Federated Farmers members will be sadly disillusioned to see that the opposition has continued to allocate agriculture below the halfway point in its shadow portfolio rankings.

Chief Executive, Tony St. Clair said placing agriculture at 20 is a slap in the face for New Zealand's productive sector.

"It is absolutely no use giving priority to health, foreign affairs, police, labour and education if the productive sector isn't providing the taxes to support them," Tony St Clair said. "We even have arts and disarmament given a far higher priority than agriculture."

"To then put biosecurity, border control and associate agriculture at twenty-three (23), one behind Corrections defies logic.

"I'm surprised that with the Government minister of agriculture at eight in the rankings and in a key position on the front bench that the opposition has relegated their spokesperson to the back bench. They obviously don't take agriculture seriously.

Federated Farmers of New Zealand (Inc) members will be expecting to see some early changes to the oppositions priorities and vision for New Zealand's main income earners."

ENDS

© Scoop Media

Gordon Campbell: On the Sony cyber attack

Given the layers of meta-irony involved, the saga of the Sony cyber attack seemed at the outset more like a snarky European art film than a popcorn entry at the multiplex.

Yet now with (a) President Barack Obama weighing in on the side of artistic freedom and calling for the US to make a ‘proportionate response’quickly followed by (b) North Korea’s entire Internet service going down, and with both these events being followed by (c) Sony deciding to backtrack and release The Interview film that had made it a target for the dastardly North Koreans in the first place, then ay caramba…the whole world will now be watching how this affair pans out. More>>