Today’s opening of the Government books has exposed the urgent need for policies that will grow the New Zealand economy, says Federated Farmers President Wayne Langford. "New Zealand is hitting real economic headwinds and there’s no relief in sight for Kiwi families, with total debt forecast to pass $200 billion by 2025," Langford said.

"The $11 billion deficit forecast this year is our biggest deficit on record outside of the disaster years of 2020’s Covid 19 Pandemic and 2011’s Christchurch Earthquake.

"Farmers are feeling the squeeze too with farm incomes falling sharply, high input costs, and increasing interest rates. There’s huge pressure in our rural communities - but the whole country is feeling it too.

"If we want to dig our country out of this hole, we are going to need to really commit to growing the economy - and that means more farming, not less.

"But that’s just not where the political narrative has been for the last few years. There has been absolutely no discussion about how we can sustainably grow our meat and milk production despite the huge potential.

"Instead, the focus has been on constraining our farmers further. We’ve been wrapping our farmers up in red tape and heaping on nothing but cost, complexity, and compliance. "The end result is record low farmer confidence and a slumping New Zealand economy. It’s no coincidence they have arrived at the same time.

"Farming accounts for more than 60% of New Zealand’s exports, but there is so much more potential for that to grow if farmers were supported with the right policy settings," Langford concluded.

12 policy priorities

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