Back turned on farming —Mr Moyle

Press, 7 May 1984, Page 2

Back turned on farming —Mr Moyle

The Government had turned its back on fanning, the Labour spokesman on agriculture and member of Parliament for Hunua, Mr Colin Moyle, said in Rangiora at the week-end.

It preferred overseasdominated oil companies, steel mills, and aluminium smelters to New Zealand farmers, foresters, horticultturists, and industrialists developing and selling New Zealand products, he said.

Mr Moyle was addressing an agricultural and rural seminar in Rangiora organised by the electoral committee of Mr Brian Tomlinson, who is the Labour candidate standing against Mr Derek Quigley and member of Parliament for Rangiora in the forthcoming General Election.

Mr Moyle said that for Labour “think big” was in meat, wool, dairy products, forestry, tourism, and “hightech” industry.

If the Government had been prepared to put money into the production, processing, and marketing of primary products the way it had into the “think big” projects, there would not be a balance of payments or unemployment problem ein five years time, said Mr Moyle. New Zealand must boost investment in sectors where it had a competitive edge and in which it had a good international reputation. Earlier, Mr Moyle had drawn attention to the spectacle of the member of Parliament for Rangiora being “excessively at odds with the Prime Minister.”

Mr Moyle also outlined changes he said would be

desirable in the workings of the Rural Bank, which was set up during his period as Minister of Agriculture.

The farm ownership savings scheme should be transferred from the Post Office to the Rural Bank. He said that it should be the right of any worker in a rural-based industry to establish such a savings account and to be eligible for Rural Bank assistance for buying a rural unit, either part-time or full-time, provided the borrower had the required knowledge or experience.

Special incentives should be provided to encourage retiring farmers and those wishing to be considered later for Rural Bank funding to deposit funds with the bank.

The bank also ought to be able to provide seasonal finance to land users, Mr Moyle said. It ought to be able to consider providing cheque accounts and have an advisory division to help farmers with financial needs.

Labour’s spokesman on forestry, Mr Kerry Burke, the member of Parliament for West Coast, said that the recently established Forestry Council was short of a representative with environmental or conservationist concerns.

As the council had an overview of native or indigenous forests, which covered seven times the land area of exotic forests, it needed representation from conservationists and a Labour government would make that appointment.