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Speaker 1: Farmers are calling on the government to double the amount

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Speaker 1: of funding land owners get to help protect special areas

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Speaker 1: and species on private farming land. They get this money

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Speaker 1: from the Queen Elizabeth the Second National Trust. It was

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Speaker 1: set up to encourage people to look after things like

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Speaker 1: special areas of bush and wetland and the animals and

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Speaker 1: the critics that live there. But Federated Farmers says government

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Speaker 1: funding has remained the same at four point three million

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Speaker 1: dollars for a decade, despite costs and demand increasing. So

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Speaker 1: we've got the vice president of Federated Farmers joining me

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Speaker 1: right now, Colin Hurst. Good morning to you, sir, Yeah,

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Speaker 1: good morning Andrew. A decade. It hasn't changed for a decade.

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Speaker 2: Yeah, I know, it's quite unbelievable. Inflation sort of gone

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Speaker 2: up over the past few years. So we just think

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Speaker 2: it's time for the country to get in a step

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Speaker 2: in and help farmers and lease special areas.

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Speaker 1: And four point three million dollars seems like a drop

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Speaker 1: in the bucket.

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Speaker 2: Yeah, it's not much really on the on the face

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Speaker 2: of it, you know, there's significant areas that farmers. That's

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Speaker 2: I think it's one hundred and eighty seven thousand. He years,

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Speaker 2: which is a pretty big area.

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Speaker 1: Well, I was going to say, you told me the

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Speaker 1: hector is but how many actual farms need this funding?

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Speaker 1: How many farmers are involved with looking for funding and

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Speaker 1: then looking after special places.

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Speaker 2: Well, so there's five two hundred areas protected and there

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Speaker 2: could be more than one on farm, so not exactly

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Speaker 2: sure how many areas, but of farms, but that's a

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Speaker 2: pretty stine area.

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Speaker 1: Five two hundreds a big number. Don't you worry about that, mate,

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Speaker 1: it's it's a big number. So over the ten years,

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Speaker 1: while funding has stayed static, how has demand increased.

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Speaker 2: Definitely? Here? Well it's so it's gone from four thousand

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Speaker 2: to five two hundred over the last ten years, so

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Speaker 2: there's twenty eight percent increased. So certainly demand here and

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Speaker 2: this farmers lining up to particuland these special areas.

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Speaker 1: So if you have twenty eight percent more demand for funding,

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Speaker 1: then surely the funding should have gone up twenty eight

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Speaker 1: percent and that leans it would then be considered to

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Speaker 1: have stayed static.

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Speaker 2: Yeah, oh yeah, yeah, definitely. Well yeah, well that's that's yeah.

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Speaker 2: So that's why we're asking for an increase.

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Speaker 1: So what what does this money specifically used for?

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Speaker 2: Well, for a farmer has an area of land and he

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Speaker 2: voluntarily wants to protect it for the country. They need

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Speaker 2: to identify the area, they need to fence it off,

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Speaker 2: they need to take care of the peace and weeds

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Speaker 2: in that type of thing, and then there's legal costs

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Speaker 2: to get it because these special areas are protected on

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Speaker 2: the title of their land, so it's there forever it

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Speaker 2: cannot be taken off. So it's it's sort of like

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Speaker 2: a national park. Really, it's that it's that well protected.

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Speaker 1: And how expensive is that to protect these bits of

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Speaker 1: land that the farmers have been told that they have

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Speaker 1: to protect.

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Speaker 2: Well, there was a study done in the Waiketo University

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Speaker 2: and they're estimating it's between four hundred and forty million

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Speaker 2: and six hundred and thirty million, and that was a

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Speaker 2: decade ago those figures, so it's obviously whole lot more air.

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Speaker 1: Hold on you're saying four to six hundred million, and

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Speaker 1: yet the funding is four point three.

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Speaker 2: Yeah, it's as you feel. Really, it's the figures in

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Speaker 2: significant really that we just need the government to do it.

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Speaker 1: Really, well, what are you going to do next?

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Speaker 2: Well, we're starting to have a bit of a publicity

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Speaker 2: campaign about it. I think it's a no brainer. The

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Speaker 2: other little part about this, there's the rules that like

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Speaker 2: the significant natural areas. That's something the government are putty

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Speaker 2: hot on. This is what district councils do. That's the

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Speaker 2: stick approach. You know, farmers must do this, but we

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Speaker 2: think the q E two funding is a whole lot

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Speaker 2: better way to do it. This is voluntarily keeping areas

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Speaker 2: and farmers just want to do this sort of stuff.

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Speaker 1: Of course, if you've got the will, all you need

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Speaker 1: is the money and that's a good thing and I

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Speaker 1: thank you so much. Colin Hurst is the Federated Farmers

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Speaker 1: Vice President.

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