Council to tax wine industry?

Really?
(See here for the Marlborough Express article and here for the agenda at the Council)
What have they done wrong lately?
Actually, this might sound a bit facetious, but I disagree with this in a number of ways.

Firstly, why should decent, responsible vineyard owners be burdened with the fallout from the irresponsible polluters who should be the targets here? I don't see why the owner of a vineyard that is not keeping their neighbors awake or spraying them with chemicals should have to pay for the poor planning and rat-bag actions of those who could care less.
Secondly, Mayor Sowman is right, $5 per hectare is not a huge sum. Frankly it's insignificant. Considering that there is an anticipated return of many thousands per hectare and a frost fan owner is willing to spend $50,000 on a machine to protect approximately 6-8 hectares. Tax the machines and leave the sensible growers alone. $100 per machine should see you right.

And what's with the "He said", "They said" between the Council and the NZ Winegrowers? For crying out loud, it just demonstrates that the poor communication skills on both sides are unlikely to ever result in an equitable arrangement and the innocent public will be the ones wide awake in the middle of the night.

This is an election year, I thought there would be more constructive effort put in.