I just don’t want to hit them with a $50,000 or $100,000 tax just because David Parker and the Labour Party think so.
Fact or Fiction has run the following answer past a Lincoln University source to ensure our assumptions and calculations are correct. The examples are based on averages - it is important to note that irrigation requirements will vary from region to region, and even between farms. We have used Dairy NZ's figures on both farm size and irrigation water requirements, here and here. Two dairy farmers - one from the Waikato, one from the Wairarapa - confirmed to Fact or Fiction that they would use a little less water for irrigation than Dairy NZ suggests, but we have stuck with the Dairy NZ figures. Labour has suggested a charge of one to two cents per 1000 litres of water used - we have used two cents. If Labour went with a one-cent tax, the following costs would halve. First up, a dairy farmer, farming on 144 hectares (the average size), requiring 4mm of irrigation a day over a 120-day irrigating season (assuming it's particularly dry). For every hectare of land, you need to use 10,000L of water to get 1mm of coverage - a cost of 20c/mm, per hectare. For 4mm of coverage, the cost would be 80c per hectare, per day. Over 120 days, assuming full irrigation for every one of those days, the cost for the entire farm would be just over $13,800. Based on an average herd size of 413 cows, each drinking 130L of water a day, you'd pay another $391 each year. To get to a figure of $50,000, you would need to have a very large farm - well over 500 hectares - or be irrigating at three to four times the suggested rate. For a produce grower, with an average 20-hectare farm, requiring 17mm of irrigation each week over an irrigation period of 13 weeks, the cost per year would be $884, or thereabouts.
Fact or Fiction: Running the numbers on water
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