Farm debt load prompts launch
By
OLIVER RIDDELL
in Wellington
Farm debt of $8 billion has prompted the establishment of a rural trust to co-ordinate measures between farmers, their lenders and social welfare agencies.
The Farm Sector Trust was launched in Parliament yesterday by the Prime Minister, Mr Lange, and will run for a year on a mixture of State and private funds. Its chairman will be the former president of Federated Farmers, Sir Peter Elworthy, and its budget will be $1.5 million — taken from Government agencies, the Lottery Board and the private sector.
rehabilitation of farmers and their families whose situations indicate that their future viability was in question. To this end, he said, the trust would fund a network of rural co-ordina-tors. Sir Peter said he was pleased to be associated with the trust. He will be joined on the board by Mr David Baker, a Wairarapa farm management consultant, and Mrs Sandra Neeley, a Waikato farm partner. The disaster co-ordina-tor, Mr Jock McKenzie, has helped with the appointment of 15 regional co-ordinators, and has been a key figure in the trust. Mr Lange said there
were possibilities for farming to increase its production and worth, but the problem of debt-rid-den farmers had to be tackled first.
ment had moved too late to arrest the crisis in rural New Zealand. He urged the trust not to "degenerate into a soft, back-door, option to the mortgagee sale,” and took a swipe at the Government’s economic policies, blaming then for the state of farming. “The Farm Sector Trust is an admission of the failure of Rogernomics. It was a ghastly experiment that’s gone hopelessly wrong, and farmers and their families have borne the brunt of the suffering,” he said.
Setting up the trust was a recognition of a substantial backlog of farm sales and also of the fact that the country had not yet benefited from a hopedfor recycling within the farming industry. It was necessary to break the logjam, break the psychological barrier and move for a renewal in the rural sector, he said.
“Too many farms are no longer viable, but overconcentration on this and estimates of the rural debt is drying up the flow of cash to farmers,” Mr Lange said.
The Opposition has likened the trust to King Canute trying to stop the tide coming in. Its agriculture spokesman, Mr John Falloon, said the Govern-
The Government had sat on its hands and allowed the rural crisis to grow to enormous proportions before helping establish the trust, he said.
The aim of the trust was to identify and facilitate the restructuring and
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Press, 24 September 1988, Page 8
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436Farm debt load prompts launch Press, 24 September 1988, Page 8
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