February 6, 2026 • 40 mins
Jamie Mackay talks to Sir Ian Taylor, Hunter McGregor, Paul Joules, Jane Smith, and Shane Jones.
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
The best of the country with Rabobank. Choose the bank
with one hundred and twenty years global agri business experience.
Grow with Rubbobank.
Speaker 2 (00:09):
I guess n sime for me.
Speaker 3 (00:14):
You love.
Speaker 2 (00:17):
As time got a picture of you, will say we
got your libstick Markstelone your cover.
Speaker 4 (00:27):
Get an good morning, New Zealand. I'm Jamie McKay. Thanks
for joining me bright and early on your long holiday weekend.
Those of you who are lucky enough to get one
for the best of the country. It's brought to you
each and every Saturday morning here on News Talks, there'd
be by Rabobank. We're growing a better New Zealand together.
Gonna kick it off with a two part interview with
Sir En Taylor. To dig or Not to Dig a
(00:50):
en as of course, a leading New Zealand businessman, an entrepreneur,
is preparing to take on Martua Shane Jones, the Prince
of the Provinces, over gold mining in Bendigo, Central Otago.
Is it for the national good or is it a
case of nimbiism. We'll discuss that with Siren Taylor. Hunter
McGregor is our guy in Shanghai talking about the Chinese
(01:13):
new year coming up, shortly shared bikes and eating turtles?
Is that a thing? Paul Jules joins us from Rabobank's
Sydney office. Fake or lab grown chocolate? What will it
taste like? Jane Smith, North Otago she can be Farmer
Award winning environmentalist. She talked about the demise of fake food,
(01:33):
the food pyramid being turned upside down, the woke school
grading system and why she won't be voting for Damian
O'Connor in her home Waitaki electorate. Shane Jones, the Prince
of the Provinces, was on Thursday show, responding to Sirene Taylor.
It's all on the best of the country and it's
all brought to you by Rabobank.
Speaker 1 (02:02):
The best of the country with Rabobank. Choose the bank
with a huge network of progressive farming clients. Rabobank.
Speaker 4 (02:09):
So you've heard from Prime Minister Christopher Luxen to dig
or not to dig in Central Otago for gold? Just
reminding you this is what he said earlier in the show.
Who's right Shane Jones or sar En Taylor when it
comes to gold mining at Bendigo in Central Otago? Is
this the national good? Or is this a nimbiaism.
Speaker 5 (02:31):
Now, look, I mean we've got to get more mining
underway in this country. I mean we are blessed with
a bunch of critical minerals, which is where the future
is going to be. With AI and superconducted chips and
all those good things. They create high paying jobs in
regional New Zealand. And we also need mining. Frankly, if
you want to make the transition to evs and solar panels, well,
whether that or come from it comes from minerals on
(02:53):
the ground. So you know, we really want to open
up mining. We think there's a huge opportunity to create
high paying jobs in regional New Zealand.
Speaker 4 (03:00):
So there we go. Saren Taylor joins us, and why
don't you want to create high paying jobs in regional
New Zealand. Good afternoon, New Zealand time.
Speaker 6 (03:09):
Yeah. Hey, well it's interesting the Prime Minister didn't.
Speaker 3 (03:13):
Address my article at all. See he's addressed what everyone
who's supporting mining does. They go straight to mining minerals
across the country.
Speaker 7 (03:24):
Now, my.
Speaker 3 (03:27):
Discussion here and the debate I will have with Shame,
isn't about mining minerals. It's about mining gold. And the
Prime Minister just attributed gold because I'm only talking about
one mind, it's the one in Bendigo, and the Prime
Minister just attributed the one mineral they're going to take
out of the ground. There gold to being the secret
(03:50):
to all of our answers for aiavs all of it.
It's not used in any of those. It's put in
the ground in safes made jewelry.
Speaker 7 (04:01):
I think it's a.
Speaker 3 (04:02):
I can't remember what the percentage that's actually used in
anything electronic or technically advanced, but it's minuscule. And if
they truly believed in that, then there's clearly of gold
in the world already that has been mined that could
do everything we.
Speaker 6 (04:18):
Need to do.
Speaker 3 (04:19):
So the people sort of opposing the argument I've put
keep jumping to mining everywhere. I didn't mention mining anywhere
else other than then.
Speaker 4 (04:32):
To go, okay, is that nimbiism? Is that nimbidism? You
might Sir Sam Nil, Sir Graham Sidney just not wanting
that in their backyard.
Speaker 3 (04:42):
Well, the backyard we're talking about is all of New Zealand.
I mean the backyard we're talking about is drives tourism
in New Zealand. It drives horticulture and New Zealand. It
dries mticulture in New Zealand. It is part of our
part of the reputation we have around the country. That's
why people come to Queenstown, that's why people come to
(05:03):
Otaga's And again it's that really narrow argument that people
have gone. They're not debating me on the one mine
I mentioned, and now they moved to nimbiasm to claim
that this is us back arguing about our backyard. It's
not our backyard, it's the country's backyard. And it's the
(05:24):
Prime Minister wants to talk about creating jobs. Otago has
one of the lowest unemployments in the country.
Speaker 4 (05:30):
You talked about gold gold mine, and gold's very valuable
recently at record highs. Can we afford to leave it
sitting there? I'm playing Devil's advocate.
Speaker 3 (05:39):
Sure, so you just jumped to it recently recently at
that recently at record levels today plummeting. So it's a
volatile market and it's valuable only because we put it
back into safe and into the ground. So the question
(05:59):
we ask and we talk about one mine, not all mines.
One mine, and we're talking about a teaspoon of gold
that requires one thousand tons of ground to be dug
up out of the earth and creating a whole. I
haven't said don't do it. I have just said don't
fast track it because there are too many questions. And
(06:21):
my argument is is the risk reward valid for this
particular mine.
Speaker 4 (06:28):
Seren Tayler with US Shane Johnes said it's behind a whole.
No one's going to see it anyhow, But that.
Speaker 3 (06:36):
Doesn't address my question. It can be anywhere you like.
My question is, are we prepared to create a toxic
lake that has a dam that is the height of
the Clyde Dam put it in a place where I mean,
there's an argument whether people will see it or not,
but that argument is relevant, irrelevant.
Speaker 6 (06:56):
Let's assume people don't see it.
Speaker 3 (06:58):
At all, but there will be a toxic dam with
arthenic and a whole lot of other things sitting on
in a seismic region where we know we're going to
have an earthquake, and it's sitting up there forever. What
for a teaspoon of gold?
Speaker 4 (07:16):
The Prime Minister was talking about high paying jobs and
regional New Zealand and I note on the story in
the Otago Daily Times yesterday, you're talking about one hundred
percent pure New Zealand brand. Can that provide as many jobs?
Speaker 3 (07:33):
Yes, And I guess not to not to preclude what
I'll be debating with the Jones, but there is a solution.
There is a huge solution for high value jobs in
the region, and it actually has to do with a
replacement for minerals. And maybe just to give you a
(07:56):
slight hint of where I'll be going on this, but
most of all, most of the fossil freees in Mind
and Degar actually are the result of millions and millions
and millions of years of trees degrading beneath the ground.
So there's a whole other area which well I'll mention
(08:17):
it here. So they claim that three billion dollars in
it has a three billion dollar lift to our GDP. Well,
I'm on a group called the New Zealand Product Accelerator.
We've been around for fifteen years and the job of
that Product Accelerator is a look to look at science
and technology that's being developed in New Zealand and how
(08:37):
it will benefit the country. So one of the research
papers we've done independent research suggests that New Zealand bioforestry,
which actually accesses a whole lot of the things that
are needed for today's electronic economy, is worth between twelve and.
Speaker 6 (08:53):
Thirty billion a year. And what are we doing.
Speaker 3 (08:57):
We're going down digging into the ground goal isn't an
example of it, but bigging in the round to pull
up stuff that actually began its life as trees and
billions of years ago. So there is another argument that's
being ignored by everybody who wants to go mining.
Speaker 4 (09:15):
Sir n Taylor, Part one of a two part interview
we did on Wednesday show Good Morning. My name is
Jamie Mackay. This is the best of the country, the
best bits of our weekday show twelve to one Up
next En Taylor Part two, Hunter McGregor and Shanghai, Paul
Jawles from Rabobank talking about fake chocolate in Sydney, Jane
Smith and of course no show without punch on the
(09:38):
best of the country Shane Jones Martoua. Shane responds to
Siren Taylor.
Speaker 2 (09:43):
Let's marsterlone your coup.
Speaker 1 (09:50):
The best of the country with Rabobank, the bank with
local agribanking experts passionate about the future of rural communities, Rabobank.
