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Federated Farmers President Katie Milne.
The Government’s Covid-19 economic support package is being praised by Federated Farmers.
“We support this package as being decisive and pragmatic,” says Federated Farmers President Katie Milne.
“Coming on top of the Reserve Bank’s similar response yesterday, New Zealand has in the past two days delivered a big stimulus, and quickly.”
“The Government has clearly decided that rather than give everyone a bit of extra money, to instead throw the kitchen sink at those most directly affected, and our most vulnerable people in the hope this will contain the impact on the wider economy.”
Milne says the package’s recognition of the vulnerability of small businesses was pleasing.
“There are a large number of small tourism and family businesses that rely on passing tourists in our rural communities, and they are already hurting.
“These businesses and their staff are in our rural communities and we stand by them.”
Milne also applauds the packages support for small businesses and employees that cannot operate from home.
“It’s also great that the needs of small businesses that cannot operate from home, and whose employees cannot work from home have been targeted for assistance - these people and businesses are the backbone of our rural, provincial, and urban communities alike.”
Federated farmers says the tax changes announced in the package will be useful for businesses in weathering the pandemic.
The tax changes include the reinstatement of depreciation deductions for commercial and industrial buildings, increasing the threshold for provisional tax, waiving interest on some late tax payments, and immediate deductions for low value assets.
However, there’s still some areas Federated Farmers want the Government to offer support on.
“We would like to see some commitment around prolonging the visas of migrant workers in New Zealand, to ensure that our primary producers can continue to produce,” says Milne.
Federated Farmers says new legislation replacing the Resource Management Act will cut red tape, unlock investment and help grow New Zealand's export-led economy, after the Planning Bill and Natural Environment Bill passed their third reading in Parliament yesterday.
Leading figures from the major political parties will be questioned on their primary sector policies at the Rural Issues Debate at Mystery Creek Events Centre, Hamilton, on 30 September.
Will the good times last? That's one of the key issues to come out of the latest Federated Farmers confidence survey.
Mid Canterbury Federated Farmers arable chair, Bevan Lill, said Beef + Lamb NZ data indicated that for the last six years, the average arable return on investment was about 0.8% while inflation ran about 4% - so the average arable farm was going backwards at about 3% a year.
For the first time in a quarter of a century, Federated Farmers has something positive to say about the Labour Party’s climate change policy leading into a general election.
LIC shareholders have elected a new North Island representative to the co-operative's Board, along with five representatives to its Shareholder Reference Group (SRG), following the company's Annual Meeting held in Invercargill.
Farmers across parts of Southland and South Otago are continuing to deal with difficult conditions after a prolonged run of wet weather, with pressure building around feed supply, stock management, pasture damage, farm infrastructure and everyday workloads.
Federated Farmers says it welcomes Labour's commitment to reviewing the Sharemilking Agreements Act, calling on other major parties to do the same.
For Canterbury dairy farmers Sian Meijer and Rick Wobben, wearable technology has become one of their most valuable on-farm tools - helping manage 1850 cows across an expansive, high-performing dairy operation while improving efficiency, mating outcomes and day-to-day decision making.
Fonterra has unveiled its annual results for the 2026 financial year, posting $27 billion in revenue and close to $20 billion returned to New Zealand farmer owners and unit holders.
The first major update to the Dairy Cattle Code of Welfare in more than a decade has been released, marking what DairyNZ describes as an important step in ensuring animal welfare standards continue to evolve alongside scientific evidence and on-farm realities.
