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The founders of farmer lobby group Groundswell drove tractors out of Invercargill on Friday, headed on a 10-day journey to Auckland to raise awareness that “things are bad” and “you need to vote for change”.

However, Agriculture minister Damien O’Connor said the Groundswell leaders tractors might be better used to help in the clean-up of the flooding that’s happening in the south.

Bryce McKenzie and Laurie Paterson, the co-founders of Groundswell, are using a Drive 4 Change slogan on their trip, and joining them is retired Invercargill woman Talei Watson who is towing a caravan behind her ute.

More than 20 tractors and utes driven by supporters joined the trio for the initial part of the trip out of Invercargill, and others were expected to join the small convoy for stints along the way.

McKenzie and Paterson said they were trying to get attention for rural New Zealand, as the Labour-led Government was imposing too many regulations on farmers too fast, some of which were “unworkable”, and the confidence levels in the rural sector was low.

Farmers were not against regulations or change, but the regulations needed to be practical and achieve the outcomes intended, McKenzie said.

He believed the agriculture methane emissions tax was one of the biggest worries for rural New Zealand.

“They are not even using the correct science to work out how much methane animals are releasing, so it just seems an absolute farce.”

Paterson said their tractors would be releasing “some emissions” on the long journey, but said they were much more efficient than tractors of 12 years ago.

O’Connor, when addressing the concerns of the Groundswell leaders, said their tractors might be better used to help in the clean-up the flooding; or their energy better spent supporting younger farmers who were pressured by global inflation and international commodity price cycles.

“There’s nothing to be gained from burying your heads in the sand, or silt, as severe climate events increase,” O’Connor said.

The Government had invested more than $300 million to work with the sector to develop the tools to help farmers reduce emissions and capture market opportunity abroad by tackling climate change, he said.

“Food and fibre export revenue has increased by 50% to a record $57.4 billion since we came into government in 2017.”

Lilburn Station farmer Darryl King, who was supporting the Groundswell campaign, said nine years ago compliance work at his family property took up about half-a-day a fortnight.

“Now the compliance takes one person one to two days a week.”

Invercargill MP Penny Simmonds, from the National Party, gave McKenzie and Paterson her best wishes for a safe trip before they left.

“We have said all along a number of the regulations need to be taken off. We have listed 19 or 20 that need to be changed, made less onerous or removed,” Simmonds said.

Source: stuff.co.nz