NZ FIRST RURAL POLICY "PATHETIC EFFORT"

"A pathetic effort by a clapped-out school master, NZ First's agriculture spokesperson Jack Elder," was how Agriculture Minister Lockwood Smith described NZ First's rural policy announced today.

"It adds almost nothing to NZ First's higher interest rate economic policy announced some time ago," Dr Smith said. "It would mean even higher interest rates, and collapsing farm prices. It's an insult to rural New Zealand."

Attacking the few specific proposals in the policy, Dr Smith said:

• "The proposed Farm Debt Mediation Act would do nothing for farmers other than make banks wary about extending credit to the rural sector. That would drive up interest rates even further than NZ First's economic policy would do on its own, and deprive farmers of much needed capital."
• "The ban on farmers selling their land to any one other than a New Zealander strikes at the heart of property rights. Under National, farmers will always have the right to sell their land to the highest bidder. While many of us are very concerned about land leaving traditional forms of farming, the answer to the problem lies in improving the marketing effort of our traditional export industries."

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• "The $150 million Export Credit Guarantee Scheme is just a return to subsidies."
• "A post-election meat industry summit would go the way of all other such summits - it would achieve nothing that can't be achieved through normal methods, and would only give the agricultural establishment another opportunity to wine and dine in Wellington."
• "$30 million extra for market research may have had some benefit, but $30 million for organic farming is absurd."
• "Also absurd is NZ First's proposal to keep schools and hospitals open even if they have no students or patients."

Dr Smith said the Government had announced today new measures for the control of possums, and was working on a new border control strategy to protect New Zealand's horticulture industry from pests like fruitfly.