Speaker 4 (10:00):
Joan says, and I'm quoting again from the Otago Daily Times,
mining was neither funded nor delivered in the way it
was thirty to fifty years ago. He goes on to say,
the next generation, we're looking to the government to create
new options in the extractive sector.
Speaker 3 (10:17):
What do you say to that, No, it's he's taken
a step. Yes, the next year, the next generation is.
And you know, my argument here has always been about
the next generation. I'm here with my grandchildren, and I
have a thing. I call it the coalition of the willing.
And to belong to the coalition of the willing each
(10:38):
day you need to be able to look to your
grandchildren in the eye and say today I did something
that will make a difference for you. So I've got
my grandkids over here, and this debate.
Speaker 6 (10:48):
I'm having a shame is along those lines. It's about
our walk upon it. Now.
Speaker 3 (10:53):
He just defined what the future generation that because he
said it's their responsibility to extractive solutions. Let's just take extractive.
Speaker 6 (11:04):
Out of it.
Speaker 3 (11:05):
The government or our job as grandparents, our job as
politicians is definitely to look at the future generations. And
if we were being really genuine about it. Could I
look my grandson in the eye and say, Hey, we're
just going to do a really cool thing. We are
going to create a toxic lake at the top of
(11:26):
a mountain above the waterways that feed all of Central
Otago and the New Zealand economy, tourism, viticulture, horticulture and
the jobs they have already created. Am I able to
look them into the eye and say, and you know what,
I can guarantee you one hundred percent that that poison
lake will stay on the top of that hill forever.
Speaker 6 (11:49):
I do that.
Speaker 4 (11:50):
Saren Taylor, have you got a date and a venue
for this debate? I want to get some popcorn and
go along.
Speaker 3 (11:57):
Well, I'm working with Shane now to put them in context.
I've had discussion. I've known much of a judge for
a very long time.
Speaker 6 (12:05):
I mean, I was.
Speaker 3 (12:05):
Born in Cayo, I come from the same place, and
you know, I love the discussions we have and I'm
looking forward to this. We haven't got a date yet.
Speaker 6 (12:16):
I'm away overseas for.
Speaker 3 (12:18):
A couple of weeks. I'm in touch with his office.
We're hoping to hold it in. I had originally thought
that we'd hold it in the Tariff Community Center. But
just in hindsight, I then thought, well, actually that may
disadvantage Shane and the debate, although that wouldn't worry him,
(12:39):
But there I am placing it right in the context
where he might have a lot of people yelling at
Hi middle or a lot of people yelling at me.
So I'm just looking for I think I've got it
a place where the debate will only be Shane and
I and a moderator.
Speaker 6 (12:54):
So I would hope that we would have that debate.
Speaker 3 (12:57):
In the you know, he mentioned ow pollen voyages, and
I hope we will have that in the spirit of
pacifica conversations, which is talernoah and talernoah means no matter
your point of view, you always sit, you talk and
listen with respect. And I think we have more chance
(13:18):
of doing that if it's just Shane and.
Speaker 4 (13:20):
I Sarrien Taylor with us. Just while I've got you
and I'm running out of time, but I want to
ask you about this one. You're big on share my
super Look, if you can afford to give you superannuation,
if you don't need it to someone in need, here's
my question for you. Surely when it comes to the
age of eligibility for national super the first step would
be raising the age of eligibility to sixty seven.
Speaker 3 (13:41):
Well, I do have a viewer on that, and you know,
maybe before I got involved with share my Super, I
would have argued that as well. But what I've discovered is,
and what we're seeing increasingly, is that there are people
in the age of sixty five, some even younger than that,
who are really really struggling to survive. And if this
(14:04):
cost of living carries on age of our eligibility is
almost that kind of elitist thing from rich people as well.
You know, I can wait till I'm sixty seven. I'm okay,
but actually we need to step back, and you know,
I don't have the answer. You know, there's means testing,
there's all sorts of other things. But this has been
(14:25):
sitting in the hands of politicians forever and they doodle
around the edges and shift making. A decision to shift
at sixty seven just means there's going to be a
whole lot more elderly people suffer, and that's going to
get worse if this cost of.
Speaker 6 (14:39):
Living crisis keeps going away.
Speaker 3 (14:40):
It is so the thing with cheer my sup.
Speaker 8 (14:44):
It's really cool that.
Speaker 3 (14:45):
You've asked now, because we are about to relaunch the
campaign we ran last year, just as a reminders of
people that if you can share it, even for a
short while, you are making an enormous difference. And we
are really looking forward to seeing this month the latest
child poverty stats will be coming out, and I am
(15:06):
almost certain that they will be worse than they were
last year. So just the summer, Jamie, we can leave
it to politicians to beat around the bush and do nothing,
or those of us in that sort of maybe five percent,
you know, who really don't need it at the moment,
why don't we just take this thing into our hands
(15:27):
as the coalition of.
Speaker 6 (15:28):
The willing, look at our marcal Pont and say we're
going to.
Speaker 3 (15:31):
Make a difference for a little while or forever or
for whatever. I'm going to give this much money. This
is my super to share my super, and all of
that money share my super doesn't take any of it.
All of it goes to twelve charities who have proven
they're making a difference to our morcal who are in poverty.
Speaker 4 (15:51):
Saren Taylor, thanks so much for your time today in
the country. Really looking forward to the debate with the
Prince of the Provinces Martua Shane Jones.
Speaker 1 (15:58):
Thanks for your time, Thanks jamming the best of the
country with rubber Bag. Choose the bank with one hundred
and twenty years global agribusiness experience. Grow with rubber Bag.
Speaker 4 (16:09):
So, as the song goes, there are nine million bicycles
in Beijing. Let's head to Shanghai. Our guy over there
is Hunter McGregor, a key we selling venison and red
meat to the Chinese. How many bicycles in Shanghai? Can
you do better than nine million? Hunter?
Speaker 9 (16:25):
Good afternoon, Jamie. I reckon there's probably more your motorized
bikes that he held, a lot more than nine million.
I was just looking online. There's probably about ten to
twelve million motorized bikes, bicycles and stuff, but most people
are moving to electric scooters and electric bikes. But also
there's a hell of a lot of shared bikes around
(16:48):
the city and there's probably about one point five million
of them lying around the place, and they're fantastic. You know.
All you do is is sort of scan the QR
code on the back the wheel unlocks it to wherever
where you like, wherever you're going and then you just
lock it up and walk away. It's fantastic. Cost me
about three dollars a month for unlimited uses of these things,
(17:12):
and you know the great In a flat city like Shanghai,
you can't go wrong. Is it fantastic to get around?
Speaker 4 (17:18):
I can imagine it'd be a lot easier than driving
a car. Why do you bother with the car hunter?
Speaker 9 (17:23):
Well, yeah, anything over about five ten k's I have
a car. Also, having a family and kids, it's a
lot easier to move, move gear and equipment around and
be a bus driver for the family with a car.
But you know, anything sort of within about five six
k's are usually just bike. There's plenty of bike lanes
as well, so that's reasonably safe. And what you notice
(17:44):
driving in a car is a lot of electric scooters
and people, you know, delivering stuff. They don't actually follow
the road rules anyway, So it's a bit of man
this every now and then on the roads of Shanghai.
But there's part and parcel of the fun of driving.
Speaker 4 (17:57):
Yeah, okay, Chinese New Year is being celebrated on Tuesday,
February seventeenth, but you won't be in Shanghai celebrating Chinese
New Year, you will be in Roxburgh eating Jimmy's pies.
Speaker 9 (18:10):
Yeah yeah, I'm washing it down with some makaisa or
spats or something like that, you know. Heading back to
New Zealand later this week for a couple of weeks,
a bit of a break, hopefully get a bit of
Central Otaga summer and that will be quite nice. I
think it runs back to school in New Zealand, so
probably the weather will improve. But Chinese New Year each
(18:30):
year is it's a little bit later this year and
it kicks off, you know, and it's like Christmas in China,
you know, in New Zealand it's everything shuts down, everyone
goes home, and so it kicks off on the sixteenth
Christmas New Year's Eve, which is a big holiday. Traditionally
you'd have a lot of fireworks and stuff, but the
(18:51):
big cities have bannedits. It's only in the countryside. And
then there's about a week of eight to ten days
of not much happening in China. So it's a great
time empty streets and the cruise around China. So it's
be good to get back to New Zealand and enjoying them.
Hopefully bit of summer during that time.
Speaker 4 (19:07):
I'm assuming Chinese New Year is good business for New
Zealand exporters.
