Federated Farmers president Don Nicolson says the Emissions Trading Scheme (ETS) will impose unfair added costs on the agriculture industry, and the law will not last the test of time.
About 80 people, including farmers and family lobby groups, marched on Parliament on Tuesday afternoon protesting against the ETS, which is due to come into effect next month.
Mr Nicolson says even though the agricultural sector won't be fully included in the scheme until 2015, farmers will be hit in the pocket immediately.
He says every dairy farmer will have to pay an extra $3300 next year because of the ETS, and sheep farmers an extra $1200.
'An attack on all New Zealanders'
ACT Party leader Rodney Hide says the ETS is an attack on all New Zealanders, who will be burdened by the increased cost of basics such as food and electricity.
Mr Hide says the ETS will unfairly put up costs for families and farmers, and he will continue to fight for the law to be scrapped.
He says nowhere else in the world will people have to endure such costs.
In Auckland, about 20 people attended a public meeting on the ETS scheme on Tuesday evening, though seating was available for several hundred.
The Minister for Climate Change, Nick Smith, says the public is all talked out over the debate surrounding climate change and the ETS. He says there is more angst about the ETS in rural communities, where large crowds have attended meetings.
