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Farmers must keep pressure on over flatulence tax

Published: Mon 6 Oct 2003 08:52 AM
Farmers must keep pressure on over flatulence tax
Farmers need to keep the pressure on the Government despite its expected back down on the flatulence tax, says National Agriculture Spokesman David Carter.
There are increasing reports that the Government won't go ahead with the proposed tax because of the strong public backlash.
"Farmers need to stay vigilant and keep up the pressure until we've got rid of this tax. There's no point in farmers softening on this - for all we know the Government could still be hankering to do a deal so it can introduce the tax in some form.
"Science Minister Pete Hodgson has already done a u-turn on the amount of research that is being funded by farmers and how thorough that is. He confessed late last month that there are research projects he didn't know about that could fall under the methane emissions category.
"Pete Hodgson's office is now saying that the Government's research programme may be met without the flatulence tax. (ODT 4/10/03)
"That's great news and shows the Government could have saved itself a lot of grief if it had done its homework before proposing this stupid tax.
"Farmers are rapt the tax may be dropped but they know this Government doesn't understand their sector, and has a habit of extracting money from agriculture by stealth. I'm urging farmers to keep the pressure on to see this tax out the door," says Mr Carter.

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