Compulsory Levy for all selling Plants

My guess is there is a lot of people on here who are currently selling plants who are not aware of a proposal by NGINZ. Their proposal is to make it compulsory for all who grow and sell plants in any form to have to pay a levy by enacting the Commodity Levy Act. I think the vote is in May for it and all it needs to pass it 50% of those who vote to vote for it.
If it does go through everyone who sells a plant that they have grown in some form - even just changing pots will be liable for this levy as well as orchardists etc who grow their own plants. They will also be able to send in auditors to check on anyone they think is not paying what they think they should be. Further to this they have hinted that they will be asking Trade me for account details to get people who sell plants on here to pay. If you want more detail on their proposal see their website: http://nginz.co.nz/towards-2025/106-318
With the NGINZ push for the compulsory levy there is a great concern around the use of the levy funds.
Please share with all who maybe affected by this.

Wow , I didn't know, always someone who wants other peoples money
How do we cut the bastards down
What purpose. Commodity levies generally have to "benefit" industry players . So meat wool forestry all have a benefit cost situation, but I can't see where a levy can benefit a seedling grower?

Everything I read on this states it is "Any business that grows plants and sells them for commercial return will be subject to the levy. " I can't see how an individual flicking off some seedlings from their garden would be liable as they would not be an actual ongoing commercial business. Hopefully this would indeed be the case :)

That would just be a levy to fund the industry association which acts for the good of everyone in the industry. Fees for curent contributors will go down if everyone gets pinged. It can't be very much to fund an association like that anyway, so what is the problem really.

Golly just imagine how much it would cost to collect from every person who sells a few plants on Trade Me , hardley think it would be worth it.

Which only goes to prove that the only way to stop all this nonsense is to ensure that EVERYONE that could be a target - REGISTERS to vote in MAY and MAKES SURE that we nip it in the bud. Apathy is no good and whingeing after the event will have no effect. I will tell you that there ARE PEOPLE who have had their minds changed and now plan to vote for this. Personally, I think they've had the wool pulled but that is just my opinion.
No, robotnik, that is not correct. If you read the proposal (and can make head nor tail of all the marketing bull) you will see it is far more than that. But what concerns a lot of us is the lack of information, decisions and general common sense that proves that this is an ill considered action.

Can someone tell me what GIA is? And greenlife double?
Who's running this and what is the scope of the "Industry" they are talking about?

Its "NZGINZ" The Nursery & Garden Industry Association of New Zealand. Go to their website link as provide above for more info on NZGINZ and their proposal to levy anyone who grows plants for sale. There is a culmative effect of the levy because you can have 2-3 growers in the chain to produce a plant (propagator, nursery, retailer), therefore each "grower" is levied, each plant has multiple levy costs that ultimately affect the cost of growing the plant = more expensive plants to consumer . http://nginz.co.nz/towards-2025/106-318

NZGINZ's definition of who would be liable to pay the Plant Levy .

If our applications are approved by the Minister of Primary Industries, any business that grows plants and sells them for commercial return will be subject to the levies. ??

That would hugely increase the price of seed and food in the long run, scary stuff, growers have to get their money back somehow.

And don't forget to add 15% GST on top of all this

NGIA is the current Nursery and Growers Industry Assn which Is due, I believe, to morph into the NGINZ (New "NGIA" effectively) Traditionally, it hasn't been well supported within the industry and as a result, doesn't have a lot of funding (ie subscriptions) to come and go on. There are two major things involved in this new umbrella - firstly, by charging a levy (purportedly a biosecurity levy but we'll come back to that) everyone that grows and sells a plant will be charged that levy. That will give them automatic membership of NGINZ and will (if they have their way) bring in over a million dollars in income to NGINZ. So, effectively, it is forcing growers (even the teeny tiny ones) to become members. I might say here that there is as yet, no rules or charter to the NGINZ - and these guys expect us all to support them blindly - the answer to that one is Yeah! right! The second part is this absolutely nonsensical belief or whatever that we can double the amount of plant sales in 10 years. I don't know about the rest of you but I have been feeling the effects of the economic downturn big time for the past 8 or nine years. From where I stand, It's still shovelling shit uphill to get sales and we have nowhere near the interest in horticulture that we did when this all started. You just simply cannot demand that anyone buys anything other than what they willingly want to buy. How are they going to achieve this? You tell me. The only places likely to be greening NZ is Auckland and Christchurch - one with the maniacal over development of an already under stress city and the other trying to re-establish a bombsite.
Firstly, these industry "boards" should never get involved in things that the retail sector does perfectly well. How arrogant that they perceive their methods to be more correct and achievable than the very people who deal with it every day. They should be there (if needed at all) to represent the industry in areas where individuals are unable to achieve this. Things like recommendations to MPI on plant or seed imports and getting behind industry training initiatives. We are certainly not a big enough entity to have people riding on the backs of small growers (because let's face it - the majority of our growers are classed as small and medium sized businesses. The big ones, of which there are a few - would likely be the only ones to really be advantaged by any of this (if at all) but having said that - I"m not sure they are behind this (in support) anyway.
The necessity is that we have to have a 50% (or more) of the growers in support and of those 50% or more they need to supply at least 50% of the plants sold. The problem being - all the people, like me, who got mad and cross about the total stupidity of it all (and believe you me - there are plenty of us!) tended to take the attitude that we were not going to waste any of our precious time on it. Problem is - that is what they want us to do - then all the ones in favour will get this passed. It is absolutely critical that we all register AND VOTE. The vote will take place in May - and that will be it - folks. We get one shot at this. I was told that there were 851 nurseries and growers identified in NZ and only 200 of them have responded. I'm actually sure there are far more than that (teeny, tiny growers like me) so we all need to hit them big with our votes.
What got me going in the first place was the total bullshit that was spouted in the promo stuff. It was obvious that a marketing person had been employed (probably at great expense and also someone who knew nothing of the industry) It was just a series of platitudes and gobbledegook that made it just about impossible to understand what the actual point was. So I quite understand if you give up in desperation.