Speaker 9 (19:13):
Leading up to Chinese New Year, Yes, there's a lot
of gift giving, a lot of what you call events,
company events of the years leading into Christmas December Wise
and New Zealand Ye companies have events and things like that,
and then when Chinese New Year hits, everything stops and
then it takes a week while to get started. But yeah,
(19:34):
leading into it, it's very good season. Yeah, that's why
New Zealand cherries do quite well up here. It's a
great gift, good timing with Chinese New Year and stuff.
So yeah, no, it's a big purchasing time for Chinese
people traditionally, and it still carries on.
Speaker 4 (19:51):
Hunter MacGregor with us. I know you've got to catch
a plane to New Zealand, so we're just about out
of time. But turtles, you're talking about your shared bike.
You were biking along the other day and a bloke
in front of you turtle hanging off the end of
his bike. What's that for?
Speaker 9 (20:04):
Well, it's quite interesting, you see. I've seen them for
years on street corners just before Chinese New Year, These
farmers come into the cities with turtles and stuff, and
it's not for selling them for pets. They find these
bigger turtles and they sell them for eating. But you know,
turtle consumption here in China is massive. It's probably more
than that. They consume more turtles than what we're the
(20:26):
exports sheep meat. And also you know there's a lot
of rabbit meat, a lot of frog meat consumed here.
So these niche products and what you think niche markets
and China are very big and yeah, so when you
see a turtle hanging off a pole in China, they're
not selling it for pets.
Speaker 4 (20:45):
Geez, frogs turtles. I think I'd soon have a Jimmy
Spie and Rocksbrough catch you in New Zealand when you're
over here.
Speaker 9 (20:53):
Jeers, Thanks Jamy, the best of the country with Rubber Bank.
Speaker 1 (20:58):
Choose the bank with a huge network of progressive farming clients.
Speaker 4 (21:01):
Rabobank, welcome back to the country. We were do to
chat to Rabobank Chief executive Todd Charteris, but he's been
pulled quite literally at the last moment, because we're going
to catch up with him this time next week with
our broadcasts from the Parliamentary lawn for National Lamb Day,
so we're going to pivot from lamb meat to chocolate.
(21:24):
Two of my favorites now joining us out of the
Sydney office of Rabobank is RABO Research analyst Paul Jules.
And Paul, you've just written a really interesting paper. It
looks like chocolate in the future might be coco bean free.
What's it going to taste like?
Speaker 10 (21:41):
Yeah, exactly.
Speaker 7 (21:42):
So we're seeing a bit of a change in the
chocolate market at the moment, and we're seeing a few
new technologies emerge. There's really two that are at the forefront.
So obviously you've got your traditional coco which is grown
via a tree typically in Africa, but the two being
explored now as lab grown co go. So that's effectively
(22:02):
what it says on the tin co goo grown in
a lab, think similar to what we saw when those
talks of meat being grown in a lab just just
a few years ago. And then the other one is fermentation.
It's about effectively transforming plant based inputs such as oat,
sunflower seeds, barley, grape seeds for example, and try to
transform them into a chocolate likeing ingredient. In terms of
(22:26):
taste in terms of what they actually taste like. Certainly
on the fermentation side, it will definitely be different to
your typical coco chocolate bar. It won't taste quite the
same as reports. It's a little more bitter. It's not
a like for like substitution, that's for sure.
Speaker 4 (22:42):
Is this going to be a flesh in the pain
you mentioned lab grown mate, Well, that's turned out to
be a bit of a flop.
Speaker 7 (22:49):
Well, exactly, And I think probably what sped up this
sort of search for new technologies is the fact that
if you look at the co go market, the traditional
coco market, we saw prices is about four times the
historical averages over the past couple of years, all to
do with production issues that took place in Africa. We
had very very low global supply. That sped up the
(23:11):
search for other alternatives, so we've seen more investment. Potentially,
what could happen as prices of coco come down, which
is happening at the moment, Potentially we could see this
fade into the background and it could arguably just just
be a flash in the pan. So this is still
very much early technology, but there's some hopes that we
are seeing a bit of development.
Speaker 4 (23:32):
Climate change is also affecting the production of coco. That's
why or coco beans, that's why we've seen the mess
of fluctuation and prices. Are we going to have to
grow it in different parts of the world.
Speaker 7 (23:44):
Well, that's one of the big challenges for coco is
the fact that we can only really grow it when
it's relatively close to the equator. There's only a few
countries where it actually makes sense to grow. So really
you're talking about West Africa, predominantly Ivory Coast in Ghana,
you see about sixty percent of the world's crop come
from that specific region. Also Ecuador, Brazil to some extent,
(24:07):
they're really the main players, and it's actually quite hard
for other countries to really ramp up production just because
of where they sit in the world. So it's quite
a challenged crop. And we've definitely seen more volatility in
terms of weather.
Speaker 6 (24:21):
Over the past few years.
Speaker 7 (24:22):
That's had a stronger influence on production, and I think
that probably will continue, so we could continue to see
volatility within that cocoa market.
Speaker 4 (24:33):
Paul Jewels out of Rabobanks, Sydney off Us talking about
fake or lab grown chocolate, what will it taste like
the fake food theme continued with Jane Smith. She's up
next after the break and Marta Shane Jones, the Prince
of the Province, is responding to SII and Taylor talking
about Rabobank. They're proud to once again be returning as
(24:56):
the principal partner of National Lambdai, which takes place on Sunday,
February the fifteenth. Once again, AG Proud and Beef and
Lamb New Zealand will lead the campaign championing New Zealand's
proud lamb producing heritage and the people who make it possible.
We're going to be in Wellington on Wednesday and broadcasting
from Parliament Lawns. It is the National Lamb Day Barbecue.
(25:20):
Going to be interesting times indeed. Up next to Jane
Smith out of North Otago, men I distant.
Speaker 1 (25:28):
Bad for GIRs, the best of the country with Robobank,
the bank with local agribanking experts, passionate about the future
of rural communities Robobank.
Speaker 4 (25:40):
She is a North Otago farmer, former warner of the
Balanced Farm Environment Awards and a bit of a favorite
here on the country. The punters lap her up. Her
name is Jane Smith. What a great intro, that is, Jane.
I don't know whether you're caught up with Paul Jewels
from Rabobank, who I talked to on yesterday's show about
fake chocolate or coco free chocolate coming into vogue because
(26:01):
the cost of cocoa beans is so high. It's good
to see that things like fake meat are failing around
the world because there's nothing like the real thing.
Speaker 10 (26:10):
Is that exactly, Jamie. And it's been really fascinating to
see Italy taking an actual legislative stance against synthetic food
a a Frankenstein food or Franken food. They call it
so lab grind synthetic. You know, it's almost something like
out of a really bad science fiction movie. And this
decision that they've made is is quite world leading. Really,
(26:32):
it effectively blocks the entry of cultivated so using animal
cells by the way, meat or milk, not that they
should be allowed to use those terms, I believe so,
And as well as they talked about ultra processed food,
they're really wanting to push that out. And also they've
mentioned anything to do with GMO food, you know, be
chemicals beat seeds. So it's really fascinating and the most
(26:55):
interesting thing I found is a farmer if you look
deeper than the decision itself, it's the reason that they
made it. They said it was one to protect public
health and two to protect traditional natural farming systems. So
you know, again that's a wake up call for New Zealand,
who seem, you know, some of our sector leaders in
large corporates and hell bent on you know, bringing gmo
(27:16):
food additives, intensification, and that fake food sort of ties
into all of that as well, Jamie. So again I
think that's a really great turn of events. And also
at the same time, Jamie, I don't know if you
saw that that the food pyramid so has actually been
turned up upside down, so the way that it used
to be, you know, when our parents and grandparents were
learning home economics. So basically they're saying, actually, let's go
(27:40):
back to whole foods. Let's go back to high value,
high nutrient dense proteins and good fats Jamie. So you
know that again bodes well for traditional farming like New
Zealand pastu raised protein.
Speaker 4 (27:52):
Jamie sat is back, Jane, the latest from the education system,
and this really grinds my ideas and I think think
it does yours as well. Look, the trouble with school
is you should either pass or fail, because when you
get out of school or university and you hit the
real world, you either pass or you fail. You get
the job or you don't get the job. We're not
(28:12):
hardening young people up enough to the realities of the
real world.
Speaker 10 (28:16):
Exactly, Jamie. I thought, you know, Eric Stanford and her
team are doing some good work in terms of standardization, etc.
But to see the new grading system. So it is,
and I just off my top of my head is emerging, developing, consolidating,
and then you're either proficient or you're exceeding. I mean
(28:37):
you need a degree to even understand what do those
grades mean. I mean we've failed up to date as
the last twenty years, we failed kids to read and write.
And now you know, to try to decipher that what's
wrong with her? As you said, pars will fail ABC
ord or even the achieved not achieved, or possibly you know,
going above that. So Blair was yelling something at me
(28:57):
today while I was on the drafting gate this morning,
Jamie and the yards. I'm pretty sure it wasn't that
I was proficient or exceeding at my job. Jamie. So
maybe I was just sailing.
