Willy Leferink defends the need for inspectors to pre-book compliance visits; supports big fines for non-compliant offenders

By Willy Leferink*

Part of my volunteer work at Federated Farmers is handling some tricky stuff from time to time and there’s none trickier when one of our guys let the side down by not doing the right thing.

I’ve heard heaps of stories that farming is like some secret society in that, nudge nudge, wink wink, we look after one another and look the other way.

That view is wrong. 

We have a good story to tell given water quality is trending in the right direction according to the Ministry for the Environment.

There are plans to light the after burners on what we do environmentally given positive payout forecasts.  

But you cannot shout from the rooftops about what we do well without owning what we don’t do so well. Most dairy farmers are honest and hard working people committed to doing the right thing but there are some exceptions.

In recent days two farmers copped $167,000 worth of fines between them. I’m sure some of our critics will be happier than a pig in mud over this news, but what these farmers did was wrong. They got caught and justice has been rightly served. It also shows how easy it is for one or two to let down the team and unpick the great work most farmers do.    

What disappoints me with these convictions is that there is plenty of industry support out there for farmers.

My advice to farmers, wherever they are, is to talk with your local Feds team, DairyNZ and your dairy company to make sure things are not getting on top of you.

We will back to the hilt those who do the right thing but cannot turn a blind eye when the team is let down.

A few days ago, Wellington’s Dominion Post published a story on dairy compliance inspections. It led with Fish & Game saying this was like warning drunks about police checkpoints.

What rot.

If you’ve had effluent ponding it doesn’t take much of a trained eye to spot it because a breach stands out like the proverbial on a dog.

What’s more, linking inspections to drink-driving is not only dull-headed, it is insulting to any farmer who has lost friends or family to drink driving.

We accept random police checkpoints to prevent people from dying but we wouldn’t stand for being frisked every time you left a supermarket to prevent shoplifting.

That’s why pre-booking compliance visits is not only a far smarter use of council and farmer time, it is professional courtesy.

Imagine the outcry if the Education Review Office moved to unannounced school inspections instead of the months they give boards and principals. Few organisations in-town get inspected at the drop of a hat.

I may be mistaken but I thought innocent until proven guilty was central to our legal system.

The number of dairy abatement notices fell from 537 in 2008/9 to 290 in 2012/13.

Dairy infringement notices also fell from 500 to 221 over the same period.

While there are 12,000 dairy herds a total of 34 farmers were prosecuted in 2012/13.

Putting this into a perspective is the 2012/13 national crime statistics, where 821.2 crimes were recorded for every 10,000 Kiwis. 

There are more reasons for pre-booking. We’ve all had that unexpected caller knocking on your door when you’re head down, tail up.

With my Canterbury farm a compliance inspection is done under cost recovery and it costs well over $200 for each inspection.

What was missing from the report is that farms are occupational work places with notifiable hazards we are legally responsible for.

Having an inspector turn up when you are just about to undertake pest control or clear downed trees doesn’t get things off to a good start when we are all supposedly working towards good management practice.  

One of the biggest advantages of having advance notification is that the farmer can make time to talk things over with the inspector and learn from the visit. Isn’t an ounce of prevention worth a pound of cure?

Finally, I would observe that we seem to know more about the environmental performance of 12,000 dairy herds than we do about 67 cities, districts and unitary councils.

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Willy Leferink is Federated Farmers Dairy Chairperson and a version was printed in the Dominion Post. It is here with permission.