New Zealand First leader Winston Peters, a long-time critic of the Reserve Bank, told the Otago Daily Times the fluctuating New Zealand dollar had wiped billions of dollars off this week's Fonterra payout.
In Waikato on Thursday, farmers told Mr Peters they had received $4 billion from the record payout.
If the currency had been lower, they would have got $5.5 billion, he said.
"The Reserve Bank governor [Alan Bollard] is not elected and has his sights set on keeping inflation in a narrow band. Thousands of people are losing their jobs while he keeps using the crude measure of inflation."
Recently returned from Singapore, Mr Peters advocated stricter government control of the currency.
When it was suggested China's pegging its currency had caused many of the global financial problems, Mr Peters was dismissive.
"China is running for China. I want to run New Zealand for New Zealand."
Labour finance spokesman David Cunliffe yesterday said the dollar had dived despite New Zealand's largest company, Fonterra, announcing record profits.
"Quite clearly, markets were reacting to renewed recession fears in the United States and Europe, and also possibly to the announcement [on Thursday] of appalling growth figures for the past quarter.
"But what the combination of these events indicates is that the Kiwi dollar is not driven so much by local fundamentals but by the risk appetites of global speculators."
It was essential Government policy acknowledged the risks associated with the highly traded dollar that were undermining efforts to increase exports and create jobs.
Finance Minister Bill English could not "hide his head in the sand" while Kiwi exporters were sacrificed to the whims of the banking and currency sectors, Mr Cunliffe said. Labour proposed making a competitive exchange rate and low unemployment the goals of monetary policy alongside inflation control.
"We will give the Reserve Bank macro-prudential tools to fight inflation without driving up the exchange rate. We will encourage the Reserve Bank to intervene more actively to prevent our dollar reaching unsustainable levels," he said.
Mr English welcomed the fall in the dollar, saying it would give exporters much-needed relief.
He told Radio New Zealand's Morning Report the currency, which hit a post-float high of US88.43 last month, had been too high for too long.
"More recently, as commodity prices have dropped back a bit, we would expect the exchange rate to drop because it has been pretty closely tied to commodity prices.
"The exchange rate is coming back. Provided it does not drop precipitously, having it come back into the [US] 70s will give our exporters, who are under pressure, some relief."
A low dollar would give the prospect of more growth in the future from exports, he said.
Mr Peter said the latest economic growth figures should have got the attention of Mr English.
"Bill English is in cloud-cuckoo-land. He has been caught out by running this hands-off economy."
Logs had become New Zealand's third-largest export, providing thousands of jobs and billions of dollars in profits to overseas economies while New Zealand suffered.
Providing a 20% tax rate for new exports and government intervention on the dollar would return New Zealand to a value-added economy, he said.
