‘Thanks for stepping into the lion’s den’ Phil Goff was told after he addressed a Federated Farmers conference in Wellington.

Delegates listened politely as Mr Goff unveiled Labours economic plans, and then were quick to voice their concerns.

Top of those were Labour’s plan to scrap the proposed Puhoi to Wellsford freight freeway,  the proposed ‘resource rental charge’ for large-scale water users, and Labour’s plans to bring agriculture into the Emissions Trading Scheme in 2013, already a sore point with Federated Farmers.

Mr Goff said the frustration at the meeting was not entirely unexpected.

He told media afterwards that ‘Federated Farmers isn't known as a hot bed of left-wing radicalism’.