Todd McClay was joined by Waitaki electorate candidate Miles Anderson to discuss the state of farming with the public in Geraldine, Waimate and Palmerston.
At the Waimate conference, Mr McClay outlined the party’s plans to simplify agricultural regulation and "supercharge the rural economy".
A key part would be by introducing a "2-for-1 rule" when installing any new agricultural regulation, meaning for every new piece of regulation, two must be removed.
A task force called the Rural Regulation Review Panel would be created to ensure the correct rules were being removed and "sensible" new rules were created.
Any new regulation would also need to be assessed for the cost to farmers, with the findings published.
The end goal was to have "fewer rules, but better ones".
When asked how many people would be on the panel and where the money for it would come from, he said the logistics would be sorted after the election.
Another way to combat regulation would be to allow government departments to share certain information filed by farmers, which would stop them from having to file similar information to different governing bodies.
National would also help farmers by easing restrictions on biotechnology, which would allow farmers to reduce emissions without sacrificing their production.
Mr Anderson outlined National’s three major focuses, which were cost of living and economy, health and education, and crime.
In regards to health, he said the affects of the national crisis were being seen here, with Oamaru’s emergency department shutting down overnight on Monday night.
Those types of situations were "not acceptable in New Zealand".
When asked if National would scrap the discussion on introducing te reo Māori to road signs, he said it was not an issue and there would be no waste of money replacing the signs until they had worn out their natural lifespan anyway.
"If you’ve got a real problem with road signs having both Māori and English on them, you’re really worried about the wrong sort of things."
