Farmers urged not to feel guilty over aid

Press, 23 July 1986, Page 8

Farmers urged not to feel guilty over aid

PA ’ Wellington Farmers should not feel guilty about asking for help, according to the Opposition leader, Mr Bolger. Fanning leaders and commentators had wrongly persuaded them not to ask for anything, Mr Bolger told Federated Farmers’ newspaper, "Straight Furrow." “There’s a guilt feeling that if they’re asking for anything to see them through the crisis then they’re demeaning themselves,” he is quoted in the latest issue as saying. “I think this is quite wrong.. They’re the ones who have been demeaned by the Government’s actions.” Farmers felt unable to ask for help because there was a belief they were being punished for some previous sins, he said. Asked by the

“Dominion” if he was saying farmers should ask the Government for subsidies to tide them over their difficulties, he said: “If I’d meant that, I would have said it” Mr Bolger countered criticism that the National Party only talked generalities about its policies. “We have been specific in stating that the interest rates and the dollar are out of kilter — we can’t change them because we're not in Government We’ve been specific in our demands that the Rural Bank be allowed to help in a much more positive way. “We’ve been specific in saying that the Government has been wrong in loading on charges from Government supply services at a time when farm incomes are so badly depressed.” Mr Bolger said the next National Government would rescue farming.