Anderton laments agriculture spend

BY JILL GALLOWAY

Former minister of agriculture Jim Anderton says he deeply regrets that the National-led Government has not bought into the Fast Forward Fund set up under the Labour government.

It was put in place to put hundreds of millions of dollars into agricultural research.

Instead, this Government has put only an extra $3 million into agriculture in the past year, he said.

Mr Anderton has stood down as the Opposition's agriculture spokesman and Labour has named Damien O'Connor, from the West Coast, as his replacement.

Mr Anderton is not contesting the 2011 election, and instead is seeking the Christchurch mayoralty.

He said he misses agriculture.

"The convention in Parliament is if you are not standing in the next election, you hand back the spokesperson role. They need the profile.

"I can still speak on agriculture as the leader of the Progressive Party, and I do."

He said he thought he was well-received by farmers.

"I added something to farming. I was an urban member, and I could talk to the urban community about the inter-relationship between the rural community and the urban one. They were not poles apart; both depended on each other."

There were different cultures, but one nation.

"It wasn't them or us. It was us together. In fact, if it wasn't for the earnings from the agriculture and horticulture communities, a lot of things urban people took for granted – cars, plasma TVs – they would not be able to buy them."

The other thing he added was political grunt, as No3 in the Labour cabinet.

"I had the ear of the prime minister then, Helen Clark.

He said that at that time, there was more political will to put money into agricultural science and development than he had ever seen.

And Mr Anderton said he was still aggrieved that the Fast Forward Fund had ended.

He said the Labour government had pledged $700m to the fund, which, when combined with industry contributions and invested, was expected to grow to $2 billion.

He said that in the past two years, only $3 million had been spent, mainly in administration.

"I genuinely thought that National would say the Fast Forward Fund was a good idea, and keep it. They would have been wise to do that.

"But they wanted to show they were boss, and scrapped it."

Mr Anderton said keeping the fund would not have cost National a vote.

"In the time of recession we needed to make those investments, so when we came out of recession, we would be running.

"Instead, we have come out of the recession, and nothing is happening."

Agriculture and Forestry Minister David Carter in May announced three Government-industry partnerships he estimated were worth $45 million over five to seven years.

Mr Carter said projects were planned by the New Zealand Forest Owners' Association, the Foundation for Arable Research and the New Zealand Merino Company, which are the first to receive funding from the Primary Growth Partnership (PGP).

The PGP replaced the Fast Forward Fund, which the Government disbanded when it took over after the 2008 election.

Mr Carter said the three primary sector organisations would receive $20m between them over five to seven years, under the Government-industry partnership that was announced in Budget 2009.

With industry funding, the value of the partnerships was expected to exceed $45m.

- © Fairfax NZ News