Federated Farmers oppose devaluation

Press, 7 May 1984, Page 14

Federated Farmers oppose devaluation

A devaluation of the New Zealand dollar would have severe effects on arable fanners, the chairman of the agriculture section of North Canterbury Federated Farmers, Mr George Hutton, told the section’s annual conference in Christchurch on Friday. “I will not have a penny of devaluation because I don’t believe it will do farmers any good and certainly on past experiences, it hasn’t done the country any good,” said Mr Hutton.

An after-devaluation round of inflation-increased costs would destroy the positive effects of the wage and price freeze, he said.

If a devaluation was to take account of the present level of supplementary minimum prices, about 7 per cent would be needed to cover S.M.Ps on wool and 20 per cent to cover S.M.P.S on sheepmeats. Mr Hutton called the likely effects on arable farmers “horrific,” citing 20 per cent rises in the costs of machinery, spare parts, tyres, and fuel.

The Government should continue to act to stop all New Zealanders, including farmers, living beyond their incomes.

Mr Hutton said he was putting forward personal views in his chairman’s ad-

dress to the annual conference. Later in the conference some of those views on controls in the economy were echoed by a guest speaker, Mr W. R. Cameron, the president of the Canterbury Trades Council and secretary of the Canterbury and Westland branch of the Meat Workers’ Union. Mr Cameron said the trade union movement was not unhappy about controls on the economy in order to reduce inflation. A reduction in inflation was firmly in the interests of the wage and salary earners who had the bulk of their assets tied up in houses and cars. Trade unions also accepted Government intervention in the wage fixing process provided it was across the board and fair.

In the present protracted negotiations to find a longterm wage fixing system, the unions, through the Federation of Labour, could not agree to a change to industry bargaining based on the ability of an industry to pay, as was being put forward by employers and the Government, Mr Cameron said. “The Government says that until the unions agree the wage freeze will continue, but the price freeze has been lifted.” Mr Cameron said he accepted that meat and wool farmers faced big problems

and that costs in the meat industry had got out of hand and now should be controlled.

The present rolling-stop-pages campaign in freezing works was not aimed at increases in wages for meat workers, he assured the farmers. The union wanted to have discussions with employers about some outstanding matters, including retirement provisions, and it was being prevented from doing so by Government regulation.

In response to a question, Mr Cameron said that the average weekly wage of Canterbury’s mutton slaughtermen while they were in work for about half the year was around $4BO. The North Canterbury agriculture section conference resolved to ask the Dominion conference to agree to the Federated Farmers inquiry into the wheat testing procedures of the Wheat Research Institute.

To do this effectively it might be necessary to bring in testing experts from other countries, delegates said.

Delegates said they continued to be concerned by widely differing baking score results on the same lines of wheat when they were tested more than once.