Call For Rural Psychological Support Fund
5 Nov, 2019
From Chris Leitch, Leader
Social Credit is calling on the government to establish a $5 million dollar rural support fund to provide psychological and financial support for farmers facing bankruptcy or forced sale of their properties as a result of its proposals on environmental, greenhouse gas, and water quality standards.
The government has an immense budget surplus, the majority of which has been provided as income tax, GST, and other taxes, by the agricultural sector, and it has a responsibility to use some of that surplus to support farming families under stress as a result of its actions.
Suicides in the agricultural sector are already 25% above international averages and intense government pressure over carbon dioxide reduction targets and water quality standards will add significantly to the number of suicide deaths in the farming community.
In a quest to become the shining star in the world on emissions and water quality, Labour and the Greens have shown utter disregard for the traditional legacy of generations of family owned farms.
This proves Labour's mindset has not changed one iota from that of the Labour government of 1984 which cast thousands of New Zealanders on the scrapheap in its attempt to be the shining star of the world with the introduction of the fake free market, an action from which the country has never recovered.
The result of the current government’s ideological quest will be hundreds of family owned farms, which would traditionally be passed on to future generations, being snapped up at rock-bottom prices by Queen Street and overseas speculators and turned into corporate farming operations.
Just as in 1984, when Labour’s actions benefited the corporates, the money shufflers, and speculators, and thousands of ordinary New Zealanders paid the price, history is repeating itself.
A Social Credit government would use central bank funding, at no cost to the taxpayer, in partnership with farmers to assist their transition to more environmentally friendly farming practices, rather than simply telling them they had to go it alone.
A rural psychological support fund to reduce suicides in the agricultural sector should be a first step in that partnership.
In the same way that the European Central Bank is providing 35 billion Euros per month to support the banking sector across Europe, New Zealand's central bank has the capacity to support the country’s agricultural sector for the long term benefit of New Zealanders.
The country needs the overseas income and the world needs the quality food we produce.