‘Jobs at risk if 2,4,5-T banned’

Press, 6 May 1980, Page 3

‘Jobs at risk if 2,4,5-T banned’

PA Auckland Thousands of New Zealanders could lose their jobs if the Federation of Labour bans the handling of the herbicide 2,4,5-T, says an Auckland fanning leader, Mr H. A. S. Lloyd. Mr Lloyd, chairman of the provincial meat and wool executive .of Auckland Federated Farmers, said yesterday 'that the job loss depended on the fate of a remit to be debated at the F.O.L. conference this week. He said that if the remit seeking a ban by unions on handling 2,4,5-T was carried the immediate effect would be the loss of several hundred jobs held by people employed in the manufacture, distribution, and application of the herbicide on farmland, land being prepared for forestry, and public land con-

trolled by local authorities. More serious would be the loss of thousands of future jobs as pasture land now being developed reverted to gorse and plans for the development of other land were abandoned. “There is no other real weapon against noxious and persistent weed,” Mr Lloyd said. “Talk of slashers or anything else is like reverting to the horse and cart to move the nation’s goods. “It is estimated that within a few years farmland sufficient to carry about seven million stock units could be lost to gorse. “This represents the jobs of thousands of freezing workers, truck drivers, and many others normally engaged in servicing the production from this Targe number of livestock,” Mr Lloyd said.