North Island drought zone extended
"If my business does poorly due to the weather or any other extraneous factor why can't I get obligation free handouts from my fellow taxpayers?"
Featured commentPrimary Industries Minister Nathan Guy has extended the official drought areas across the North Island, meaning government support programmes can be rolled out to those regions.
A state of drought has been officially declared in South Auckland, Waikato, Bay of Plenty and Hawke's Bay, Mr Guy says in a statement. That covers Auckland Council area south of the Harbour Bridge, all of Waikato Bay of Plenty and Hawke's Bay Regional Council areas, and joins Northland.
The decision was made after consultations with communities and an assessment was taken by the Ministry for Primary Industries.
"The declaration of a medium-scale event means that extra government funding will now be available to rural support trusts," Mr Guy says. "The entire North Island is dry and I am keeping a close eye on other parts of the East Coast, as well as Wairarapa, Manawatu and Taranaki."
The drought is expected to reduce New Zealand's dairy production this season, and was seen as the main cause for a 10 percent jump in dairy prices sold on Fonterra's online auction site today.
Mr Guy says Work and Income will offer rural assistance payments, which is the equivalent of the unemployment benefit, to people in extreme hardship.
New Zealand's drought follows similar dry conditions during last year's Northern Hemisphere summer, when arid weather caused grain shortages, leading to lower food production.
(BusinessDesk)
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Comments and questions35
More special treatment for farmers.
If my business does poorly due to the weather or any other extraneous factor why can't I get obligation free handouts from my fellow taxpayers?
This stinks.
Absolutely agree. Things beyond my control affect my business all the time, like a high exchange rate, for instance, yet I don't put my hand out and whine. Farmers have always had this attitude, thinking the country owes them.
Farmers are the majority of the 20% rural population that generate 60% of NZ's GDP ... look it up in "Brian Gaynor has the data".
If you want to pay the urban poors' welfare bills year after year when there are no droughts then you can "whinge" as much as you like. Until then, clean up your own citiies' cesspools and you might have a leg to stand on.
Hypocrites.
Perhaps because your business is just a paper trail or a consumer service that isn't neccessary for keeping us alive. Eg a bank. A totally unneeded institution and useless for poor people. Here's a question: if you were hungry would you take a kilo of apples or a kilo of gold?
While I am not a banker, you lose a lot of credibility by suggesting a bank is a "totally unneeded [sic] institution". Best you stick to greedily over-stocking your farm and then crying over your mistake...
You can. It's called Working for Families, and I, who don't have kids, have to pay for it. Happy now?
I hope you were right there sticking in the boot to the banks and finance companies when they got govt. deposit guarantees handouts ... don;t get me started on $30 billion boondoggle going on in ChCh for the earthquake unfortunates.
... the whole country is now running to the govt. for anything and everything, it is called socialism. The farmers didn't start this farce, they are just now trying to make sure they get back a little for all the years they have been paying in to feed the moochers.
I'm guessing that would be because your particular business is not one of thousands the NZ economy is based on...
Such arrogance...why is a farmer any more important to our society than any other exporter?
In fact i would argue the opposite, given the ridiculous tax deductions available to farmers, and the corresponding low effective tax rate paid.
And yet they think we should get down on bended knee and worship them - and then even subsidise their bad years!
Unbelievable
I would suggest that, while you descibe my comment as arrogance, I would categorise yous as ignorance.
The reality is that the dairy industry is of critical and pivotal importance to the NZ economy for a number of reasons that you don't appear to understand. One of the most obvious is that if farmers start failing then the associated industries that are fed from that industry also start failing.
No, I'm not a farmer but I am able to recognise the impact that this has on the NZ economy.
It's not a perfect world, anonymous, so quit your cry baby whinging and suck it up - or invest $4m of your own money in a farm and see how it feels when the drought hits.
Ridiculous tax deductions....please elaborate?
Please define what these ' ridiculous tax deductions' are? Im very interested to know if there is any substance to your post or whether it is just made up tripe. Any tax deductions available are the same ones available to any other sole trader or limited company.
And the farmer said "I will give money back in times of better weather"
Yeah right. There are many people out there who contribute to make this the country that it is, why should the farmers get special treatment. Government assistance after the Mainzeal shambles would at least have retained employment for my hard working and long term employees.
This has overtones of welfare for the wealthy, whereas those unable to get seasonal wages' work due to the drought are having major problems getting appropriate assistance from WINZ. A double standard here, methinks.
And why isn't any assistance in the forms of loans that the farmers pay back in profitable times?
Because unfortunately for the taxpayer, farmers have a very effective lobby group that do a heck of a job maintaining these subsidies from taxpayers...
Last year's heavy rain falls clearly impacted the foot traffic past my shop and led to a severe dip in my income.
And let's not forget the road traffic works that stopped any people visiting me for a whole week last year.
No compensation for me.
The current NZ government includes the ghost of Muldoon. The government has its favourite industries and businesses. If yours is on the list, you will receive favours and assistance, even to the point of special legislation. If your industry or business is not on the list, good luck to you.