Speaker 4 (29:07):
Or it might have been another word starting with an F. Anyhow,
I won't get in the road of a husband and
wife debate in the stockyards, Jane. I see you've got
a new candidate in the waite Taki electorate who you
may choose or not choose to vote for, Damian O'Connor.
Speaker 10 (29:21):
That's interesting, Yes, the old ghost from the coast, Jamie.
When I heard the news, it was both both interesting
and disturbing, and equal parts, given that the economically unpalatable
socialist smagas board that the Labour Greens served us up
last time. And you know, I've had it quite a
bit to do with Damien, particularly lately, and I now
(29:41):
I understand why he was hanging around the wait Techi area,
but I guess as agg Minister and Trade Minister, Damien
consistently failed to stand up for farmers when his mate
David Parker treated as as environmental terrorists, and people literally
left exited our seats because of that, and the mental
health strain on farmers was huge. And it's interesting. The
(30:04):
Waitaki electric is a really dynamic area and of course
it was the birth place of social welfare just up
the road and Kourou in the wa Teki Valley in
nineteen thirty eight when they were building the Waheki dams.
But also at the same time, you know, the birthplace
of farming innovation with Thomas Brydon back in eighteen eighty
two with the first export of frozen meat, Jamie. So
(30:25):
I know it's a large electate. It incorporates just south
of Tamrou obviously, Omaru, Palmerston twice or Wanaka. You know,
it truly is ups to ocean, and I don't know,
like it really concerns me if we did get to
a Damien in I sort of want to live in
North Otago, Jamie, not North Korea.
Speaker 4 (30:42):
Shots fired mind you, Miles Anderson, your local bloke from
what I'm seeing anyhow, is doing a pretty good job.
But good luck to Damien. Interesting times as we count
down to the November seventh election. In election here, Jane Smith,
good luck in the sheepyards stockyards this afternoon with your
long suffering husband Blair.
Speaker 1 (31:02):
Thanks Sammy, the best of the country with Rubbobank Choose
the bank with one hundred and twenty years global agribusiness experience.
Grow with Rubbobank.
Speaker 4 (31:12):
Here's the Prince of the Province's Martua, Shane Jones. We
find in today at Whyitani hopefully dodging the mud and
the dildos. Shane, You're going to have to dodge a
few bullets over your proposed mind gold mine in Central Otago.
We had Saren Taylor on the show yesterday. Did you
get an opportunity to hear what he said?
Speaker 7 (31:32):
Ah?
Speaker 8 (31:32):
Yes, and I've accepted his invitation to come to the
South Island and have a debate. I don't care if
it's in Terras or wherever it is. But look my
message to sir Ian and natt Elk, I've got no
time for this sort of chicken hearted approach. In relation
to being scared of using our resources. I know that
(31:53):
this is a particularly heated issue, but it's a smaller
part of a bigger question. How are we going to
create jobs, boost revenue, turn the fortunes of our economy
around if we don't take a risk and use areas
where we know there's proven natural resources. And by the way,
for those who pretend that grow grapes, etc. In this
(32:16):
supposedly spectacular landscape is something akin to the purity of
the garden of Eden. Whatever we do on the landscape,
it changes the landscape. And this is only a tiny
little dot, akin as I've said in the past, to
a beauty spot on the face of a on the
face of an alabaster looking beautiful woman.
Speaker 4 (32:36):
I thought you were going to say, a beauty spot
on your face.
Speaker 8 (32:38):
Shane, Sadly, there is a small matter of a double chin.
It may be hidden.
Speaker 4 (32:44):
Hey what about Serene's arsenic filled lake that got me worried?
Speaker 8 (32:49):
Well, there you go, more of this misinformation. Arsenic oozes
out already from the shist rock that exists around that
part of Otago. We're not talking about mining as in
the nineteen thirties, forties, fifties, sixties. It's very sophisticated. Now
you've got a huge mind just down the road called McCrae's.
(33:09):
And have you heard or seen of any catastrophic developments. No,
they've continued to develop, They've continued to find the right
guard rails. My message to my foe in Terras is
that you are not going to guilt trip this government
in denying Kiwi's jobs and new opportunities and what is
largely an empty landscape. In Otago for a gold mine
(33:33):
located in an area where the Chinese developed the gold
mining activities in the past. Yes, it will have some
effect on the landscape, but put it in proportion and look,
I rather think that a lot of these activists around
the Terras area, what they're actually doing is they're pulling
up the ladder and they're denying other Kiwis from other
parts of New Zealand the chance to move down there
(33:55):
and enjoy twenty thirty forty fifty years of mining activity.
Speaker 4 (34:00):
The mc kray's mind, to be fair is kind of
in the middle of nowhere, I guess, And I'm just
playing Devil's advocate here, Serene, Sir Graham, who's the other one,
Sir sam Nimbi is a aside. Perhaps there's no argument
about it. The central Otago landscape is perhaps more beautiful.
Can I say that it's a bit like your beauty spot?
Speaker 8 (34:23):
Yeah, well, of course it's got an amazing character to it.
But what does that mean you never have any wind farms?
Does that mean you never have any solar farms? Does
that mean they're putting farming down there? Which is the
area's coming to the farming that the vineyards at a
tolerable level of change to the landscape. It's a debate
(34:46):
that shouldn't be driven by people who want to pull
the ladder up. And secondly, it's got to be settled,
not on this catastrophization that somehow we're going to have
a Jurassic set of outcomes. Let the proces play out
and let the decision makers make their decisions on the
quality of the rational information.
Speaker 4 (35:05):
We haven't got a data a venue yet for the debate.
Speaker 8 (35:10):
No, no, no, I'm told that I know my office
is dealing with Syrian and no. Look, I mean he's
a very famous Kiwian. I tend to do my politics,
be soft on my personality and hard on the issue.
I'm looking forward to it, whether or not I find
much of an echo chamber down there. But it's important
that South Island people concerned about the trade off between
(35:31):
a mining and landscape, that politician like myself front up.
Speaker 4 (35:35):
Have you been doing a bit of stirring of the
affluent over Penny.
Speaker 1 (35:40):
Hener Ray.
Speaker 8 (35:44):
Well, his grandfather is I may have told you on
this program, and very famous New Zealand who was the
last commander of the Great Marie Battalion. Of the Second
World War. I suspect that what's happened is that Penny
doesn't actually see a future in the way that Willy
sees it. Now. I know both of these guys well,
(36:04):
but I also know Willy is so indebted figuratively speaking
in a friendship of many years to JG. Miss tummy
Head here, that he can't bring himself to break labor
away from the Maori Party, Whereas Penny knows absolutely that
the Maldi Party really have been something to an ideological
flesh in the pan. They've turned up with all this
(36:27):
sort of cultural pea cockery, and they're going to find
this year that there's no comparison and it's not synonymous,
you know, all this ideological cultural peak cockery. It's not
synonymous with political durability or effectiveness.
Speaker 4 (36:42):
Well, Seane Jones, Prince of the province is Martoa. Shane
good luck at Waitngui this weekend. I say, you might
have to dodge a few flying objects, but I'm sure
you're bigging up and ugly enough to handle it.
Speaker 8 (36:52):
The last thing I want is that that rather compromising
object that Stephen Joyce had to put up with coming
anywhere near my anatomy see you later.
Speaker 4 (37:02):
See you, Shane.
Speaker 1 (37:03):
The best of the Country with Rabobank. Choose the bank
with a huge network of progressive farming clients. Rabobank.
Speaker 4 (37:13):
I guess n Sir Shane Jones wrapping the best of
the country. Good morning, My name's Jamie McKay. Each and
every Saturday morning here on News TALKSB we play the
best of our weekday show twelve to one so you
can enjoy it on Saturday morning between six and seven.
We do it courtesy of Rabobank, who are growing a
better New Zealand for us. Every dollar you invest with
(37:36):
them goes into the primary sector. Rabobank's proud to be
returning as a principal partner of National Lamb Day, which
is coming up on February fifteen, one hundred and forty
four years on from the good Ship Dunedin leaving porch
Armers for London on board. Listen to these stats. Four
hundred and thirty one carcasses of mutton, five hundred and
ninety eight of lamb, twenty two of pig, along with hair, pheasant, turkey, chicken,
(38:00):
and twenty two hundred and twenty six sheep tongues. I
wonder who counted those plus two hundred and forty six
kegs of butter. When it got to London ninety eight
days later, only one carcass was deemed unfit for sale.
What a great story. As we celebrate National Lamb Day
Sunday week, catch you back Saturday week.
