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Why farmers who want a John Key-led Government should give their party vote to ACT

National Farming Review. 10 October 2011

All political parties want to convince farmers to vote for them.  And most parties talk about the huge importance of farming to our nation’s prosperity.

But only the ACT Party is firmly committed to defending farmers from some of the unfair attacks farmers have been subjected to in recent years.  Some of the critics would have the public believe that all farmers are grossly irresponsible, that they pollute our lakes and rivers and are totally indifferent to the well-being of their livestock.  There are some farmers who let the side down, but they’re a tiny minority, and the irresponsible behaviour of the minority shouldn’t be allowed to tarnish the reputation of the great majority.

The ACT Party is committed to three particular policies which would greatly help farmers.

First, we believe that the level of government spending is having a hugely damaging effect on farmers by pushing up the exchange rate.  Over the last 12 months, the government has been borrowing $300 million every week.  That’s had two effects on the exchange rate:

• Because the government isn’t able to borrow $300 million a week in New Zealand, most of that borrowing is from foreign investors.  And for foreign investors to buy New Zealand government bonds, they have to buy New Zealand dollars – so up goes the exchange rate.
• Because the government is spending at such a high level, the Reserve Bank has to keep the Official Cash Rate higher than it would otherwise need to be to keep inflation under control.  (The OCR is higher than the official interest rate in any other developed country except Australia.)  That too keeps the exchange rate at a higher level than it would otherwise be.

ACT is committed to helping National get government spending under control, and that would undoubtedly take some of the upward pressure off the exchange rate.

Second, ACT is committed to a fundamental reform of the Resource Management Act.  There’s no way that a local council plan should be able to designate large chunks of your farm as having outstanding landscape value – with consequential effects on your ability to use your land to its potential – without your getting compensation for that loss of flexibility.  Nor should you need to get approval from anybody to, for example, build a hay-barn on your own property.

And third, ACT is committed to getting rid of the Emissions Trading Scheme, at least until our major trading partners have something similar in place.  Whatever you believe might be causing climate change, it’s clear that New Zealand’s emissions of greenhouse gases – about 0.2% of the global total – are having an absolutely miniscule impact.  Even now, before biological emissions are charged for, farmers are paying dearly through the 2010 tax on energy, and that is set to double by 2012.  This tax achieves exactly what?

Don Nicolson, until recently the President of Federated Farmers, is Number 3 on the ACT Party list and so is sure to be a strong advocate for farmers within the ACT caucus.  And we’re all committed to doing everything in our power to ensure that the next Government works with farmers to make a more prosperous New Zealand for all of us.

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