Prime Minister Chris Hipkins says a so-called fertiliser tax was "never an official proposal".
It comes as Hipkins announced he would rule out a fertiliser tax, reiterating the Government's commitment to He Waka Eke Noa - the primary sector climate action partnership.
The ACT Party says the idea - which would levy about $150 per tonne of urea and would replace He Waka Eke Noa - was spiked after pressure from one of their MPs.
Speaking at Fieldays in Hamilton today, Hipkins said his rejection of a fertiliser tax shouldn't be called a U-turn "at all".
Labour has ruled out introducing a fertiliser tax, while ACT says it will slash red tape at MPI. (Source: 1News)
"There was never an official proposal around a fertiliser tax.
"We’ve been taking soundings from the primary sector about how we can best price emissions that come from farming for some time now.
"That’s one of the options that’s always been on the table as part of those discussions.
"I’ve ruled it out because we’ve heard very clearly from the farming community that they would rather that we moved ahead with He Waka Eke Noa, than try something else around a fertiliser tax."
He said he was meeting with sector leaders tomorrow on He Waka Eke Noa.
“I think we can get a way forward, I don’t think we’re that far apart.
“Obviously, we want to make progress faster. I don’t think it’s fair on New Zealanders or on our primary industries to kick the can down the road and say we’re not going to deal with this until the next decade, actually climate change is here and now, it’s an urgent priority and actually our farmers know that because they’re seeing the effects of climate change every day.”
Hipkins said he understood the rural community were feeling "uncertainty" - things he attributed to the pandemic, the global economy, global conflict, supply chain issues and extreme weather events.
"I acknowledge that all of that adds to a huge amount of pressure to the primary sector," he said.
ACT Party primary industries spokesman Mark Cameron said his party had a role in "killing off" any attempt to introduce the tax.
“On 31 May in Parliament, ACT put Agriculture Minister Damien O’Connor on the spot and forced him to reveal the work he’d been doing on a new tax on farmers.
“O’Connor confirmed he’d been working on a new tax on nitrogenous fertiliser and that farmers had told him they didn’t want it.
“When asked whether he’d be taking it to Cabinet, he said ‘probably not’."
Cameron said the tax would be a "blunt instrument" because it would "punish farmers for the inputs they use rather than the outcomes they achieve".
"They will pay the tax no matter what they do to mitigate the effects of the fertiliser they use.
Also speaking at Fieldays, National leader Christopher Luxon said his party had supported He Waka Eke Noa “from the beginning”.
“It's right that the industry develops a solution. Chris Hipkins and the Labour Government shot it to pieces.
“It’s a bit like a bad Monty Python skit with a dead parrot really. It's not there, it's not working. When the Federated Farmers call it sleeping, it's obviously not a dynamic partnership or something real.”
Federated Farmers told the New Zealand Herald on June 6 He Waka Eke Noa was “sleepy, not dead”.
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