Farmer debt, why it matters & the jaw dropping hypocrisy of Farmers in NZ

Hey, this matters…

Cut farmers extra slack in Farm Debt Mediation law, says select committee

Farmers in financial strife may have more wriggle room to deal with banks once proposed debt mediation law is tweaked.

If it becomes law, the Farm Debt Mediation Bill will require secured creditors who lend money to farmers to offer mediation before taking enforcement action if farmers default on payments.

The Primary Production Select Committee has made a number of recommendations to clarify the meaning of some key terms used in the Bill and to make it more practical.

…Farmers were conned by National into taking on massive Dairy intensification debt and now China are investing in their own dairy, Farmers are screwed.

Farmers need more than wriggle room with debt, they need a life line.

With Dairy on track to be a sunset industry thanks to synthetic milk and meat, we need to transfer out of Dairy into forests. The Government should straight up offer to take on Dairy debt if Farmers replant their farms with forests.

This matters because if you are actively helping farmers, you can politically get cover for helping beneficiaries and first time home buyers.

The problem here is less an economic one and more a cultural one.

Farmers had their political party, the National Party, con them all into believing John Key’s pump and dump economic policy and tricked them into dairy intensification for China while they were pressured into taking on enormous amounts of debt by the banks and when that China fantasy popped, they’ve all been left with that enormous debt, Fonterra melting down and depression levels that make them suicidal AND YET Farmers bewilderingly blame Labour for that chain of events!

Labour saved Farmers with their capitulation on emissions until 2025 (and even then they will only be paying for 5% of them), they need to offer something purely transactional to get them out of the mess designed by National without expecting Farmers to show anything other than contempt for the helping hand.

Labour need to save Farmers, not thinking they might win this voting block over, but so that they can force through real climate change reform and as a means to help beneficiaries and first time home buyers with direct state help as well.