> ## Content Index > Fetch the complete content index at: https://www.organicfoodtogether.nz/llms.txt > Use this file to discover other available public pages before exploring further. # ACT Won't Fund Organics. Andrew Hoggard Explained Why. - URL: https://www.organicfoodtogether.nz/act-wont-fund-organics-andrew-hoggard-explained-why/ - Published: 2026-10-04T17:31:33.000Z - Updated: 2026-10-04T17:31:32.000Z - Description: ACT didn't fill in the organic sector's election scorecard. On 29 September its minister Andrew Hoggard showed up to explain why, and to set out what ACT will and won't do for organics: no money, no minister, and a Gene Technology Bill he still backs. - Author: Luke Nicholas - Tags: Election 2026, Politics, Vote Organic 2026, OANZ, gene technology bill, organic regulations ACT didn't fill in the scorecard. On 29 September, Andrew Hoggard explained why, on a Zoom call with close to 70 people from the organic sector. His answer was refreshingly short. "Honestly, we were just under the pump with so many things to reply to," he said, adding that most of ACT's answers would have been crosses anyway. The call was the first in [Organics Aotearoa New Zealand's Vote Organic webinar series](https://www.oanz.org/new-blog/watch-vote-organic-webinar-series?ref=organicfoodtogether.nz), a run of one-on-one interviews with MPs before the 7 November election. OANZ is the national body for the organic sector. Its advisor Brendan Hoare asked the questions, and comms manager Lou ran the audience Q&A. You can [watch the full recording](https://youtu.be/Jat0CBKRmPc?ref=organicfoodtogether.nz); it runs just under 30 minutes. Hoggard is the [Minister for Biosecurity, Minister for Food Safety, an Associate Minister of Agriculture and an Associate Minister for the Environment](https://www.mpi.govt.nz/about-mpi/structure/ministers?ref=organicfoodtogether.nz). He is also a dairy farmer [north of Feilding](https://www.ruralnewsgroup.co.nz/dairy-news/dairy-general-news/hoggard-eyes-feds-presidency?ref=organicfoodtogether.nz), and he led Federated Farmers before going into Parliament, which came up more than once on the call. VOTE ORGANIC Webinar Series: In Conversation with Hon Andrew Hoggard ### The blank column OANZ put the same seven questions to every party and published the answers as [the Vote Organic scorecard](https://www.oanz.org/new-blog/vote-organic-the-2026-election-scorecard?ref=organicfoodtogether.nz). The questions cover funding the National Organic Standard, keeping an organics minister, sector investment, export market access, GE-free protection, transition support and whether the party has an organics policy at all. In OANZ's [published response tracker](https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1zTo7XPxhLssu2lAZtaelZdVvam-pJzag/edit?usp=sharing&ouid=109403904221512565131&rtpof=true&sd=true&ref=organicfoodtogether.nz), ACT's column is empty except for one word against the first question: "Declined". Te Pāti Māori's column is empty too. I [went through what the other five said](https://www.organicfoodtogether.nz/two-parties-got-seven-questions-about-organics-they-didnt-answer-any-of-them/) when the scorecard came out. At the time, Hoggard gave Farmers Weekly a more principled reason: a survey where a yes only counts with a funding commitment is a request for a cheque. On the call, it was the workload. OANZ says the scorecard stays open until the election, and Hoare reminded him of that more than once. ### No picking winners Hoare's opening pitch was that organics should be "right down ACT's alley": independent, entrepreneurial, export-led and largely unfunded. So why would ACT say no? Hoggard said he wasn't saying no to growth. He was saying no to money. Putting money into sectors is "picking winners", and "that's not what we do." Work that removes barriers is a different matter, and he offered an example. Four weeks before the call he was in China, he said, and officials there asked him to push for electronic certification of organic products. He raised it, and says the Chinese minister then gave his officials the go-ahead to work on it with New Zealand. I couldn't find anything published on this yet, so for now it rests on his account. The bluntest line came later, when Hoare asked what would stop a government putting a little seed funding into a sector growing at 9% a year. "I'll be blunt. We're not big on government putting money into private businesses." (I've taken the "um" out. He'd thank me.) Worth knowing: the sector has had government money before. In 2021 OANZ itself [received $212,500 from MPI's Sustainable Food and Fibre Futures fund](https://www.oanz.org/oanz-in-the-press/tag/Sustainable+Food+%26+Fibre+Futures?ref=organicfoodtogether.nz) to develop a three-year organic sector strategy. That's the kind of seeding Hoare was describing. ### The levy problem The more interesting exchange was about money the sector already pays but doesn't get. Hoare's point: organic dairy, meat and horticulture growers pay levies to DairyNZ, Beef + Lamb and HortNZ, and none of it comes back to OANZ. Hoggard, who said he pays a levy to DairyNZ himself, agreed it was a real problem. His suggestion was for OANZ to sit down with those levy bodies and work out who does what, as he said Federated Farmers did with them in his time. A separate organic levy looked unlikely to him. It would have to go through the Commodity Levies Act, which he understood to be built around one commodity, and organics cuts across dozens. He said nobody had raised a wider rethink of the levy system with him before. He agreed to explore it with OANZ after the election. ### One