Thursday 15th Mar 2001 Penny Webster Media Release -- Other

Dairy industry leaders need to act now to protect sharemilkers’ rights, said long-time sharemilker advocate and ACT MP Penny Webster.

"Sharemilkers have been campaigning for years to be shareholders of dairy companies.

"Industry leaders need to bite the bullet and give sharemilkers the rights they deserve.

"There has been no better time to act. Sharemilkers must become shareholders of Globalco, or they will be disenfranchised yet again.

"Lumping Livestock Improvement into the transfer package from NZ Dairy Board to GlobalCo would also be highly unfair to sharemilkers who have made a huge investment in that company.

"Nearly 3500 sharemilkers would be disenfranchised, along with every Westland and Tatua supplier and the small town milk companies.

"To deny sharemilkers access to promised shares demonstrates the arrogance of our industry leaders.

"If the industry doesn't protect the rights of sharemilkers now, there will be no sharemilkers coming through in the future and thus no future farmers to purchase farms.

© Scoop Media

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