TE AWAMUTU NEWS | 1
THURSDAY NOVEMBER 13, 2025
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NOVEMBER 13, 2025
We do care, say councillors By Chris Gardner
New Waikato regional councillors have hit back at claims they do not care about the environment. Councillors have faced criticism for seeking an economic impact report on a plan change. “No farmer wants to be an ‘eco-terrorist’, that is simply counterproductive to their personal enterprise sustainability,” Keith Holmes, the immediate past president of Waikato Federated Farmers, said. “Nor should any farmer be expected to work and farm at a loss or have their livelihoods taken off them by dumb laws without compensation. Please remember also the enormous amount of farmers’ personal income and time that has already gone into on farm environmental custodianship.” Holmes pushed for the council to ask the Environment Court for time to commission the economic impact study before ruling on a water quality plan change. According to his calculations Plan Change One would cost the Waikato economy $5 billion. Holmes was responding to a letter published in The Cambridge News in which Alice Hicks said she had read that four newly elected councillors did not believe farmers should be fencing waterways, mapping contaminant loss or reviewing good management practices to protect and clean up waterways, and to protect collective ground waters for future generations. Holmes said his role may have changed but the issues society faced remained the same. “Kaitiaki and kaumatua or guardianship should always look to bigger picture and have a holistic view of what is best for us all,” Holmes said. “The Plan Change One journey is still before the courts. The councillors are evolving to having a totally holistic overview to ensure that Waikato is prosperous, enabling, exciting and environmentally responsible. We also want to be able afford
Garry Reymer, left, and Keith Holmes on the day they were sworn in as regional councillors.
what our ratepayers demand – water treatment, roads, hospitals, houses, schools and ‘living affordability’. Simply put, our kaitiaki responsibility is to urgently generate the money in the Waikato region to pay for all these things.” Another newly elected regional councillor, Liz Stolwyk acknowledged the “genuine frustration and disappointment” expressed by many who care deeply about the state of waterways. But she noted the volume of plantings and land retired in 2024-25 alone showed that many farmers were stepping up — often quietly, without recognition — to make meaningful change. Reymer, a Waipā King Country ward councillor and former economics spokesman for Waikato Federated Farmers, said Hicks’ comments that four new councillors did not think farmers should be responsible for the
Photo: Chris Gardner
good stewardship of the land could not be further from the truth. “We all support best farm practice which make up the terms of supply to most of the producer companies they supply,” Reymer said. “Things like fencing waters ways, nitrogen recording to set limits to restrict nitrogen loss through leaching or runoff are strictly monitored.”
He described farmers as natural environmentalists because their livelihood depended on intergenerational wellbeing of the land and waterways. “I have every confidence that this council will continue to strive for continued improvement on all key performance indicators around economic, people, water, and soil.”
“A lot of hard work from a lot of very keen volunteers” has been the secret to celebrating 50 years of the Te Awamutu Light Operatic Society president Fiona Miller says. This weekend will see a celebration for past and present members. “It's pretty amazing that a small theatre group in a small community has kept the
society going so well for so long - including most importantly, running our own building,” Miller said. In 1975 a public meeting attracted 45 people and 20 apologies were recorded. Warwick May, who was to become the first society president, Bill Sanders and Barbara McGregor spoke about their vision – and won the support of the audience.
Society still acting up at 50…
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