Editorial: Having a rural voice
OPINION: The past few weeks have been tough on farms across the North Island: floods and storms have caused damage and disruption to families and businesses.
“Just like the average farmer’s budget this season, the Government doesn’t have a lot of spare cash laying around to spend on nice-to-haves and optional extras,” notes Langford.
He says at an operational level, he was relieved to see all the non-negotiables were still there, with continued funding for things like frontline biosecurity, catchment groups and cyclone recovery.
“Unfortunately, that’s as far as the money stretched.
“I think it would be fair to say that when farmers are doing well, the New Zealand economy seems to do pretty well too – but times are tough. Money has been tight for most farming families for a while now, and it looks like that economic reality is starting to hit home for the rest of the country.”
Langford reiterated his earlier comments to media that that the road to New Zealand’s economic success”s isn’t paved with more red tape, regulation and compliance costs”.
“The road to our economic success is paved with more milk, meat, fruit and grain.
“We need to be unshackling the potential of our productive sectors, and those who get out of bed each morning to milk cows, shift cattle, harvest crops and pick fruit. Those are the people who create jobs and earn an income for our country that pays for all those other things like schools, roads and hospitals.
“Farmers aren’t looking for a handout. We just want the Government to continue to cut the unnecessary red tape and compliance costs that have been bogging us down for too long.”