minister, please Would ACT keep a dedicated organics minister? No. ACT wants one minister for primary industries, and Hoggard described single-issue portfolios as "vanity ministries that don't actually have a department behind them." Here's the thing. MPI currently [reports to five ministers across six portfolios](https://www.mpi.govt.nz/about-mpi/structure/ministers?ref=organicfoodtogether.nz), and Hoggard is one of them. He holds three of those MPI roles. The organics role he'd scrap belongs to National's Mike Butterick, appointed in May 2026 as [Associate Minister of Agriculture (Organics)](https://www.oanz.org/new-blog/new-zealand-organic-sector-secures-dedicated-voice-in-parliament-?ref=organicfoodtogether.nz), which OANZ believes is a world first. To be fair, he offered himself up too. "Now, if it's not me, hey, take one for the team." ### Gene tech Most of the questions from the floor were about the Gene Technology Bill. Hoggard said the bill still had to come back from select committee. It already has. The Health Committee [reported back in October 2025](https://www.oanz.org/new-blog/gene-tech-bill-update-select-committee-report-released-moving-the-bill-to-the-next-stage?ref=organicfoodtogether.nz), recommending it be passed. As of May 2026 it was [sitting at second reading](https://www.nzkgi.org.nz/gene-editing-symposiums/?ref=organicfoodtogether.nz), with no date set. I couldn't confirm any movement since. On the substance, he said there was work to do on traceability so companies can still prove a product is GE-free for the markets that want it. He said he understood the concern about releases, particularly into pasture. But his focus was gene editing that leaves no novel DNA, the kind of change he said could be reached through conventional breeding. He gave two examples. A disease-resistant tomato grown in a hothouse, which he couldn't see harming anything elsewhere. And a GE vaccine for avian flu he said is under development in the Netherlands, which New Zealand might want if bird flu reached our poultry. Asked why the government hadn't done a full cost-benefit analysis, he said you can't until a product exists. His hypothetical was a kiwifruit 25% sweeter, with 25% more vitamin C, that suddenly dominates the Chinese market. Nobody knows if that's possible, so nobody can price it. ### Small growers Peter Davis, an audience member, asked whether ACT would commit to a realistic exemption so small growers aren't pushed out of organics by verification costs under the new regulations. "I thought there was an exemption," Hoggard said. There is. Growers selling under [$10,000 of organic produce a year](https://www.organicfoodtogether.nz/the-10-000-line-that-decides-which-organic-growers-get-checked/) don't need MPI approval or an independent audit, though they still have to meet the standard and keep records. MPI has just [consulted on whether to keep it there, raise it to $12,700 for inflation, or lift it to $30,000](https://www.mpi.govt.nz/consultations/proposed-changes-to-new-zealands-organic-regulations?ref=organicfoodtogether.nz). That consultation closed on 22 September, a week before the call. His short answer, in the end, was yes: costs should be proportionate to the size of the business. He pointed to his own work on the Food Act, where he said he cut requirements for micro abattoirs. Hoare told him that was his chance to get a tick on the scorecard. Hoggard suggested OANZ just put one there for him. ### Everything else Asked what organics does for the economy, he said organic dairy farmers get around $4 a kilo of milk solids more than he does, and that premium markets lift prices for everyone by taking supply out of the ordinary market. On how to make it easier for farmers to go organic, he said "farming is never easy" and pointed to farmer discussion groups. When Lou suggested an organic charter school, he said that was entirely possible. Hoare noted that ACT is standing an organic farmer this election. ACT's candidate for Papakura, [Malkiat Singh](https://www.act.org.nz/people/malkiat-singh?ref=organicfoodtogether.nz), describes himself as an organic farmer and the founder of an organic farm and food business. None of this is inconsistent. ACT's position is the same for organics as for everything else: government sets the rules and gets out of the way. Hoggard [wrote as much in Dairy News](https://www.ruralnewsgroup.co.nz/dairy-news/dairy-opinion/andrew-hoggard-farm-specialisation-opinion?ref=organicfoodtogether.nz) the week before, arguing that farmers are best placed to decide what their own farm should do. On the call he put it as "we're completely agnostic to how people farm." If you want a government to fund organic growth, keep an organics minister or slow down the Gene Technology Bill, ACT isn't offering that. If you want lower compliance costs for small growers, he said yes, eventually. He closed by saying he knows people think he's anti-organic. "No." His grandfather, he said, was one of the leading lights of the Soil & Health Association in the 1960s, and if anyone still has the minutes, a JD Hoggard should be in there somewhere. [Soil & Health](https://www.organicfoodtogether.nz/the-1941-gardening-club-that-owns-new-zealands-organic-logo/) held its AGM the weekend before. It's 85. --- **Next in the series:** the Green Party's Steve Abel, who followed Hoggard on the same night. ### Before you go If this was useful, you can [get every post by email for free](https://www.organicfoodtogether.nz/#/portal/signup). And if you'd like to help keep it independent, you can [leave a one-off tip](https://www.organicfoodtogether.nz/#/portal/support).