Anderton keen to get hands dirty

Jim Anderton

New Agriculture Minister Jim Anderton says farmers shouldn't worry about his city-boy background.

"I'm not there because of my expertise in farming," he said. "I'm there because I've got some experience and success at pulling industries together and getting them up the value chain."

The Auckland-born, urban Christchurch MP does have a little experience on a farm.

"I used to spend my childhood on my uncle's farm. I have to confess I wasn't much good at milking the cows and I fell off the horse more than I stayed on it."

But Anderton's wife, Carole, was a successful farmer. "She was a shepherd in the hill country on the East Coast in her youth and she lived on a farm for most of her life," he said. "So she knows more about farming in her little finger than I do."

The third-ranked Cabinet minister said he had been given the agriculture job to "show the primary sector that the Government is taking it seriously".

That didn't mean the Government wasn't taking farmers seriously before, he said, but there was a perception in rural communities that they have been "a bit of an afterthought".

Anderton's ministerial brief now encompasses all the nation's primary industries. He was already Minister for Forestry. Last week agriculture, fisheries and biosecurity were added to his brief.

Federated Farmers President Charlie Pedersen said he was pleasantly surprised by Anderton's appointment. Anderton's Cabinet rank suggested this Government was serious about putting more focus on the agriculture.

Pedersen has met Anderton several times and described him as extremely affable.

He was the sort of man who wasn't afraid to seek advice on issues that he wasn't an expert on, he said.

"I think that will make for us having a good relationship with him."

While he might come from a left-wing background, Anderton was also a businessman with a pragmatic attitude, Pedersen said

"We all have our philosophical bent but in the end we have to be pragmatic as well and I think that's Jim Anderton."

The new minister is also keen to emphasis his desire to forget about ideology and get on with the job.

"The challenge the Prime Minister has given me is to try to pull all these primary industries together and help lift them up the value chain," he said.

"I'll be pulling as much resource as I can from everywhere in Government that I can lay my hands on."

Anderton said he was well aware of the tense relationship between farmers and the last Government.

"I just want to see the primary industries succeed. That's not because I want to be nice, warm and cuddly to farmers, it's because I know that their industry is critical to the economic and social well being of New Zealand. If they don't succeed, we don't succeed. End of story."