Farming injection ruled out

Press, 23 July 1986, Page 1

Farming injection ruled out

By

HUGH STRINGLEMAN

in Wellington Farming will not get subsidies or injections, a determined Prime Minister told an angry conference of Federated Fanners in Wellington yesterday. Mr Lange was warned by the president of Federated Farmers, Mr Peter Elworthy, that the mood of the conference was more angry than be-

fore over the impact of Government policies on the rural sector. "This is the most determined democratically elected Government in New Zealand,” Mr Lange said. “It is not an angry Government, it is a rational Government which is not going to deviate from its basic policies. “We are determined to be hard-headed and as soft-hearted as we can be, but not soft-headed.”

Mr Lange emphasised very strongly that New Zealand agriculture was being restructured, weaned off subsidies, made more responsive to market forces, and that the process could not be interrupted or modified. “If you pack it in now (and return to subsidies) you will lose all that you have battled for in this last 18 months,” he said. It was impossible for New Zealand to subsidise

its most important Indus- , try. The recent farm debt restructuring policy was as far as the Government was prepared to go in helping farmers adjust to the new economic conditions. “One step further and the package would have hidden the market from farming and it would truly have been a bridge to , nowhere.” Agriculture was kept in most countries of the de-

veloped world as a pet, not a working beast, Mr Lange said. While these countries would be better to buy from New Zealand they could not face the political pain of reducing the size of their farm sectors. “Those countries ,can afford to subsidise agriculture, so they do. But agriculture is not a cottage industry in New Zealand and we simply cannot afford to subsidise it.”

Earlier in the conference yesterday the federation’s president, Mr Elworthy, who was reelected for a further year, gave a speech full of strong words but delivered in a very measured and moderate way. This exemplified the problem he found himself in — how to respond to the more strident demands for direct action by the federation but preserve the basic thrust of its policies directed at an open more-market economy. He tackled his problem by emphasising the emergence of self-help actions by fanners in financial difficulties and the hardening resolve of all farmers to stay on their land. He talked of power, revolution, collective strength, and aggression. “Meat processors are heading for the biggest shock of their centurylong lives,” he said. If they do not lift their marketing and processing performances and return more than $2O a lamb they will cut their own throats. "Farmers will tender for killing, establish our own works and man them if necessary.” Mr Elworthy also reminded the Government that it held power by a "slender” nine-seat majority and that fanners’ votes could make or break the Government. But this strong talk was not strong enough for m&iy of the younger conference delegates who

tried unsuccessfully in the morning to suspend the normal process of debate on economic remits and concentrate on “strategy." Mr Stanley Phillips, of Auckland, said the federation was banging its head against a brick wall in trying to get all its policy objectives recognised and actioned. Mr Richard Alspach, also of Auckland, said many members “had had it with gutless politicians" and wanted the federation to discuss action to ensure the survival of its members. The strategy session was eventually brought on in the afternoon and strong suggestions were raised for action to stop forced farm sales, to tell investors overseas that it was silly to Invest in New Zealand, force competition for farm supplies and services, suspend repayments to the Rural Bank, and withhold provisional tax payments due in September. Another session will be devoted to these suggestions and others later in the three-day conference. The one main remit passed after much debate and amendment yesterday said: “That due to the severity of the present economic conditions which are having disastrous effects on the farming community, Federated Farmers should target the absolute necessity for corrective action in the areas of removal of tariffs, reducing Government spending, freeing up the labour market to achieve reductions in -Interest rates, the exchange rate and inflation rate.” ,