Federated Farmers wants to know whether the latest fine imposed on a Crafar family farm for effluent breaches is in the public interest.
 
Allan Crafar and his company sharemilker, Hermann Kibler, were fined $45,000 on Friday for discharging effluent onto land where it entered a waterway at a farm near Bulls.
 
The Crafar family owes more than $200 million to PGG Wrightson, Westpac and RaboBank after its central North Island farm holdings went into receivership last October.
 
The latest prosecution was brought by the Manawatu-Whanganui regional council Horizons.
 
Federated Farmers national dairy chair, Lachlan McKenzie says the Crafars have no means of paying up, so fine and court costs will be added to the list of unsecured creditors who may now have even less chance of getting the money they’re owed.
 
Allan Crafar, who’s refusing to leave his farm at Reporoa despite a relocation offer by receivers of six months’ free rent in Rotorua, says the Environment Court conviction is part of a campaign to discredit farmers who work hard to support the country.
 
However, the regional council says the sharemilker allowed hectares of land to be covered in effluent up to 60cm deep in 2008.