Agriculture Will Benefit Despite Prebble Claims
August 19 1999
IMMEDIATE
RELEASE
Hon Maurice Williamson
Minister of Research,
Science and Technology
AGRICULTURE WILL BENEFIT DESPITE PREBBLE CLAIMS
Act leader Richard Prebble
has no understanding of the effect the Bright
Future
package will have on agriculture, Research, Science and
Technology
Minister Maurice Williamson said today.
"Mr
Prebble's claims that the package will cost rural New
Zealand $100
million couldn't be further from the truth.
The changes will, in fact,
benefit the sector," said Mr
Williamson.
"The figure Mr Prebble is quoting is the
funding of some existing projects
to be transferred from
the Public Good Science Fund (PGSF) to the New
Economy
Research Fund (NERF) over four years where the work fits
better with
the Government's goal of growing new
business."
He said which projects these would be had not yet been determined.
"The challenge for New Zealand is now
to build on our clear strengths in
areas including
primary industries and create value in whole new
areas."
"This is why we established the New Economy
Research Fund and if there are
agricultural projects that
are better suited to this fund, they may move.
"We need
research that means, for example, we can manufacture and
sell high
fashion wool products rather than raw wool.
This type of research would be
better funded through the
NERF rather than the PGSF, which is less
commercially
focused," said Mr Williamson.
"The dairy industry, for
example, has already recognised the need for
such
research having recently announced funding of $150
million over the next
five years. This is entirely
consistent with the emphasis shift announced in
the
Bright Future package.
"Mr Prebble's remarks couldn't be further from the truth."
ENDS