Shane Jones is set to unveil the government's new 'Ministry of Forestry' today, as it plans to plant a billion trees in the next decade.
"I hope to get up to 80 million trees this year, I accept it's not 100 million but it's a massive improvement in terms of what we've been doing in the last decade," he said on TVNZ1's Breakfast this morning.
He said he's getting "socked in the House occassionally" about the rate of tree planting to reach the one billion trees in 10 years figure, "but I'm not interested in what those political palm readers have got to say".
When asked by host Jack Tame where the land to plant the trees will come from and if there were farms he was looking to convert, Mr Jones said, "the farmers are a work in progress".
"They are still slightly distanced, because they want to learn what are the benefits, what is the carbon price associated with growing trees."
He said his job was to "slowly but surely, play them like a fish in the water and come closer to growing more trees, less environmental, negative downstream impact".
"I'm convinced that the farmers will move further towards me without, sort of damaging the productivity."
Tame asked if bringing farmers under the ETS would "speed-up" the process, with Mr Jones saying that would be up to the Climate Change Commission.
"We've signalled... in very candid terms what the future is for farmers in terms of the ETS."
He said iwi land would also be used in the tree planting process.
"I'd rather have the iwi leaders focused on planting trees than these long-winded dreams about getting the ownership of water, because that's just never going to be happening, in so far as my leader and I are around."
During the run-up to the election, the Labour Party released a controversial policy to tax water, aiming primarily to hit water bottlers. However, many in the farming community were openly against the tax and the National Party warned against the royalty placing Crown claim on water, which former Treaty Negotiations Minister Chris Finlayson said could open Treaty claims for water.
In an election campaign dominated by tax talk it was the NZ First leader with the big move today. (Source: Other)
Labour's water tax proposal was not supported by New Zealand First, with leader Winston Peters being openly against it during the 2017 election campaign.
Mr Jones said they would reach their tree target next year, but not this year because there were not enough seedlings.
He said a lot of young people would need to be trained in order to plant the trees.
Despite being reluctant to increase the number of Tongan and Fijian workers in the sector, he said that would need to be looked at "seriously".
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