Reading an NZPA report of the primary sector’s response to the $190 million growth partnership allocation on yesterday’s budget, it was difficult to escape the mental picture of the chooks being feed.

Each industry segment – and a few who regard themselves as the industry – was enthusiastically grateful for the morsels from Bill’s bucket. And it was clear that each could singularly spend the $190 million itself…and would be bidding to so do.

This was refreshing for two reasons. First, and all too few townies recognise it, the primary sector is the “sine qua non” of this country, which loosely translated means without it we’re all buggered. And second, so many groups take government handouts for granted, and the primary sector doesn’t.

In the scheme of total spending, including the $50 million cycle way, $190 million is small beer. Nevertheless, it is consoling that in such tight fiscal times, the government is making some attempt to grow the sector that underpins our economy. As investments go this might be chicken feed, but has surely got to be one of the best.

Tags: Bill English, budget, NZPA

This entry was posted on Friday, May 29th, 2009 at 2:37 pm and is filed under PR Matters, Politics. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.