Venue decision defended

Press, 18 December 1985, Page 3

Venue decision defended

The president of North Canterbury Federated Farmers, Mr Michael Murchison, has hit back at criticism of an open-air meeting in Christchurch last week attended by the Ministers of Finance, Mr Douglas, and Agriculture, Mr Moyle. Mr Moyle had described the meeting, called by the Government to explain to farmers details of the economic statement, as unconducive to the type of

discussions needed. It had been difficult to give details at an open-air venue, he said.

Mr Murchison defended the decision by Federated Farmers to hold the meeting at the Addington Showgrounds.. The federation was given very little time to arrange the meeting and had no idea of what size crowd to expect “The venue had nothing at

all to do with Mr Moyle’s ability to put across the Government’s point of view,” said Mr Murchison.

Some farmers obviously thought the meeting would be a political platform for the Government to push its views and others knew so little about the economic statement that they realised there would be little point in attending, Mr Murchison said.