Paying The Bills

Whether we like it or not and whether we agree with it or not, it is an incontrovertible fact;

Agriculture in NZ pays the majority of our bills!!!

Yet we have now got to the stage with this current government where they value a cycle way over the Auckland harbour as 1200 times more important as giving assistance to a rural region that has been devastated by a natural disaster. Evidenced by the earmarking of $685 million for the cycle way and $500,000 for the Canterbury region in support of (to use their own designation) a medium-scale adverse event!

Areas of Canterbury have been devastated by the weather bomb that hit the region last week with some areas receiving up to half their average YEARLY rainfall in TWENTY FOUR hours. Many farmers and rural communities in the Canterbury region will take years to recover from the effects of this, if they ever do. Some may not!

Yet our government has seen fit to announce at this time that they are happy to support a cycle way across the Auckland Harbour that is proposed to cost approximately $685 Million and if history is any judge then I can honestly say that this cost is just a starting point not the end cost.

I know that there are a lot of voters in the Auckland region and some of them actually cycle around the region but if this is an example of our government priorities (valuing cycle ways over people’s livelihoods, security of our food supply and our national economy) then we are seriously in trouble.

This whole situation is just another example of ideology ruling over reality. In my opinion it is a classic example of putting the lunatics in charge of the asylum.

Even the Paris Agreement on Climate Change response had a clause that exempted food production from any harmful effects of the agreement, but our government seems to have ignored that part of the agreement and this is blatantly obvious in their response to this “medium scale adverse event”.

Go and tell the people of Canterbury who have lost their homes, possessions and in some cases their incomes as well, that this is a “medium scale adverse event” and when we finally see the effects of this event on our agricultural production tell the people of NZ the same.

I think the government may find that they don’t agree that it is just a “medium scale adverse event”. Sure we can’t fund everything and there has to be decisions made that sometimes are unpalatable or even down right horrible, but to even think that announcing a commitment to build a $685 million cycle way across Auckland Harbour at this time is OK, is either a major blunder, the height of arrogance or just a straight out sign of incompetence.

So let’s forget about the feel good stuff and deal with reality and support the Canterbury region with a realistic level of funding to allow some sort of return to normal so people can once again go about their normal daily lives and the rural sector of Canterbury can help support the NZ economy through normal agricultural production levels.

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