Agriculture not mentioned says Anderton

“Have farmers finally got the message from John Key’s National government? He’s not interested in farming and can barely bring himself to pay lip service to the sector,” says Jim Anderton MP for Wigram.

Here are the facts:

As Federated Farmers pointed out this week, ‘as far as the budget was concerned, agriculture wasn’t really mentioned, we got a few crumbs.’ (Economics and Commerce spokesperson, Philip York).

In 2008 John Key didn’t mention agriculture in his speech from the throne, which outlined his government’s priorities for the three year term.

In his statements to parliament at the beginning of his first year as Prime Minister, where he lays out the government’s plans again, he failed to mention agriculture.

Bill English’s first budget failed to mention agriculture.

In the infamous Brash report, commissioned by John Key’s government, farming got just 24 words in the entire 150 page Taskforce Report.

The government’s decision to axe the Fast Forward Fund and get rid of tax credits for businesses prepared to invest in research and development in the primary sector has robbed farmers of $2 billion worth of R&D.

Now, after the National government’s second budget, a miserly $20 million over four years will go towards a voucher system for businesses to buy research from universities or Crown Research Institutes.

“There’s no guarantee that they will buy research that’s anything to do with the primary sector or farming,” Jim Anderton said.

“Is there anything about this sorry situation that the farmers of New Zealand do not understand?

“All the money already allocated to the Primary Growth Partnership amounts to just over a quarter of what scientists in the primary sector would have got under the Fast Forward Fund.

"John Key’s National government is not a friend to farmers. It has no commitment to the export sector or to farmers. Is this what the farming community really voted for?”

ends

© Scoop Media