End to funding 'putting boot into farmers’

Press, 22 June 1985, Page 12

End to funding 'putting boot into farmers’

PA Wellington The Government’s intention to end Reserve Bank stabilisation funding for producer boards has been described by the Leader of the Opposition, Mr McLay, as putting the boot into fanners. The move would ensure farmers were not paid on time by the producer boards, Mr McLay said. The Ministers of Agriculture and Finance sent a joint letter to the chairmen of producer boards at the week-end, suggesting the abolition of stabilisation funding through the Reserve Bank.

“There will inevitably be substantial delays in making payments to farmers. Arrangements will have to be substantially revised,” xMr McLay said.

Farmers would have to raise additional funds, either through stock and station agents or banks, to tide them over the period until they were paid. “They will be raising that money in a market where interest rates are already in excess of 20 per cent and penalty interest rates are now in excess of 30 per cent.”

Mr McLay said many farmers faced with that situation were already burdened with excessive debt, at interest rates they could not afford.

“It is going to have very serious long-term implications for New Zealand farming.” Mr McLay said the Government was putting the boot into the farming industry at a time when it was already on the ground.