Farmers get little joy

Press, 14 December 1985, Page 1

Farmers get little joy

Angry Canterbury farmers were given little hope at a meeting in Christchurch last evening that the Government would waver from its economic policies. The Minister of Finance, Mr Douglas, and the Minis-

ter of' Agriculture' Mr Moyle;' defended the Government’s ‘ - - economic strategy, and in particular the economic package announced on Thursday. They emphasised that farming could not be divorced from the whole economic scene. About 270 farmers attended the meeting, held in a grandstand at the Addington Showgrounds, and called by the Government to allow the Ministers to explain first-hand the economic measures and their implications for farmers.

The main thrust of questions by farmers concerned the short-term effects of the policies on the livelihood of farmers and the flow-on to rural communities. An Oxford farmer, Mr Robert Johnston, said the Government’s latest economic package contained no human element.

The present period would go down as a disaster era for New Zealand agriculture, said Mr Johnston, who asked whether the Ministers understood how much heartache the rural community was suffering. Mr Moyle said humanity depended on profitability being restored to the rural sector. The removal in the economic package of the tax “claw back” and of the $lO,OOO loss restriction would allow more money to be spent in the rural community. The damage that had been done to the economy during the previous 10 years could not be undone in a few months, said Mr Moyle. The Government was very much aware of the stress and suffering in the community. Mr Douglas said humanity was about fixing the problem, not partly fixing it and allowing the problem to get worse.

Both Ministers pointed to latest figures showing a reduction in the value of the New Zealand dollar, interest rates, and inflation. Mr Douglas said inflation for the last quarter had been 12

per cent; and would be 6 to 8 per cent for this quarter. ” Mr Moyle estimated that mortgage borrowing rates would start coming dpwn in two to three months, and ' that within a few weeks the value of the New Zealand dollar compared with the United States dollar could fall below 50c. Commenting on provisions in the economic package which would help farmers to sell their farms, Mr Moyle said some farmers had got into serious financial difficulty and were faced with the reality of selling up. They and their families would be better off

if they were helped out of their helpless debt position. However, the vast majority of farmers wanted to stay in farming and because farming was a private enterprise there could be no absolute guarantee of profit from every decision farmers niade, said Mr Moyle. Mr Douglas described compulsory unionism as a red herring in the effect it was having oh the economy. There were far more important issues in the labour market and a Green Paper on the industrial issue would be released next week.