Prime Minister Chris Hipkins has spoken to media from the 55th annual Fieldays at Mystery Creek.
Hipkins has been at the event talking to farmers ahead of this year's general election.
This morning, Hipkins ruled out a fertiliser tax which had been raised by the agriculture minister as a possible backup option to He Waka Eke Noa, the industry led partnership working to price on-farm emissions.
This was met with anger and frustration by farmers and other political parties who said it showed He Waka Eke Noa was dead in the water.
Hipkins said the government was still working through He Waka Eke Noa and continued to support it.
He said it was "great" to be at Fieldays but understood the primary sector would be feeling the uncertainty other New Zealanders were.
Three years of disruption including a global pandemic, deteriorating global environment in terms of economy and conflict, supply chain disruptions and extreme weather events had all hit the primary sector. The government had heard that, Hipkins said.
Hipkins said there was never any certainty around a fertiliser tax and he had ruled it out because farmers had said they would rather move forward with He Waka Eke Noa instead.
He would meet with sector leaders over He Waka Eke Noa on Thursday.
"I think we can get a way forward, I don't think we're that far apart."
Hipkins said he believed Labour was "a party for all New Zealanders" - including farming communities.
"I'm out to get every single vote that I can, I'm not writing off any sector of the population."
Reaction to him at Fieldays had been "mostly positive" and taking aim at comments made earlier in the week by National Party leader Christopher Luxon, Hipkins said: "I haven't meet anyone who's wet, I haven't met anyone who's whiny, I haven't met anyone who's inward-looking, I haven't met anyone who's really negative - admittedly I haven't run into Christopher Luxon yet."
However, Christopher Luxon, who also spoke at Fieldays, said it was important the agricultural sector continued to grow.
He doubled-down on claims the Labour government had treated farmers like villains, and also re-iterated he had not been referring to the general public when he said New Zealand had become a "a very negative, wet, whiny, inward-looking country" that had "lost the plot", earlier this week.
"I'm not calling them wet and whiny," Luxon said.
"New Zealand is the best country on planet Earth. It has endless potential. We have very smart people, we are right bang smack in the middle of the Asia Pacific region. But under this Labour government in the last six years, this is a country heading utterly, totally completely in the wrong direction ... the government is wet and whiny."
In addition to being Labour MPs, Hipkins said he and his colleagues were at the event as the government would be expected to be there and engaging positively.
In response to National's earlier announcement about gene editing, Hipkins said discussions needed to continue.
New Zealand needed to be careful not to make changes before understanding the implications, he said.
Scientific progress was already being made on gene editing and Labour was not turning its back on it, he continued.
Hipkins said biosecurity was front of mind for many sector leaders - and he was "very proud" of the work that had been done around Mycoplasma bovis.
Labour shortages were also front of mind and the government would continue work with sectors on that.
Hipkins said he had seen some "amazing" examples of tech in the farming industry to measure and reduce emissions while at Fieldays.
"The technology is there. I think we've got to look at the scale and the deployment of that technology."
With regard to inflation, Hipkins said things were getting better on a "month-by-month basis" and there was light at the end of the tunnel.
"We're making progress, we want to get inflation back down cause that is the thing that's eating away at household budgets."
Govt's agricultural policies all over the show - Luxon
Luxon said the government's agricultural policies had been all over the show.
"We've supported He Waka Eke Noa from the beginning, we've said that's right that the industry develops a solution. Chris Hipkins and the Labour government shot it to pieces, they killed it back at the end of last year. And so it's a bit like a bad Monty Python skit with the 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."
The government's policies would destroy a fifth of sheep and beef farmers in seven years, Luxon said, and move production overseas to less efficient places.
"It makes no sense to introduce agricultural pricing at a point when farmers have no tools or technologies or benefits of sequestration to offset those emissions.
"Making global greenhouse gas emissions no better, at the same time destroying livelihoods, weakening our economy and making every single New Zealander poorer in this country. And so, you know, chucking a fertiliser tax or whatever else is dreamed up last minute to try and create something is a waste of time."
Luxon said it was possible to meet 2050 carbon neutral goals without destroying the agricultural industry.
It follows the National Party's announcement that it would reassess the restrictions on genetic modification if it came into government. The technology was not mutually exclusive with New Zealand's green branding, Luxon said.
"The reality is New Zealand needs to maintain a clean, green image," he said.
"When you do have pest-resistant grasses, for example, and you're not using pesticides that are ending up in rivers, that's a good thing. When you make sure that you can actually deliver on your emissions targets and deliveries, that's a good thing ... think about many of the European Agricultural countries that have actually embraced technology while also maintaining clean and green image. Those two things are not mutually exclusive."
