Federated Farmers is excited about today's announcement that Pacific Fibre will be building a broadband cable linking New Zealand and Australia to the USA.

"We know broadband is the next big enabler, that's why we've worked closely with Government to ensure we don't end up with an urban/rural digital divide," says Federated Farmers Chief Executive, Conor English.

"We need a significant change that sees rural New Zealand get a fair go, but we don't want it in incremental steps.

"Government's initial policy on rural broadband wasn't the best, but to their credit they've listened to Federated Farmers and made some progress in the right direction. In terms of money and speed targets though, we're not quite there yet.

"We still think that the new broadband levy should be $70 million a year, not the proposed $50 million. We will also be pushing for the initial target speed to be much greater than what Government is purposing.

"There are suggestions that farmers wouldn't use higher speed broadband, but we beg to differ. This is why, in conjunction with XERO, we're undertaking a rural online solutions industry day in Wellington on 24 March. We want to make a real difference for rural New Zealand and this international cable proposal is a great step in the right direction.

"The world is changing, if we want to remain a first world country and prevent the increasing urban/rural divide, we need not only fast broadband to the rest of the world but also ultra fast broadband across the fields and valleys of rural New Zealand," Mr English concluded.

ENDS