Editorial - Dry arguments ring hollow

For example, Primary Industries Minister Nathan Guy was criticised for not rushing home from an overseas trade mission because the drought was the worst in 70 years. (Guy and and primary industries boss Wayne McNee were on a 10-day trade mission to South America with the Prime Minister and business leaders). 

Speaking in Sao Paulo, Brazil, after a Fonterra-hosted event, Guy said,  “I can’t make it rain... this is a very important trip. We are opening some doors here… getting our products into these markets.”

Those critics should have been able to see the greater value of the minister forging relationships with those countries than performing mock rain dances back in Wellington! 

Guy pointed out that the way for the Government to truly make a difference to drought-affected farmers is to get busy on irrigation. “We haven’t got a water shortage issue; rain falls in huge volumes. What we have is a storage issue. We need to capture and store water more efficiently.” 

But the opposition to such proposals as the Ruataniwha dam in Hawkes Bay and similar projects in Canterbury show how difficult this will be. The Greens and eco-fundamentalist groups have drawn swords.

Then there are the snide comments – chiefly letters to city newspapers and radio talkback – about how much cash help farmers are getting. These sometimes go along with bellyaching about farmers getting welfare while shoppers pay dearly for milk and meat. Few city dwellers would know – as Fed Farmers chief Bruce Wills points out – that farm advisory and counselling services are delivered mostly by Rural Support Trust chapters.   

Says Wills, “An official declaration [of drought] tells the banks how bad things are. It also gives Inland Revenue discretion on things like income equalisation, but farmers are not excused any tax obligations.” 

Wills adds that ‘rural assistance payments’ are for genuine hardship, granted only after testing of an applicant’s farm and off-farm income. “In January 2011, during the last major drought, fewer than 100 farmers out of some 25,000 commercial pastoral farms qualified.”

Let’s hope rain falls soon where it is needed, relieving us from drought and ill-informed critics.