Over 13,000 New Zealanders have told the Government to stop raining regulations on our rural communities, National’s Agriculture spokesperson Barbara Kuriger and Local Government spokesperson Christopher Luxon say.

“National launched a petition to call on Labour to give rural New Zealand a break and to drop their latest regulatory burden in the form of the Water Services Bill, which would expose rural water schemes to unnecessary and onerous compliance,” Ms Kuriger says.

“In just a short space of time, more than 13,000 people and counting have signed it – sending a clear message to Labour to ease the burden on our rural communities.”

“Our petition calls on Labour, and other parties, to back National’s change to the legislation, which would exempt small water suppliers like farm schemes that supply fewer than 30 endpoint users,” Mr Luxon says.

“We remain deeply troubled by the administrative and compliance burden this will place on a segment of New Zealand that feels repeatedly penalised by the Labour Government.

“We’re asking all of our parliamentary colleagues to support National’s amendment when the legislation returns to Parliament, and show they’ve listened to the thousands of rural New Zealanders who are sick of being put up to their eyeballs in costs, rules and regulations.”

“National is the party for rural New Zealand, and we stand by our farmers and provincial communities,” Barbara Kuriger and Christopher Luxon say.