The Enduring Land - Winners and Losers

Television (Full Length Episode) – 1990

This episode of agriculture documentary series The Enduring Land delves into the highs and lows of farming in Aotearoa. Key moments, like the 1913 waterfront strike, are reenacted and illustrated through archive footage. Presenter Ruud Kleinpaste explores how politics caused huge upheaval to Kiwi farmers, such as when Britain joined the European Economic Community (EEC) in 1971 and the end of farming subsidies and cheap loans in the mid 1980s. The formation of bodies like Federated Farmers, the NZ Meat Board and the NZ Apple and Pear Board are also discussed.

Many farmers could not see any daylight. They felt politicians had hung them out to dry. There was no transition period to Mr Douglas's market-led economic policies (colloquially known as Rogernomics), no weaning off the taxpayer's cheque book. They were forced to go cold turkey.
– Excerpt from an article about the effect of Rogernomics on New Zealand farmers in the mid 1980s, Otago Daily Times, 24 May 2014