I've been so vocal - I had to use another message! whoops.
I actually gave the proposal to another person who is fully conversant with this sort of stuff and asked the question "am I missing something?" The answer was no - just the usual sort of crap one gets for people trying to justify their jobs and over inflated salaries.
I couldn't get to the meetings but I did tee up with several who were going to give me a full report on what was said. That was interesting, to say the least. In fact, there has just been another email in support of their cause. They report that there is a lot of mis-information being circulated. If they told it like it really was then maybe there wouldn't be so much confusion. Also - the tone is still that this is going ahead - not the least bit of concession that the majority don't approve. Again, how bloody arrogant - just the sort of bullish behaviour that seems so prevalent these days.

Thanks piquant for your imput into this thread. I did get to one of the meetings and they were very much pushing it with the same lines that it will be great without saying what actually might be done except compare it to what it happening in Australia, where what is being done isn't actually working. They did also say at the meetings anyone who sells plants for commercial gain will be hit with this, and not just commercial operators.
At the meeting I went to it what also pointed out that the figures they gave for the admin side was way to small and it would appear that a huge amount of the proposed money raised will be spent on admin and keeping people in jobs, which only really help a few (maybe 5) of the the big players in the industry and to the detriment of everyone else.

I've yet to speak to anyone who is actually in favour of this. There has been plenty of chatter between growers in the industry and one very well established grower guardedly said that they were in favour of a very small bit of it - that without the erstwhile NGIA input - we may not have the range of seed available to bring in. That maybe so but if MPI do their job properly - there really shouldn't be any real issue with that. The only problem is - that half the time they can't keep up with name changes - so they certainly wouldn't keep up with current buying trends! One other person I have heard of was against it but after the meeting - changed their minds. They are obviously easily swayed from what I understand of the presentation - it's still as clear as mud!
You're right, liz-star - even if they did achieve an income of +/- million - I can see salary increases, cars, overseas junkets to this or that garden show (we have to keep up with the overseas trends, you know!) and there will be diddely squat left for all the other things that are far more pressing.
I simply do not believe a word of it. I work bloody hard and make precious little. I think this is a ruse to do exactly the opposite.

This thread was started on April 1st.

And?. you obviously think that's funny? It sounds pretty serious to me and I don't even sell plants.

More misinterpretation and scaremongering.
Geez, are people really this stupid?

Piquant and nchun ( same topic, another post ) never struck me as scaremongerers so I tend to listen to their concerns more than yours.
Hopefully other growers respond.

Thank you for your support and concern, tui93. You are quite right - neither of us are prone to exaggeration or scaremongering and neither of us are stupid either. What we both are - are horticulturalists with a huge concern that the industry doesn't consume itself in bureaucracy and that folk have a choice to have the things they would still like to have that the current industry believes is non economic. Neville with his interesting fruit varieties and I with my perennials.
Maybe, lythande, if you were in the industry rather than plumbing, I would tell you to go back and read what would have been sent to you. But as you are not and this will not affect you (other than paying more for your plants if it gets passed) I find it rather scathing of you to dismiss our concerns without knowing the facts. I might even go as far as saying about your comment "Geez are people really this stupid?" Well, if the cap fits, wear it.

Thanks tui93 and piquant. Have a nice Easter Monday. Cheers!

Is there a cost to register and vote? Retired Hubby has a VERY small hobby selling plants - mainly here on Trademe. Is it worth registering and then voting or is this likely to cause a "request" for membership fees etc?

Ha! They can legislate all they want. Good luck to them enforcing it on household sellers. It's the same issue with paying tax. If you are "In Trade" etc, etc.
Hobbyists and selling unwanted household items are exempt as not "In Trade".

There is no cost to register and vote. You are better to register and vote than do nothing and hope it won't become a compulsory national plant levy applicable to ANYONE growing plants for sale. Cheers!

I would hold fire for a very short while. There was a meeting yesterday which hopefully, will have forced the issue and make them have to re-think. Haven't heard back this early after the event but - hopefully, within the next week. If it doesn't work (which it damned well should!) them we will have to register by the beginning of May as the vote is currently 18th May.