Speaker 2 (38:23):
But in a corner rock my Man celebrated glamin.
Speaker 1 (38:33):
That was that s.
Speaker 11 (38:36):
In the tstuff submaration you went selling be free? Can't
you find you by a little glum with sound whatever?
Speaker 10 (38:49):
Se?
Speaker 2 (38:52):
I just watch you back the girl? You see your
watch whatever the just tell me the son that us
sing it. You'll me ride and understand what you want
your back.
Speaker 8 (39:14):
And we'll be.
Speaker 11 (39:15):
Twogether this time as it will be so we will
never be.
Speaker 2 (39:43):
Whatever said, whatever had ever been in. I just want
you back the goch what you back? What you whatever? God?
I not telling the son that us sing it? You
do me ride and on the stage what you see
(40:05):
you want to back the girl? Butever n tell me
I want you back, what you want you back? I
want you back whenever, but.
Speaker 6 (40:23):
Not tell you.
Speaker 2 (40:26):
I want you back what I want your back? You
see you want to back the girl? Oh I gave
that's time, but you came back
The best of the country with Rabobank. Choose the bank
with one hundred and twenty years global agri business experience.
Grow with Rubbobank.
Speaker 2 (00:09):
I guess n sime for me.
Speaker 3 (00:14):
You love.
Speaker 2 (00:17):
As time got a picture of you, will say we
got your libstick Markstelone your cover.
Speaker 4 (00:27):
Get an good morning, New Zealand. I'm Jamie McKay. Thanks
for joining me bright and early on your long holiday weekend.
Those of you who are lucky enough to get one
for the best of the country. It's brought to you
each and every Saturday morning here on News Talks, there'd
be by Rabobank. We're growing a better New Zealand together.
Gonna kick it off with a two part interview with
Sir En Taylor. To dig or Not to Dig a
(00:50):
en as of course, a leading New Zealand businessman, an entrepreneur,
is preparing to take on Martua Shane Jones, the Prince
of the Provinces, over gold mining in Bendigo, Central Otago.
Is it for the national good or is it a
case of nimbiism. We'll discuss that with Siren Taylor. Hunter
McGregor is our guy in Shanghai talking about the Chinese
(01:13):
new year coming up, shortly shared bikes and eating turtles?
Is that a thing? Paul Jules joins us from Rabobank's
Sydney office. Fake or lab grown chocolate? What will it
taste like? Jane Smith, North Otago she can be Farmer
Award winning environmentalist. She talked about the demise of fake food,
(01:33):
the food pyramid being turned upside down, the woke school
grading system and why she won't be voting for Damian
O'Connor in her home Waitaki electorate. Shane Jones, the Prince
of the Provinces, was on Thursday show, responding to Sirene Taylor.
It's all on the best of the country and it's
all brought to you by Rabobank.
Speaker 1 (02:02):
The best of the country with Rabobank. Choose the bank
with a huge network of progressive farming clients. Rabobank.
Speaker 4 (02:09):
So you've heard from Prime Minister Christopher Luxen to dig
or not to dig in Central Otago for gold? Just
reminding you this is what he said earlier in the show.
Who's right Shane Jones or sar En Taylor when it
comes to gold mining at Bendigo in Central Otago? Is
this the national good? Or is this a nimbiaism.
Speaker 5 (02:31):
Now, look, I mean we've got to get more mining
underway in this country. I mean we are blessed with
a bunch of critical minerals, which is where the future
is going to be. With AI and superconducted chips and
all those good things. They create high paying jobs in
regional New Zealand. And we also need mining. Frankly, if
you want to make the transition to evs and solar panels, well,
whether that or come from it comes from minerals on
(02:53):
the ground. So you know, we really want to open
up mining. We think there's a huge opportunity to create
high paying jobs in regional New Zealand.
Speaker 4 (03:00):
So there we go. Saren Taylor joins us, and why
don't you want to create high paying jobs in regional
New Zealand. Good afternoon, New Zealand time.
Speaker 6 (03:09):
Yeah. Hey, well it's interesting the Prime Minister didn't.
Speaker 3 (03:13):
Address my article at all. See he's addressed what everyone
who's supporting mining does. They go straight to mining minerals
across the country.
Speaker 7 (03:24):
Now, my.
Speaker 3 (03:27):
Discussion here and the debate I will have with Shame,
isn't about mining minerals. It's about mining gold. And the
Prime Minister just attributed gold because I'm only talking about
one mind, it's the one in Bendigo, and the Prime
Minister just attributed the one mineral they're going to take
out of the ground. There gold to being the secret
(03:50):
to all of our answers for aiavs all of it.
It's not used in any of those. It's put in
the ground in safes made jewelry.
Speaker 7 (04:01):
I think it's a.
Speaker 3 (04:02):
I can't remember what the percentage that's actually used in
anything electronic or technically advanced, but it's minuscule. And if
they truly believed in that, then there's clearly of gold
in the world already that has been mined that could
do everything we.
Speaker 6 (04:18):
Need to do.
Speaker 3 (04:19):
So the people sort of opposing the argument I've put
keep jumping to mining everywhere. I didn't mention mining anywhere
else other than then.
Speaker 4 (04:32):
To go, okay, is that nimbiism? Is that nimbidism? You
might Sir Sam Nil, Sir Graham Sidney just not wanting
that in their backyard.
Speaker 3 (04:42):
Well, the backyard we're talking about is all of New Zealand.
I mean the backyard we're talking about is drives tourism
in New Zealand. It drives horticulture and New Zealand. It
dries mticulture in New Zealand. It is part of our
part of the reputation we have around the country. That's
why people come to Queenstown, that's why people come to
(05:03):
Otaga's And again it's that really narrow argument that people
have gone. They're not debating me on the one mine
I mentioned, and now they moved to nimbiasm to claim
that this is us back arguing about our backyard. It's
not our backyard, it's the country's backyard. And it's the
(05:24):
Prime Minister wants to talk about creating jobs. Otago has
one of the lowest unemployments in the country.
Speaker 4 (05:30):
You talked about gold gold mine, and gold's very valuable
recently at record highs. Can we afford to leave it
sitting there? I'm playing Devil's advocate.
Speaker 3 (05:39):
Sure, so you just jumped to it recently recently at
that recently at record levels today plummeting. So it's a
volatile market and it's valuable only because we put it
back into safe and into the ground. So the question
(05:59):
we ask and we talk about one mine, not all mines.
One mine, and we're talking about a teaspoon of gold
that requires one thousand tons of ground to be dug
up out of the earth and creating a whole. I
haven't said don't do it. I have just said don't
fast track it because there are too many questions. And
(06:21):
my argument is is the risk reward valid for this
particular mine.
Speaker 4 (06:28):
Seren Tayler with US Shane Johnes said it's behind a whole.
No one's going to see it anyhow, But that.
Speaker 3 (06:36):
Doesn't address my question. It can be anywhere you like.
My question is, are we prepared to create a toxic
lake that has a dam that is the height of
the Clyde Dam put it in a place where I mean,
there's an argument whether people will see it or not,
but that argument is relevant, irrelevant.
Speaker 6 (06:56):
Let's assume people don't see it.
Speaker 3 (06:58):
At all, but there will be a toxic dam with
arthenic and a whole lot of other things sitting on
in a seismic region where we know we're going to
have an earthquake, and it's sitting up there forever. What
for a teaspoon of gold?
Speaker 4 (07:16):
The Prime Minister was talking about high paying jobs and
regional New Zealand and I note on the story in
the Otago Daily Times yesterday, you're talking about one hundred
percent pure New Zealand brand. Can that provide as many jobs?
Speaker 3 (07:33):
Yes, And I guess not to not to preclude what
I'll be debating with the Jones, but there is a solution.
There is a huge solution for high value jobs in
the region, and it actually has to do with a
replacement for minerals. And maybe just to give you a
(07:56):
slight hint of where I'll be going on this, but
most of all, most of the fossil freees in Mind
and Degar actually are the result of millions and millions
and millions of years of trees degrading beneath the ground.
So there's a whole other area which well I'll mention
(08:17):
it here. So they claim that three billion dollars in
it has a three billion dollar lift to our GDP. Well,
I'm on a group called the New Zealand Product Accelerator.
We've been around for fifteen years and the job of
that Product Accelerator is a look to look at science
and technology that's being developed in New Zealand and how
(08:37):
it will benefit the country. So one of the research
papers we've done independent research suggests that New Zealand bioforestry,
which actually accesses a whole lot of the things that
are needed for today's electronic economy, is worth between twelve and.
Speaker 6 (08:53):
Thirty billion a year. And what are we doing.
