers. He should also be mindful that people who pretend to want to be Speaker need to be above reproach and telling fibs won’t help that.