TY  - BOOK
AU  - Wallace,Neal
TI  - When the farm gates opened: the impact of Rogernomics on rural New Zealand 
SN  - 187757872X
AV  - HN13 
U1  - 338.1893 23
KW  - Agriculture
KW  - Economic aspects
KW  - New Zealand
KW  - History
KW  - 20th century
KW  - Agriculture and state
KW  - Farmers
KW  - Economic conditions
KW  - Anecdotes
KW  - Agriculture and politics
KW  - 1984-
N1  - Includes bibliographical references and index
N2  - The economic reforms launched by the 1984 David Lange-led Labour government changed New Zealand forever. Agriculture bore the brunt of those changes and Rogernomics, the name by which the era came to be known, became an historical reference point for the primary sector: a defining and pivotal moment when financial subsidies abruptly ended and farming learned to live without government influence, interference or protection. The changes were more sweeping and wide ranging than anything farmers and farming had expected. Some adjusted, some did not. Farmers downed tools in protest, many were forced from their land, families split, there was a spike in suicides and stories spread of farmers hiding machinery from repossession agents. Twenty years on, there has been little documentation of what is folklore and what is fact. This gripping and moving book, by award-winning agricultural journalist Neal Wallace, relates the story of a rural sector battered and bruised by rapid change. It traces the period building up to the economic changes by talking to political and sector leaders, and the most important contribution comes from interviews with those most affected: farmers and community leaders who recollect and reveal their often very painful experiences
ER  -