Speaker 3 (08:57):
We're going down digging into the ground goal isn't an
example of it, but bigging in the round to pull
up stuff that actually began its life as trees and
billions of years ago. So there is another argument that's
being ignored by everybody who wants to go mining.
Speaker 4 (09:15):
Sir n Taylor, Part one of a two part interview
we did on Wednesday show Good Morning. My name is
Jamie Mackay. This is the best of the country, the
best bits of our weekday show twelve to one Up
next En Taylor Part two, Hunter McGregor and Shanghai, Paul
Jawles from Rabobank talking about fake chocolate in Sydney, Jane
Smith and of course no show without punch on the
(09:38):
best of the country Shane Jones Martoua. Shane responds to
Siren Taylor.
Speaker 2 (09:43):
Let's marsterlone your coup.
Speaker 1 (09:50):
The best of the country with Rabobank, the bank with
local agribanking experts passionate about the future of rural communities, Rabobank.
Speaker 4 (10:00):
Joan says, and I'm quoting again from the Otago Daily Times,
mining was neither funded nor delivered in the way it
was thirty to fifty years ago. He goes on to say,
the next generation, we're looking to the government to create
new options in the extractive sector.
Speaker 3 (10:17):
What do you say to that, No, it's he's taken
a step. Yes, the next year, the next generation is.
And you know, my argument here has always been about
the next generation. I'm here with my grandchildren, and I
have a thing. I call it the coalition of the willing.
And to belong to the coalition of the willing each
(10:38):
day you need to be able to look to your
grandchildren in the eye and say today I did something
that will make a difference for you. So I've got
my grandkids over here, and this debate.
Speaker 6 (10:48):
I'm having a shame is along those lines. It's about
our walk upon it. Now.
Speaker 3 (10:53):
He just defined what the future generation that because he
said it's their responsibility to extractive solutions. Let's just take extractive.
Speaker 6 (11:04):
Out of it.
Speaker 3 (11:05):
The government or our job as grandparents, our job as
politicians is definitely to look at the future generations. And
if we were being really genuine about it. Could I
look my grandson in the eye and say, Hey, we're
just going to do a really cool thing. We are
going to create a toxic lake at the top of
(11:26):
a mountain above the waterways that feed all of Central
Otago and the New Zealand economy, tourism, viticulture, horticulture and
the jobs they have already created. Am I able to
look them into the eye and say, and you know what,
I can guarantee you one hundred percent that that poison
lake will stay on the top of that hill forever.
Speaker 6 (11:49):
I do that.
Speaker 4 (11:50):
Saren Taylor, have you got a date and a venue
for this debate? I want to get some popcorn and
go along.
Speaker 3 (11:57):
Well, I'm working with Shane now to put them in context.
I've had discussion. I've known much of a judge for
a very long time.
Speaker 6 (12:05):
I mean, I was.
Speaker 3 (12:05):
Born in Cayo, I come from the same place, and
you know, I love the discussions we have and I'm
looking forward to this. We haven't got a date yet.
Speaker 6 (12:16):
I'm away overseas for.
Speaker 3 (12:18):
A couple of weeks. I'm in touch with his office.
We're hoping to hold it in. I had originally thought
that we'd hold it in the Tariff Community Center. But
just in hindsight, I then thought, well, actually that may
disadvantage Shane and the debate, although that wouldn't worry him,
(12:39):
But there I am placing it right in the context
where he might have a lot of people yelling at
Hi middle or a lot of people yelling at me.
So I'm just looking for I think I've got it
a place where the debate will only be Shane and
I and a moderator.
Speaker 6 (12:54):
So I would hope that we would have that debate.
Speaker 3 (12:57):
In the you know, he mentioned ow pollen voyages, and
I hope we will have that in the spirit of
pacifica conversations, which is talernoah and talernoah means no matter
your point of view, you always sit, you talk and
listen with respect. And I think we have more chance
(13:18):
of doing that if it's just Shane and.
Speaker 4 (13:20):
I Sarrien Taylor with us. Just while I've got you
and I'm running out of time, but I want to
ask you about this one. You're big on share my
super Look, if you can afford to give you superannuation,
if you don't need it to someone in need, here's
my question for you. Surely when it comes to the
age of eligibility for national super the first step would
be raising the age of eligibility to sixty seven.
Speaker 3 (13:41):
Well, I do have a viewer on that, and you know,
maybe before I got involved with share my Super, I
would have argued that as well. But what I've discovered is,
and what we're seeing increasingly, is that there are people
in the age of sixty five, some even younger than that,
who are really really struggling to survive. And if this
(14:04):
cost of living carries on age of our eligibility is
almost that kind of elitist thing from rich people as well.
You know, I can wait till I'm sixty seven. I'm okay,
but actually we need to step back, and you know,
I don't have the answer. You know, there's means testing,
there's all sorts of other things. But this has been
(14:25):
sitting in the hands of politicians forever and they doodle
around the edges and shift making. A decision to shift
at sixty seven just means there's going to be a
whole lot more elderly people suffer, and that's going to
get worse if this cost of.
Speaker 6 (14:39):
Living crisis keeps going away.
Speaker 3 (14:40):
It is so the thing with cheer my sup.
Speaker 8 (14:44):
It's really cool that.
Speaker 3 (14:45):
You've asked now, because we are about to relaunch the
campaign we ran last year, just as a reminders of
people that if you can share it, even for a
short while, you are making an enormous difference. And we
are really looking forward to seeing this month the latest
child poverty stats will be coming out, and I am
(15:06):
almost certain that they will be worse than they were
last year. So just the summer, Jamie, we can leave
it to politicians to beat around the bush and do nothing,
or those of us in that sort of maybe five percent,
you know, who really don't need it at the moment,
why don't we just take this thing into our hands
(15:27):
as the coalition of.
Speaker 6 (15:28):
The willing, look at our marcal Pont and say we're
going to.
Speaker 3 (15:31):
Make a difference for a little while or forever or
for whatever. I'm going to give this much money. This
is my super to share my super, and all of
that money share my super doesn't take any of it.
All of it goes to twelve charities who have proven
they're making a difference to our morcal who are in poverty.
Speaker 4 (15:51):
Saren Taylor, thanks so much for your time today in
the country. Really looking forward to the debate with the
Prince of the Provinces Martua Shane Jones.
Speaker 1 (15:58):
Thanks for your time, Thanks jamming the best of the
country with rubber Bag. Choose the bank with one hundred
and twenty years global agribusiness experience. Grow with rubber Bag.
Speaker 4 (16:09):
So, as the song goes, there are nine million bicycles
in Beijing. Let's head to Shanghai. Our guy over there
is Hunter McGregor, a key we selling venison and red
meat to the Chinese. How many bicycles in Shanghai? Can
you do better than nine million? Hunter?
Speaker 9 (16:25):
Good afternoon, Jamie. I reckon there's probably more your motorized
bikes that he held, a lot more than nine million.
I was just looking online. There's probably about ten to
twelve million motorized bikes, bicycles and stuff, but most people
are moving to electric scooters and electric bikes. But also
there's a hell of a lot of shared bikes around
(16:48):
the city and there's probably about one point five million
of them lying around the place, and they're fantastic. You know.
All you do is is sort of scan the QR
code on the back the wheel unlocks it to wherever
where you like, wherever you're going and then you just
lock it up and walk away. It's fantastic. Cost me
about three dollars a month for unlimited uses of these things,
(17:12):
and you know the great In a flat city like Shanghai,
you can't go wrong. Is it fantastic to get around?
Speaker 4 (17:18):
I can imagine it'd be a lot easier than driving
a car. Why do you bother with the car hunter?
Speaker 9 (17:23):
Well, yeah, anything over about five ten k's I have
a car. Also, having a family and kids, it's a
lot easier to move, move gear and equipment around and
be a bus driver for the family with a car.
But you know, anything sort of within about five six
k's are usually just bike. There's plenty of bike lanes
as well, so that's reasonably safe. And what you notice
(17:44):
driving in a car is a lot of electric scooters
and people, you know, delivering stuff. They don't actually follow
the road rules anyway, So it's a bit of man
this every now and then on the roads of Shanghai.
But there's part and parcel of the fun of driving.
Speaker 4 (17:57):
Yeah, okay, Chinese New Year is being celebrated on Tuesday,
February seventeenth, but you won't be in Shanghai celebrating Chinese
New Year, you will be in Roxburgh eating Jimmy's pies.
