Labour’s plan recalled

Press, 12 April 1978, Page 11

Labour’s plan recalled

Pressure from farmers for immediate financial help would not have been needed if tne Government had continued with Labour’s long-term plan for farm-income stability, said Mr B. G. Barclay, Opposition spokesman on agriculture. Mr Barclay’s comments came after Federated Farmers asked the Government for an immediate injection of up to SIOOM into farming. He said that the National Party had, in typical fashion, crashed in and decried the principle of subsidies on basic costs, and had proceeded to open up the money market. He said that- two years and a half meat-inspection fees had been forced back on the farmers, fertiliser subsidies had been cut by 60 per cent, transport

charges had been forced up by the removal of subsidies and the road tax levy, and interest rates had increased. “The combination of falling prices and disastrous weather has shattered the farming community,” he said. “They have no alternative but to turn to the taxpayer once again.” Mr Barclaj' said that investment and stable production increases would only be achieved when there was a clear and consistent pattern of longterm development in which both the State and farmers played their part. Controlled interest rates sa and the proper use of the Rural Bank, firm control of basic costs, and active efforts to get young men to work on the land was needed, he said.