Will dairy farmers be the winners?

By Glenys Christian

Over the gate

When Winston Peters boasts that he too has milked cows, then farmers had better understand that the election campaign is under way and their votes are very much in his sights.

But when he goes on to make derogatory remarks about "soft-handed and pale-faced Treasury bureaucrats," in many cases he is reading the rural community's exact thoughts.

Dairy farmers have particular reason to be nervous about the direction of Government policies. Many feel the restructuring plans outlined for the Dairy Board in Parliament recently should be better explained to them, the owners of the industry.

They are alarmed at the abandonment of the planned separation of the commodity and value-added parts of the board's business without any reasons being given.

They want to know why the package has to be tailored to suit the Commerce Commission when it should, as a first requirement, suit them.

They are worried that issuing shares could be the first step in a chain reaction which could eventually see industry assets end up in uncaring foreign hands.

Already there are concerns about exit formulas for farmers leaving the industry, and a call for those details to be thrashed out further down the track when thorough discussions can be held.

Farmers would like to keep control through a merger of dairy company and board operations as planned to gain all the operating efficiencies, but with their long-treasured cooperative status still in place.

Farmers, and not just those in dairying, don't understand the sudden rush to alter legislation before the general election.

They maintain there is unlikely to be radical change in policy in this area if there is a change of government, and some are unconvinced the deal brokered is the best they could hope for.

Others are suspicious that with National struggling in the polls it might be trying to make a last-minute appeal to the Business Roundtable by delivering the producer board deregulation it has championed for so long.

Grateful big-business interests would then be able to expand into formerly forbidden territory.

But while haste unnerves dairy farmers, unreasonable delay is equally upsetting.

The matter of such importance here is who is to chair the transitional committee managing the dairy industry as it moves from one structure to another.

This body has been meeting for a number of weeks and contains a surfeit of capable candidates, but this has resulted in a cliffhanger similar to Mike Moore's battle to the top at the World Trade Organisation.

Once again farmers can be excused for believing it is not what is best for them which is at the forefront of discussions but in this instance the sectional interests of industry leaders.

They must trust these men to forge the mega-coop but they still seem unable to leave their dairy company allegiances behind.

Farmers need reassurance that they are going to be the winners out of this restructuring and that means a larger milk cheque turning up with certainty season after season.

If anyone doubts the economic pressure these farmers are under at present they need no grimmer reminder than the death last week of flood-hit Mercer farmer Kelvin Ruddell. He leaves his wife, Yvonne, and three young sons.

Neighbouring farmers in the best rural tradition of rallying round have set up the Ruddell Family Trust Fund and donations can be made at any branch of the National Bank.

* Glenys Christian's email is glenys@farmindex.co.nz