Speaker 9 (18:10):
Yeah yeah, I'm washing it down with some makaisa or
spats or something like that, you know. Heading back to
New Zealand later this week for a couple of weeks,
a bit of a break, hopefully get a bit of
Central Otaga summer and that will be quite nice. I
think it runs back to school in New Zealand, so
probably the weather will improve. But Chinese New Year each
(18:30):
year is it's a little bit later this year and
it kicks off, you know, and it's like Christmas in China,
you know, in New Zealand it's everything shuts down, everyone
goes home, and so it kicks off on the sixteenth
Christmas New Year's Eve, which is a big holiday. Traditionally
you'd have a lot of fireworks and stuff, but the
(18:51):
big cities have bannedits. It's only in the countryside. And
then there's about a week of eight to ten days
of not much happening in China. So it's a great
time empty streets and the cruise around China. So it's
be good to get back to New Zealand and enjoying them.
Hopefully bit of summer during that time.
Speaker 4 (19:07):
I'm assuming Chinese New Year is good business for New
Zealand exporters.
Speaker 9 (19:13):
Leading up to Chinese New Year, Yes, there's a lot
of gift giving, a lot of what you call events,
company events of the years leading into Christmas December Wise
and New Zealand Ye companies have events and things like that,
and then when Chinese New Year hits, everything stops and
then it takes a week while to get started. But yeah,
(19:34):
leading into it, it's very good season. Yeah, that's why
New Zealand cherries do quite well up here. It's a
great gift, good timing with Chinese New Year and stuff.
So yeah, no, it's a big purchasing time for Chinese
people traditionally, and it still carries on.
Speaker 4 (19:51):
Hunter MacGregor with us. I know you've got to catch
a plane to New Zealand, so we're just about out
of time. But turtles, you're talking about your shared bike.
You were biking along the other day and a bloke
in front of you turtle hanging off the end of
his bike. What's that for?
Speaker 9 (20:04):
Well, it's quite interesting, you see. I've seen them for
years on street corners just before Chinese New Year, These
farmers come into the cities with turtles and stuff, and
it's not for selling them for pets. They find these
bigger turtles and they sell them for eating. But you know,
turtle consumption here in China is massive. It's probably more
than that. They consume more turtles than what we're the
(20:26):
exports sheep meat. And also you know there's a lot
of rabbit meat, a lot of frog meat consumed here.
So these niche products and what you think niche markets
and China are very big and yeah, so when you
see a turtle hanging off a pole in China, they're
not selling it for pets.
Speaker 4 (20:45):
Geez, frogs turtles. I think I'd soon have a Jimmy
Spie and Rocksbrough catch you in New Zealand when you're
over here.
Speaker 9 (20:53):
Jeers, Thanks Jamy, the best of the country with Rubber Bank.
Speaker 1 (20:58):
Choose the bank with a huge network of progressive farming clients.
Speaker 4 (21:01):
Rabobank, welcome back to the country. We were do to
chat to Rabobank Chief executive Todd Charteris, but he's been
pulled quite literally at the last moment, because we're going
to catch up with him this time next week with
our broadcasts from the Parliamentary lawn for National Lamb Day,
so we're going to pivot from lamb meat to chocolate.
(21:24):
Two of my favorites now joining us out of the
Sydney office of Rabobank is RABO Research analyst Paul Jules.
And Paul, you've just written a really interesting paper. It
looks like chocolate in the future might be coco bean free.
What's it going to taste like?
Speaker 10 (21:41):
Yeah, exactly.
Speaker 7 (21:42):
So we're seeing a bit of a change in the
chocolate market at the moment, and we're seeing a few
new technologies emerge. There's really two that are at the forefront.
So obviously you've got your traditional coco which is grown
via a tree typically in Africa, but the two being
explored now as lab grown co go. So that's effectively
(22:02):
what it says on the tin co goo grown in
a lab, think similar to what we saw when those
talks of meat being grown in a lab just just
a few years ago. And then the other one is fermentation.
It's about effectively transforming plant based inputs such as oat,
sunflower seeds, barley, grape seeds for example, and try to
transform them into a chocolate likeing ingredient. In terms of
(22:26):
taste in terms of what they actually taste like. Certainly
on the fermentation side, it will definitely be different to
your typical coco chocolate bar. It won't taste quite the
same as reports. It's a little more bitter. It's not
a like for like substitution, that's for sure.
Speaker 4 (22:42):
Is this going to be a flesh in the pain
you mentioned lab grown mate, Well, that's turned out to
be a bit of a flop.
Speaker 7 (22:49):
Well, exactly, And I think probably what sped up this
sort of search for new technologies is the fact that
if you look at the co go market, the traditional
coco market, we saw prices is about four times the
historical averages over the past couple of years, all to
do with production issues that took place in Africa. We
had very very low global supply. That sped up the
(23:11):
search for other alternatives, so we've seen more investment. Potentially,
what could happen as prices of coco come down, which
is happening at the moment, Potentially we could see this
fade into the background and it could arguably just just
be a flash in the pan. So this is still
very much early technology, but there's some hopes that we
are seeing a bit of development.
Speaker 4 (23:32):
Climate change is also affecting the production of coco. That's
why or coco beans, that's why we've seen the mess
of fluctuation and prices. Are we going to have to
grow it in different parts of the world.
Speaker 7 (23:44):
Well, that's one of the big challenges for coco is
the fact that we can only really grow it when
it's relatively close to the equator. There's only a few
countries where it actually makes sense to grow. So really
you're talking about West Africa, predominantly Ivory Coast in Ghana,
you see about sixty percent of the world's crop come
from that specific region. Also Ecuador, Brazil to some extent,
(24:07):
they're really the main players, and it's actually quite hard
for other countries to really ramp up production just because
of where they sit in the world. So it's quite
a challenged crop. And we've definitely seen more volatility in
terms of weather.
Speaker 6 (24:21):
Over the past few years.
Speaker 7 (24:22):
That's had a stronger influence on production, and I think
that probably will continue, so we could continue to see
volatility within that cocoa market.
Speaker 4 (24:33):
Paul Jewels out of Rabobanks, Sydney off Us talking about
fake or lab grown chocolate, what will it taste like
the fake food theme continued with Jane Smith. She's up
next after the break and Marta Shane Jones, the Prince
of the Province, is responding to SII and Taylor talking
about Rabobank. They're proud to once again be returning as
(24:56):
the principal partner of National Lambdai, which takes place on Sunday,
February the fifteenth. Once again, AG Proud and Beef and
Lamb New Zealand will lead the campaign championing New Zealand's
proud lamb producing heritage and the people who make it possible.
We're going to be in Wellington on Wednesday and broadcasting
from Parliament Lawns. It is the National Lamb Day Barbecue.
(25:20):
Going to be interesting times indeed. Up next to Jane
Smith out of North Otago, men I distant.
Speaker 1 (25:28):
Bad for GIRs, the best of the country with Robobank,
the bank with local agribanking experts, passionate about the future
of rural communities Robobank.
Speaker 4 (25:40):
She is a North Otago farmer, former warner of the
Balanced Farm Environment Awards and a bit of a favorite
here on the country. The punters lap her up. Her
name is Jane Smith. What a great intro, that is, Jane.
I don't know whether you're caught up with Paul Jewels
from Rabobank, who I talked to on yesterday's show about
fake chocolate or coco free chocolate coming into vogue because
(26:01):
the cost of cocoa beans is so high. It's good
to see that things like fake meat are failing around
the world because there's nothing like the real thing.
Speaker 10 (26:10):
Is that exactly, Jamie. And it's been really fascinating to
see Italy taking an actual legislative stance against synthetic food
a a Frankenstein food or Franken food. They call it
so lab grind synthetic. You know, it's almost something like
out of a really bad science fiction movie. And this
decision that they've made is is quite world leading. Really,
(26:32):
it effectively blocks the entry of cultivated so using animal
cells by the way, meat or milk, not that they
should be allowed to use those terms, I believe so,
And as well as they talked about ultra processed food,
they're really wanting to push that out. And also they've
mentioned anything to do with GMO food, you know, be
chemicals beat seeds. So it's really fascinating and the most
(26:55):
interesting thing I found is a farmer if you look
deeper than the decision itself, it's the reason that they
made it. They said it was one to protect public
health and two to protect traditional natural farming systems. So
you know, again that's a wake up call for New Zealand,
who seem, you know, some of our sector leaders in
large corporates and hell bent on you know, bringing gmo
(27:16):
food additives, intensification, and that fake food sort of ties
into all of that as well, Jamie. So again I
think that's a really great turn of events. And also
at the same time, Jamie, I don't know if you
saw that that the food pyramid so has actually been
turned up upside down, so the way that it used
to be, you know, when our parents and grandparents were
learning home economics. So basically they're saying, actually, let's go
(27:40):
back to whole foods. Let's go back to high value,
high nutrient dense proteins and good fats Jamie. So you
know that again bodes well for traditional farming like New
Zealand pastu raised protein.
