New Zealand / Country

Tractors, trucks roll into city centres in Groundswell protest

15:02 pm on 20 October 2022

Tractors have been driven through main city centres in the latest protest by the farmer advocacy group Groundswell.

The farmer advocacy group wants out of the proposed emissions pricing scheme plan, saying it will result in higher food prices.

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Groundswell is opposed to all taxes on farm emissions, including the He Waka Eke Noa partnership between government, farmers, industry and iwi, which proposes split-gas emissions pricing at the farm level from 2025.

Groundswell New Zealand co-founder Bryce McKenzie told Morning Report farmers already paid taxes for their emissions and their high consumption of petrol and diesel also contributed to their outlay.

The protest was not necessarily campaigning for farmers to be exempt from paying for emissions, he said.

"Let's work out how it's going to be best for the farmers and the country, the problem being is that if you just charge willy nilly for something that you actually have no solution to, then it's a tax, it's not actually what supposed to be."