National Party accused of ‘using’ farmers

Press, 30 August 1986, Page 34

National Party accused of ‘using’ farmers

By

OLIVER RIDDELL

in Wellington

Farmers are going through the most traumatic time in the last 50 years, according to the chairman of the Labour Party Primary Producers’ Council, Mr Allan Wallbank (Lab., Gisborne).

It was traumatic because of the many changes farmers had undergone during the last 12 to 18 months. It was also traumatic because farmers and rural people were being fed “a constant tirade of exaggeration, emotional claptrap, and general doom and gloom” by the National Opposition, he said.

Farmers were being used; their fears and lack of knowledge and understanding were being played upon.

There was a lack of effective leadership in rural communities which led to a lack of co-ordina-tion and the effective use of resources for social

adjustment, Mr Wallbank said.

What were needed were strategic planning workshops, programmes at all levels to develop communication and leadership skills, and other steps, to provide a positive starting point for each organisation to manage change rather than simply react to it.

The process of change could not be ignored, he said. Rural communities were in a situation of awakening rather than just having a bad dream. Many rural people had been waiting for the exchange rate to weaken, interest rates to fall, the Rural Bank to announce a helpful package, or the politicians to get the message.

However, sitting around and hoping for someone else to solve their problem was not enough for rural people, Mr Wallbank said. The present situation, no matter how unsatisfactory, was the new scene.