Federated Farmers has challenged the Government to back exporters, remove trade barriers and unleash New Zealand's mineral wealth.In a speech to the ACT Party's annual conference today, Federated Farmers president Don Nicolson called for bold changes and
Federated Farmers has challenged the Government to back exporters, remove trade barriers and unleash New Zealand's mineral wealth.
In a speech to the ACT Party's annual conference today, Federated Farmers president Don Nicolson called for bold changes and courageous political leadership.
He said he believed New Zealand could surpass Australia in economic terms, not just catch up with it,
"The means to truly grow the economy is physically right here, but do we have the mental and political will to grab?" he said.
"Frankly, the signs have not been encouraging."
Mr Nicolson said natural assets were the key.
"It could be as diverse as domesticating and farming weka, farming rainbow trout and tapping into our considerable mineral wealth," he said.
"On land, our mineral reserved are estimated at $140 billion - if we have the political will to extract it.
"In Southland there is a 650-year supply of lignite.
"The technologies for deep sea mining, embryonic as they are, exist.
"New Zealand ought to be at the vanguard of developing this technology because what's on the land will most likely be on the sea floor too."
Mr Nicolson blamed the electoral system for what he considered to be political weakness.
"Since 1996 New Zealand has been on an extended tea break as MMP encouraged government, any government, to keep 50.1 percent of the electorate sweet. Forget step change, think baby steps," he said.
"MMP only arose out of a sense of betrayal, first from Labour then core National Party supporters.
"The electorate responded by putting our politicians in handcuffs."
He said the Labour Party had believed that to stay in power it had to keep most of the people mostly happy for most of the time.
"It's a trend we see right now with the National-led government you are part of," he told the conference.
Mr Nicolson said one of New Zealand's great assets was water, which Australia didn't have.
"If we take Canterbury, there is enough water storage potential there to irrigate a land area larger than Samoa," he said.
That will take just 12 percent of the water in Canterbury that currently runs out to sea.
"More water, more productive land, more exports - it's a simple equation that demands a mind shift in government from passive to active."
