Building trust
OPINION: The war of words between Southland farmers and Environment Southland over winter grazing inspections reflects a deep lack of trust among farmers for the regional council.
Gone are the days when the Feds would fire out deliberately antagonistic statements chastising government or industry critics for some perceived action – or lack of it. The days of being a screaming skull and demanding attention are thankfully behind it.
For Federated Farmers to be credible, with its members and the wider community, it has to be credible.
Like it or not, the reality is that Feds is the only organisation that can nationally represent the farmer’s view.
National president William Rolleston and chief executive Graham Smith are fairly new in their roles, but both have a similar attitude to what the organisation should be saying and how it should say it. They are firm believers in a ‘quality not quantity’ message.
The move by the organisation’s former chief spin doctor to work for Winston Peters, late last year, has also been timely for Feds. The bombastic style of his messaging is far better suited to an outdated, antiquated, one-trick pony, political dinosaur like NZ First than a modern-day farmer lobby.
However, Fed Farmers remains an advocacy lobby for farmers and so at times it will have to be unabashedly pro-farmer and even controversial. But this approach soon loses impact and effect when it is the lobby’s only modus operandi.
A key challenge for the farmer lobby is how to the repair the reputation of the agricultural sector with the general populace. Too often farmers are portrayed in the mainstream media as moaners, environmental vandals, money hungry bludgers, uneducated oafs and/or any combination of these descriptors.
These kinds of narratives have gone unchallenged for too long – meaning the relationship and understanding between town and country is no longer a small gap but a yawning divide.
Federated Farmers has an important role in helping close this divide. It has a far better chance of winning the hearts and minds of detractors when it is acting with credibility and facts.
It is a big job and will take a huge effort, but the work needs to start now!