This targeted business welfare is not the way to improve the economy sustainably. But the government has handed out enough treats to its target businesses and that silences a lot of business people who know this government has no idea about how to set a framework so the economy grows.
Not that he opposition has any clue, either.
Goodness, if you saw starving animals running for the tractor thinking they might get a feed this time, maybe you wouldn't be so harsh.
Not all farmers ar millionaires in waiting.
Drought is a significant event with very obvious and staggering consequences for most agricultural industries, and our country (like it or not) does depend on every bit of GDP it can squeeze out.
Have pity on hungry cattle that are breaking through fences to try and get a mouthful, even if you can't have compassion for the land workers.
If you want to go down that path, then I can confirm I don't give a damn about your hungry cattle. You should have thought of that when you over-stocked your farm and had a contingency plan, like I do for my business.
I'm much more worried about the hungry children out there who don't get fed because the state is using that taxpayer money to subsidise your new tractor.
In that case do what every other business does when faced with a temporary deterioration in trading conditions - try to liquidate your stock as best as possible and get a loan to get you through (or utilise the reserves you built up when times were good ... you did build those up right?). Don't go running to the taxpayer asking for them to support your business.
But they can't borrow any money because they are too heavily indebted already. And the reason they are heavily indebted is because they paid too much for drought-prone land and then overstocked it to pay off their excessive loans. Pretty sure all the dairy farms in the Manawatu dairy plains were bailed out when they were flooded so the minister would be a hypocrite if he doesn't bail out his fellow farmers in times of need. They need more overseas slaves from third world countries to milk the skinny cows also. Well, just as long as the new entrant farmers can get through a few droughts then they will be able to stay on their overvalued farms. The National government will do any thing for growth in their chosen industries to get through the downturn, even encouraging more loans from banks when that was the cause of the downturn in the first place. Devaluation is the answer but the heavily indebted National people don't want that to happen. Sorry, but they won't be able to borrow their way out of this debt - well, maybe, but there will be a very big underclass.
I live in rural east Auckland and have had to buy water due to low rainfall.
Your comment is the most appropriate here. Please don't think that all townies aren't sympathetic to the plight of the ag sector. This weekend I intend to wash my windows and historically that has always brought rain soon after ! Here's hoping it works and keep your chins up on the farms , it is a stressful time and your health and well being must be looked after.
Why is the government even talking assistance, this is part of the risk of owning and running a business like a farm which is reliant on mother nature. Like all businesses they go through ups and downs, the rest of the "real world" don’t get hand outs, welfare and tax breaks when they have a bad year so why should farmers. Farmers haven’t heard of saving for a rainy day or in this case a dry season. Instead its better for their tax bill to buy a new tractor, truck and shed to avoid paying tax.
It’s about time the farmers stood on their own feet, most of them were born whiners and expect the country to lay down the subsidies like in the past. Sell that new tractor and new car that you got last year, when things get tough maybe you should down grade your equipment and work through this tough period without crying for assistance, why are you any different to any other industry in NZ. Any subsidies farmers receive should be repaid when they start making money again.
Financial payments for extreme hardship (i.e., can't buy groceries) are something that we are lucky to have in our country. I doubt very much that you will see a queue of farmers lined up outside WINZ, but for those in dire straights, it will help. Unemployment benefits being acceptable, but not support during a period of extreme financial hardship would be a double standard.
But these payments are only available to farmers - so its double standards to exclude the rest of the country's starving children isn't it?
They should hold an international cricket test in the most affected venues. That will guarantee an immediate and plentiful supply of rain.
Simple solution. Don't just rely on grass - grow grass and maize for exactly this situation = extra feed = milk protein = better volume, better quality = extra $$$$$$ (especially as milk shot up 10% on overnight auction).
Change to meet the future - grass doesn't grow in autumn or when it's dry.
Does anyone actually know what support is available for farmers?
Reading the above you would think that it is rivers of cash for any farmer that wants.
Well, it's not. There are tight criteria on what support is available and almost all of it is in the form of delayed payments or advice ... not in any form of cash.
It's not a free run for farmers.
I would suspect that only a few will actually qualify for anything more than a supportive phone call.
More whingeing from farmers. You should be paying for this advice and any delayed payments like the rest of the taxpayers do.
Stop complaining and start adapting - it's called business. The world isn't fair, so get use to it. The rest of us are sick of hearing you all complain.
That's not the point. The point is why should farmers get preferential treatment over others? Everyone should be treated equally.
Totally agree. They are the first to complain when any other NZer gets a benefit/subsidy. Take out a loan and pay it back when the cycle turns.
Yeh, working for families, interest free loans, etc etc is real equal.
Believe me, anonymous, the advice they give us is not worth paying for! Things like "do your feed budgets carefully". Ridiculous when you have no feed to budget! The only thing worthwhile the govt does is allow the spread of income tax. This is because many farmers will have to sell capital stock because they can't keep them alive. Then next year they have to turn around and buy in at inflated prices. IRD doesn't actually forgo any of the tax. There are no free rides in farming and haven't been any since the 1980s. Anonymous is the one stuck in a time warp.