Tory Government - Raw Deal For Rural Communities - By Mary Creagh

Rural heartland -
feeling full force of ministers' mistakes

Mary Creagh Labour’s Shadow Environment Secretary, on the raw deal being served to rural communities by the Government.

Western Morning News, Saturday 28 July 2012

The recent dairy crisis has shown that markets alone do not guarantee a fair deal for farmers or the countryside. We are now in the longest recession for 50 years with rural communities paying a high price for the failures of this out-of-touch Government. Defra ministers talk a good game on food security, yet as the dairy crisis loomed, ministers were asleep on the job.

The race to the bottom on farm-gate prices is bad for farmers and, ultimately, bad for consumers. We need an end to one-sided contracts and the reckless behaviour of the big milk processors who are squeezing dairy farmers for all they can. Last week the Government woke up to the scale of the problem and started to bang heads together. But why did it take a milk blockade for ministers to act? Labour wants to see the Government strengthen the role of the Groceries Code Adjudicator to ensure a fair deal across the supermarket supply chain with the power to fine companies who breach the code. Yet ministers oppose giving the Adjudicator the power to fine.


There are wider problems in the economy in Devon and Cornwall, and these are tough times for rural communities and businesses. This out-of- touch Government has made the wrong choices on the economy, choking off growth and the fragile recovery. The South West did not receive a penny from the £9.4 billion promised for rail projects by the government earlier this month. Worse still, as the WMN has reported, ministers are looking to cut direct trains from Penzance to Paddington by a third under the new Great Western franchise agreement.

There is a cost of living crisis spreading across our towns and villages. Living costs in rural communities are already 10-20% higher than in urban areas. There has been a massive growth in food poverty as families struggle with higher living costs, lower wages and welfare changes. The leading food charity FareShare estimates that 16% of people within the South West are living in food poverty, unable to feed themselves on regular basis. Earlier this month, the Devon and Cornwall Food Association extended its reach from Plymouth to the whole of Devon, redistributing food to local foodbanks. Yet one of the first things the Tory-led government did was to abolish the Agricultural Wages Board for England and Wales. The board guarantees minimum pay and conditions for 23,500 rural workers in the South West. Axing it will take £9 million a year out of England's rural economy through lost sick and holiday pay alone. The last thing we need is a race to the bottom on wages. This will take money out of the rural High Street, local shops and pubs.

House of Commons Library research, which I commissioned, revealed families in rural areas have been disproportionately hit by the removal of the tax credit second income threshold. This protected the £545 per annum child tax credit family element for households earning less than £40,000 and helped 15% of families with children in rural areas (compared to 10% in urban areas). Rural councils, which tend to have older and less deprived populations receive lower grant allocations, spend less on social care, charge more for home care and allocate lower personal budgets than local authorities serving younger, more urban and more deprived populations. The Commission for Rural Communities reported last month that young people in rural areas face extra barriers finding work and accessing training. The rate at which young people become NEETS (young people not in education employment or training) is rising faster in rural areas than urban ones. Long term youth unemployment has more than trebled in the last year across Devon and Cornwall.

What was the Government's response to the Commission for Rural Communities? They abolished it. In the last two years, Defra ministers have failed to get a grip with the issues facing rural communities. They have cut funding for flood defences by 30% and then asked communities to come up with the cash for flood defences themselves. Their proposals to sell off the nation's forests met huge protests and they backed back down. The same happened with national nature reserves and changes to reduce environmental protection in planning law. And wild animals in circuses. It is not just Cameron and Osborne getting the big decisions wrong, and it is not just people in urban centres who are affected. It is coalition heartlands like the South West who are feeling the force of government incompetence. Rural communities deserve better.

Country Labor - Australia - Fighting For Progressive Rural Policies

COUNTRY LABOR
NEW SOUTH WALES - AUSTRALIA

http://www.countrylabor.com.au/

New South Wales shadow Minister for Resources and Primary Industries, Steve Whan. (picture above)

Twelve years ago, Country Labor was formed to formally recognize the historic and vital role of Country Australia in the Australian Labor Party. To this day most people believe that the Party was founded under the Tree of Knowledge in Barcaldine in rural Queensland.

Long term successful NSW Labor Government's have always had strong rural representation. Many current branch members remember Labor MPs in Burrinjuck and Murrumbidgee, not to mention Clarence, Murray Darling, Tweed and the more recently held seats like Bathurst, Monaro & Kiama.

There's no reason the next Labor Government can't have just as many country seats. Indeed it must if we are to have the broad base that will give our future governments longevity - but we've got a big job to get there.

No one can deny that we focused on ourselves and on city issues over the last few years.

We did have some good programs delivering for Country NSW – and many achievements we can be very proud of - but we didn’t build on them and we weren't able to communicate them.

The Building the Country package (announced at Country Labor Conference at Port Macquarie) was a good example, a great starting program but one that should have developed into a more comprehensive and integrated approach to regional development.

We've now got to build that comprehensive policy from opposition. We need to show country residents that Labor understands that country and regional communities have needs that are different from each other, let alone the city.

We need to be focusing on policies that help communities to achieve their own goals, not try to impose one size fits all models.

The Country Labor Members of Parliament, Clayton Barr in Cessnock, Mick Veitch and myself can't hope to do that alone and we looking for the enthusiastic involvement of members and supporters.

Let's not think that the job is hopeless – the Coalition is rapidly proving that they are the same old model, all talk and no action. Their catchy slogan of a decade of decentralisation has little to back it up. A very poorly thought through relocation incentive that will pay taxpayers funds to people who already planning to retire to the coast; and a regional infrastructure fund created by legislation but with no funding.

We can do better and our job is to work over the next four years toward giving country communities a party that listens to them and produces good policy.

It's going to be a big job but its one I and my Country Labor colleagues here in Parliament are looking forward to. In particular we look forward to working with branches and country communities and hopefully along the way we'll be able to inspire a few people to join us in our task of returning a Labor Government to NSW.


The Land (article)

"The reaction from the Coalition was one of the main reasons I agreed to joining the Upper House," Mr Whan said.

"They must fear me."

In a reduced Opposition, Mr Whan has been given a number of portfolios to cover, including tourism, major events and his old area of primary industries.

Mr Whan is one of just three MPs who run under the Country Labor brand and, having just completed a tour of Dubbo, Griffith and Parkes, he said reconnecting with regional NSW was an important part of the rebuilding process for the party.

"We need good regional policies, and it’s really important that we have strong branches of the party throughout country NSW," he said.

"The Country Labor brand isn’t dead, it’s very much alive - and it will be more important than ever in Opposition."

Country Labor

The objectives of Country Labor are:

• to discuss matters of political significance with emphasis on Rural and Regional Affairs and to make recommendations on such to the ALP
• to foster and maintain the interest of members and others in the Platform and policies of the ALP
• to provide opportunity for and to organise meetings of members to discuss rural matters
• to work for and assist ALP candidates in all State and Federal elections
• to promote increased understanding between members of industrial unions and farming communities
• to publish any periodicals or leaflets desirable for promotion of its objects.
• Country Labor holds a conference every two years to discuss issues of importance to country members.

Country Labor Contact

President - Mark Braes (63rd Street, Millicent, SA 5280. 8733 4064)

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