A new government report to Cabinet, yet again, states Maori are going to be disadvantaged! This time it is Maori farmers.
Hello, it’s All things Political with John Porter on Bay FM and today I’m starting my talk with how the Maori Party’s Debbie Ngarewa-Packer said an agriculture emissions pricing system disadvantages Maori-owned beef and sheep farms.
Why, Debbie? Are Maori farmers the only farmers going to be negatively impacted by an agriculture emissions pricing system? Are Maori farmers the only farmers practising regenerative and value-add farming?
I don’t know about you, but I get frustrated with the continual lack of objectivity in pronouncements by the Maori Party.
Come on Debbie. I know you have to champion Maori causes but in a case like this when there are thousands of other non-Maori farmers in the same boat, you would gain a lot more credibility and generate more traction if you spoke for the whole farming community!
In fact, all New Zealand is in trouble if this pricing system for agricultural emissions goes ahead!
The report that is upsetting the Maori Party so much was released recently along with the government’s proposal for a pricing system for agricultural emissions.
The report said Maori played a significant part in the primary sector, owning an estimated 1.51 million hectares of land, and Maori landowners had a substantial primary sector asset base including $8.6b in sheep and beef farming, $4.9b in dairy farming and $2.6b in other forms of agriculture.
The paper from government officials said the likely disadvantage to Maori would be more pronounced if there was no assistance introduced to mitigate some of the impacts. Again, why only Maori needing assistance?
It must be noted that this is not an independent report, simply a report written by faceless government officials. That alone makes me question its validity. I wonder how much input the Maori caucus supplied…behind closed doors.
It is quite easy to see that spin doctors have been at work on this document, applying the emotive arguments to ensure the document favoured Maori farmers at the expense of all other farmers, that they are more disadvantaged than all other farmers.
The simple fact of the matter is THEY ARE NOT!
The report is essentially scripted to set a scene that portrays Maori farmers as in dire need of extra support.
In 2019 Ardern pointed out that “the vast majority of Maori freehold land was not in productive use”. So she offered Maori (and only Maori) $100m to assist in bringing it into production.
Guess what? Twelve months later, only $3m had been taken up. Just what does that tell you?
Anyway, back to the report. Draft modelling had shown that the price of methane emissions would drive land-use change.
Most of this land-use change will likely occur in the sheep and beef sector, thus impacting the Maori economy due to the large proportion of sheep and beef assets held, and could potentially impact the employment of Maori in the meat processing workforce.
The Maori party say they would establish a $300m Matai Ahuwhenua innovation and support fund to incentivise farmers, particularly Maori farmers, to transition to regenerative and value-add farming.
But let’s step back from what would be another incredible act of fraud perpetrated on, not only the New Zealand farming community, but the country as a whole.
For too long Ardern’s government has aided and abetted the handouts and privileges of hundreds of millions of dollars to Maori – for what they have conveniently construed as “honouring the responsibilities of the treaty partnership”!
This at a time when all the measures that define good government read like a catastrophic tragedy.
How much has been spent on issues purportedly honouring the treaty that should have been spent on law and order, health, roading, poverty, education and housing?
The country is drowning in debt, social services are unable to cope and yet the hand is still in the taxpayers’ pocket!
This ethnic centric spending must stop!
The whole country is in desperate need of funding!
The time has come that we have a good look at the immense advantages the Maori economy currently receives courtesy of the taxpayer before we before we start talking about new $300m handouts.
“Maori Inc” currently own at least 50% of the national fishing quota, 40% of forestry assets, 30% of lamb and beef production, 10% of dairy and 10% of kiwifruit.
The last report I have seen said that the Maori economy was worth around $70b. That’s up from $43b in 2013. A whopping 63% growth in 9 years!
What rankles, is around $20b is lodged in charitable trusts. Therefore nearly 30% of the Maori economy is not subject to any tax whatsoever!
Ngai Tahu’s website states, “The advantage to the Trust of operating commercial companies under the Charitable Trust structure is that income tax is not required to be paid on the profits of the companies.”
Ngai Tahu believe that their Charitable Trust activities mitigate any non-payment of tax!
But to add insult to injury, tax (when payable) on Maori authority dividends is deducted at a rate of ONLY 17.5% rather than the normal dividend rate of 33%.
It used to be 19.5% but was reduced to 17.5%. At that time there was also a very strong lobby for a 10.5% rate!
And here, let’s rub some more salt into the wound. Before 2003, charity law expressly prohibited charitable status to organisations where membership was exclusive to people with certain blood ties.
I’m picking Michael Cullen’s fingerprints were all over that change, or should I say scam!
Maori activists have long proclaimed they want their country back.
Seems to me this government is hell-bent on doing that!
