Straight-shooting down on the farm

Charlie Pedersen believes in playing the issue - not the man. Picture / Amos Chapple

Sporting a moustache that wouldn't have looked out of place in an All Black team photo circa 1982, Charlie Pedersen looks every bit the classic Kiwi farmer.

But the new Federated Farmers president - who comes with a reputation as a tough-talking political leader - is no cultural throwback. His sense of style is - to use an agrarian metaphor - well cultivated.

It's driven by a sense of pride in the people he represents and a disarmingly intellectual understanding of cultural stereotypes and the role they play in shaping the national psyche.

"Farmers are iconic individuals in this country," he says.

Swanndris, four-wheel drives, farm bikes and chainsaws are all the trappings of a cultural identity which New Zealanders should do more to celebrate.

"It grates me that as nation we are slightly embarrassed to be dependent on using agriculture to drive the economy."

Pedersen's career path to farming leadership is another clue to a personality that is more complex than has been shown by his public persona to date.

His CV reads: farming, logging, sawmilling and ... special needs teaching.

Although he grew up on his grandparents' farm, Pedersen was encouraged by his father not to go straight on to the land.

"My father had left school at 12 to work on the farm - as they did in those days - and he always said to me: whatever you do, you have to be educated."

Pedersen trained at Palmerston North Teachers College and Massey University before spending two-and-half years as a special needs teacher.

"I had an affinity with children. I loved teaching but I found the structure of the system in those days - the early 70s - like being in jail."

At that time, it didn't matter how good a person was, the only way they would be considered for promotion was on the basis of the number of years served. "So after two-and-half years I had enough."

At that point, Pedersen set up a logging and sawmilling business with his twin brother.

There probably couldn't be a more different line of work.

Logging was a tough and often dangerous industry at the time and there were a few incidents from which he felt lucky to get out with his life and limbs intact.

But it was a successful business that enabled him and his brothers to buy their grandparents' farm.

Pedersen and his wife, Chrissy, have been farming it ever since.

Like many farmers of his generation, he was almost forced off the land during the economic upheaval of the mid-1980s.

"We saw the equity in our land sliced in half ... on our fourth mortgage we were paying 26 per cent interest."

Fortunately, his training as a teacher allowed him to get work off the farm and he went back to school to supplement the income.

His wife was left to look after the farm and the children.

"That was a tough three years - but we got out of it with our farm, which we could scarcely believe. Everything else has been a piece of cake since then."

A passionate dislike of the way rural people are charged rates sparked Pedersen's involvement in politics.

"I had relatives living in town with a footpath outside their door, swimming pool and a library just down the road, all these wonderful things, yet I was paying far more in rates because we have this ridiculous system of taxing land."

The issue prompted Pedersen to make an individual submission to the district council.

When he went to a public meeting to speak in support of his submission, he sat through the submission made by Federated Farmers - a group to which he belonged but had little to do with.

He was blown away by the depth and quality of the Feds' work.

"I never knew these guys did so much work on our behalf. I thought that's a great organisation. I absolutely have to be part of that."

He began his involvement as secretary of the Foxton branch. By 1990, he was Foxton chairman for Dairy Farmers of New Zealand.

As vice-president of the national organisation for the past three years, Pedersen has been the outspoken leader of high-profile campaigns such as the "fart-tax" protests which forced a Government backdown and the ongoing campaign against the land access legislation.

His persona has contrasted sharply with that of the outgoing president, the soft-spoken organic dairy farmer Tom Lambie.

The pair have run a kind of good cop/bad cop routine with the political powers that be.

Pedersen says that isn't entirely due to personal style.

"The modus operandi of the organisation is that we leave it to the deputy to deliver the difficult messages and we always leave our leader to be the diplomat."

The president's role requires a close working relationship with Government as New Zealand seeks to push its goals for trade reform on the international stage.

That leaves the vice-president to rally the troops on domestic issues that often require a degree of confrontation with Government.

Pedersen is well aware that he will need to adjust his style and is looking forward to the challenge of working on the wider international stage.

He is already vice-chairman of the dairy section of the Paris-based International Federation of Agricultural Producers.

But he says he doesn't plan to give up on the straight talking.

"I'm not a person who minces my words. I speak directly."

Firm but fair is the way Pedersen wants to play the political game.

"I believe that you never play the man ... you play the issue. They are the basic rules of engagement as far as I'm concerned."

That rule will be applied regardless of whether he is dealing with protectionist French farmers or politicians from either side of the political spectrum. He said Federated Farmers was apolitical when it came to party politics.

The next Agriculture Minister, whoever that is, will get on just fine with Pedersen as long as he or she recognises the importance of the job that farmers do in this country.

"Farmers have battled through an era when they were told they were a sunset industry, that they would never be of any worth again," he says.

He thinks the export success stories of the farming sector and its unquestionable role in the economic boom of the past five years says something about the strength of the people involved.

"And about what it means to be a New Zealander," he says. "Tell a New Zealander that they are no good and watch what happens. Be a spin doctor for the Lions and tell everybody that Tana Umaga is no good and watch what the All Blacks do to you in the next game."

Charlie Pedersen

Age: 48.
Born: Manuwatu.
Education: Palmerston North Teachers College, Massey University.
Career: Special needs teaching, logging and sawmilling, dairy, sheep and beef farming.
Family: Married, four adult children.
Interests: Skiing, trap-shooting, canoeing, music.