‘Assistance, not handouts’

Press, Volume CXV, Issue 33858, 2 June 1975, Page 2

‘Assistance, not handouts’

(Front Our Own Reporter) WELLINGTON, June 1. Federated Farmers spokesmen, including the president (Mr J. T. Kneebone) have unjustifiably claimed that the Budget offered nothing for farmers, says the Undersecretary for Agriculture (Mr Barclay).

' “My remarks in the; ■ Budget debate were designed! ito show that their claims are! i completely false,” Mr Barclay said. “To requote from my statement in the House: ‘The total • expenditure to help farmers jis sl3om, and that shows that the Labour Government !is concerned about the I farmers. The Labour GovemIment backs the man on the I land, because that is where I the production comes from, and that is why this money is being made available to the farming community.’

“Nowhere in my speech did I use the word ‘handout.’ That term has been adopted by Mr Kneebone and the press. Throughout I used the expression “assistance to farmers’,” said Mr Barclay. The figures he quoted were of Budget provisions intended to help farmers to hold costs. They were not “spurious” as I. Mr Kneebone claimed, nor did they include expenditure! on research, as he claims — “that item totals another sl3rh from the Ministry of

Agriculture and $ 10.6 m for the Department of Scientific! and Industrial Research,” said Mr Barclay.