Rural Vote Debate on Q&A: Substance or Just Platitudes?
It was billed as a chance for all the political parties to woo the rural vote, but question marks hang over just how effective this was.
This follows in the wake of former Feds boss Andrew Hoggard's move to stand for ACT this year and revelartions that he had been a member of the party for 3 years.
This led to criticism in some quarters about Feds' political neutrality and, by all accounts, fed into the current government's vindictive treatment of the organisation as its political enemy.
So, long story short, this has meant that a number of members of Feds executive have been resigning their memberships to political parties.
Funny how Feds members can't be members of a political party, but the current Government is happy to deal with various unions who are affiliated to the Labour party and pay hundreds of thousands of dollars in membership fees every year!
