Focus on farmers' mental health emphasised in election

NZ First leader Winston Peters. Photo / Shannon Gillies

A room of Oamaru citizens was told the September 23 general election will be one of the ''most important'' of its kind.

New Zealand First leader Winston Peters was in Oamaru on Saturday to talk to voters about what they wanted from their representatives after the election.

At Oamaru's Brydone Hotel, Mr Peters spoke about the need for action to address the suicide rate and slow economic growth.

He emphasised the mental health of farmers and how inadequate financial planning from successive governments and national companies had contributed to New Zealand's unenviable suicide statistics.

He criticised the way regional New Zealand infrastructure had been neglected with a particular emphasis on roads and how funding for roading was divided up between metropolitan and rural projects.

Funding was taken away from rural road projects and given to the Roads of National Significance programme, he said, and ''which roads do you have?''. Waitaki had 1800km of roads, 1076km of them unsealed.

There was talk about how the student loan policy would be adapted if New Zealand First was part of the next government, after an audience member said they were worried the party was proposing a free-loan system for students.

Mr Peters said he did not believe in giving away things for free, but told attendees the conditions some students lived in and the debt they left tertiary education with was untenable.

''The kids are not getting a fair go.''

The party was proposing to immediately introduce a dollar-for-dollar debt write-off scheme so that graduates in identified areas of workforce demand could trade a year's worth of debt for each year of paid full-time work in New Zealand in that area.

Mr Peters also reminded the room that while they could say successive governments had not performed, the Waitaki electorate always voted for and returned, in the most part, the National Party candidate no matter what happened.

''Some of the people you've been voting for ... they wouldn't know one end of a cow from the udders.''

Mr Peters also spoke in Gore yesterday.

shannon.gillies@odt.co.nz