Cutting red tape, freeing farmers up to succeed and making New Zealand an easy place to do business are top priorities for the current Government, the Prime Minister has told farmers.
Speaking to Federated Farmers leaders in Wellington earlier this month, Christopher Luxon said he’s on a mission to get rid of excessive red tape introduced by the Labour Government.
“We’ve got to undo a lot of that, so you’re freed up to get back to farming.
“We’re really serious about it. Todd McClay and I feel like corporate laxatives, just trying to get the show unblocked and moving.”
Luxon blamed “the previous crowd” for turning New Zealand into a country of bureaucrats.
“We’ve become an obstruction economy.
“Don’t get me wrong: we’re not going back to an ideological deregulating of everything, but we actually need smart, sensible regulation that works.”
The Prime Minister acknowledged it’s a very tough time for Kiwi farmers, with on-farm inflation and interest rates through the roof.
“We’ve just got to tough it out for the next six to 12 months because, hopefully, we’ll get inflation down by the end of the year.
“That will then get the economic growth going, and then the bigger question is: how do we grow this joint?”
He said New Zealand has failed to deliver economic productivity for 30 years.
“Everyone’s working very hard, but we’re not driving enough value and higher standards of living, and higher wealth and prosperity into the country.
“We need a great education system, we need much better infrastructure, we need to embrace science, innovation and technology – and to commercialise that to get higher value out of products.”
Fresh back from his three-day visit to Japan, Luxon said building stronger international connections and attracting foreign investment are key to growing the economy.
“We do not get rich on two blocks in the South Pacific Ocean with five million people selling houses to each other.
“We have to go out there and do business with eight billion people in 195 countries.
“We’re saying, ‘Listen, New Zealand has been in a very inward, introspective way for the last six years, but we are under new management, and we are open for business’.
“Long story short, we’re in a big turnaround job now.”
He concluded by saying his Government wants to work with farmers in an adult-to-adult way, not a parent-to-child way.
“We don’t do things to you; we work together with you to sort out the problems and get solutions in place.”
Federated Farmers, New Zealand’s leading independent rural advocacy organisation, has established a news and insights partnership with AgriHQ, the country’s leading rural publisher, to give the farmers of New Zealand a more informed, united and stronger voice. Federated Farmers news and commentary appears each week in its own section of the Farmers Weekly print edition and online.