Speaker 4 (27:52):
Jamie sat is back, Jane, the latest from the education system,
and this really grinds my ideas and I think think
it does yours as well. Look, the trouble with school
is you should either pass or fail, because when you
get out of school or university and you hit the
real world, you either pass or you fail. You get
the job or you don't get the job. We're not
(28:12):
hardening young people up enough to the realities of the
real world.
Speaker 10 (28:16):
Exactly, Jamie. I thought, you know, Eric Stanford and her
team are doing some good work in terms of standardization, etc.
But to see the new grading system. So it is,
and I just off my top of my head is emerging, developing, consolidating,
and then you're either proficient or you're exceeding. I mean
(28:37):
you need a degree to even understand what do those
grades mean. I mean we've failed up to date as
the last twenty years, we failed kids to read and write.
And now you know, to try to decipher that what's
wrong with her? As you said, pars will fail ABC
ord or even the achieved not achieved, or possibly you know,
going above that. So Blair was yelling something at me
(28:57):
today while I was on the drafting gate this morning,
Jamie and the yards. I'm pretty sure it wasn't that
I was proficient or exceeding at my job. Jamie. So
maybe I was just sailing.
Speaker 4 (29:07):
Or it might have been another word starting with an F. Anyhow,
I won't get in the road of a husband and
wife debate in the stockyards, Jane. I see you've got
a new candidate in the waite Taki electorate who you
may choose or not choose to vote for, Damian O'Connor.
Speaker 10 (29:21):
That's interesting, Yes, the old ghost from the coast, Jamie.
When I heard the news, it was both both interesting
and disturbing, and equal parts, given that the economically unpalatable
socialist smagas board that the Labour Greens served us up
last time. And you know, I've had it quite a
bit to do with Damien, particularly lately, and I now
(29:41):
I understand why he was hanging around the wait Techi area,
but I guess as agg Minister and Trade Minister, Damien
consistently failed to stand up for farmers when his mate
David Parker treated as as environmental terrorists, and people literally
left exited our seats because of that, and the mental
health strain on farmers was huge. And it's interesting. The
(30:04):
Waitaki electric is a really dynamic area and of course
it was the birth place of social welfare just up
the road and Kourou in the wa Teki Valley in
nineteen thirty eight when they were building the Waheki dams.
But also at the same time, you know, the birthplace
of farming innovation with Thomas Brydon back in eighteen eighty
two with the first export of frozen meat, Jamie. So
(30:25):
I know it's a large electate. It incorporates just south
of Tamrou obviously, Omaru, Palmerston twice or Wanaka. You know,
it truly is ups to ocean, and I don't know,
like it really concerns me if we did get to
a Damien in I sort of want to live in
North Otago, Jamie, not North Korea.
Speaker 4 (30:42):
Shots fired mind you, Miles Anderson, your local bloke from
what I'm seeing anyhow, is doing a pretty good job.
But good luck to Damien. Interesting times as we count
down to the November seventh election. In election here, Jane Smith,
good luck in the sheepyards stockyards this afternoon with your
long suffering husband Blair.
Speaker 1 (31:02):
Thanks Sammy, the best of the country with Rubbobank Choose
the bank with one hundred and twenty years global agribusiness experience.
Grow with Rubbobank.
Speaker 4 (31:12):
Here's the Prince of the Province's Martua, Shane Jones. We
find in today at Whyitani hopefully dodging the mud and
the dildos. Shane, You're going to have to dodge a
few bullets over your proposed mind gold mine in Central Otago.
We had Saren Taylor on the show yesterday. Did you
get an opportunity to hear what he said?
Speaker 7 (31:32):
Ah?
Speaker 8 (31:32):
Yes, and I've accepted his invitation to come to the
South Island and have a debate. I don't care if
it's in Terras or wherever it is. But look my
message to sir Ian and natt Elk, I've got no
time for this sort of chicken hearted approach. In relation
to being scared of using our resources. I know that
(31:53):
this is a particularly heated issue, but it's a smaller
part of a bigger question. How are we going to
create jobs, boost revenue, turn the fortunes of our economy
around if we don't take a risk and use areas
where we know there's proven natural resources. And by the way,
for those who pretend that grow grapes, etc. In this
(32:16):
supposedly spectacular landscape is something akin to the purity of
the garden of Eden. Whatever we do on the landscape,
it changes the landscape. And this is only a tiny
little dot, akin as I've said in the past, to
a beauty spot on the face of a on the
face of an alabaster looking beautiful woman.
Speaker 4 (32:36):
I thought you were going to say, a beauty spot
on your face.
Speaker 8 (32:38):
Shane, Sadly, there is a small matter of a double chin.
It may be hidden.
Speaker 4 (32:44):
Hey what about Serene's arsenic filled lake that got me worried?
Speaker 8 (32:49):
Well, there you go, more of this misinformation. Arsenic oozes
out already from the shist rock that exists around that
part of Otago. We're not talking about mining as in
the nineteen thirties, forties, fifties, sixties. It's very sophisticated. Now
you've got a huge mind just down the road called McCrae's.
(33:09):
And have you heard or seen of any catastrophic developments. No,
they've continued to develop, They've continued to find the right
guard rails. My message to my foe in Terras is
that you are not going to guilt trip this government
in denying Kiwi's jobs and new opportunities and what is
largely an empty landscape. In Otago for a gold mine
(33:33):
located in an area where the Chinese developed the gold
mining activities in the past. Yes, it will have some
effect on the landscape, but put it in proportion and look,
I rather think that a lot of these activists around
the Terras area, what they're actually doing is they're pulling
up the ladder and they're denying other Kiwis from other
parts of New Zealand the chance to move down there
(33:55):
and enjoy twenty thirty forty fifty years of mining activity.
Speaker 4 (34:00):
The mc kray's mind, to be fair is kind of
in the middle of nowhere, I guess, And I'm just
playing Devil's advocate here, Serene, Sir Graham, who's the other one,
Sir sam Nimbi is a aside. Perhaps there's no argument
about it. The central Otago landscape is perhaps more beautiful.
Can I say that it's a bit like your beauty spot?
Speaker 8 (34:23):
Yeah, well, of course it's got an amazing character to it.
But what does that mean you never have any wind farms?
Does that mean you never have any solar farms? Does
that mean they're putting farming down there? Which is the
area's coming to the farming that the vineyards at a
tolerable level of change to the landscape. It's a debate
(34:46):
that shouldn't be driven by people who want to pull
the ladder up. And secondly, it's got to be settled,
not on this catastrophization that somehow we're going to have
a Jurassic set of outcomes. Let the proces play out
and let the decision makers make their decisions on the
quality of the rational information.
Speaker 4 (35:05):
We haven't got a data a venue yet for the debate.
Speaker 8 (35:10):
No, no, no, I'm told that I know my office
is dealing with Syrian and no. Look, I mean he's
a very famous Kiwian. I tend to do my politics,
be soft on my personality and hard on the issue.
I'm looking forward to it, whether or not I find
much of an echo chamber down there. But it's important
that South Island people concerned about the trade off between
(35:31):
a mining and landscape, that politician like myself front up.
Speaker 4 (35:35):
Have you been doing a bit of stirring of the
affluent over Penny.
Speaker 1 (35:40):
Hener Ray.
Speaker 8 (35:44):
Well, his grandfather is I may have told you on
this program, and very famous New Zealand who was the
last commander of the Great Marie Battalion. Of the Second
World War. I suspect that what's happened is that Penny
doesn't actually see a future in the way that Willy
sees it. Now. I know both of these guys well,
(36:04):
but I also know Willy is so indebted figuratively speaking
in a friendship of many years to JG. Miss tummy
Head here, that he can't bring himself to break labor
away from the Maori Party, Whereas Penny knows absolutely that
the Maldi Party really have been something to an ideological
flesh in the pan. They've turned up with all this
(36:27):
sort of cultural pea cockery, and they're going to find
this year that there's no comparison and it's not synonymous,
you know, all this ideological cultural peak cockery. It's not
synonymous with political durability or effectiveness.
Speaker 4 (36:42):
Well, Seane Jones, Prince of the province is Martoa. Shane
good luck at Waitngui this weekend. I say, you might
have to dodge a few flying objects, but I'm sure
you're bigging up and ugly enough to handle it.
Speaker 8 (36:52):
The last thing I want is that that rather compromising
object that Stephen Joyce had to put up with coming
anywhere near my anatomy see you later.
Speaker 4 (37:02):
See you, Shane.
Speaker 1 (37:03):
The best of the Country with Rabobank. Choose the bank
with a huge network of progressive farming clients. Rabobank.
Speaker 4 (37:13):
I guess n Sir Shane Jones wrapping the best of
the country. Good morning, My name's Jamie McKay. Each and
every Saturday morning here on News TALKSB we play the
best of our weekday show twelve to one so you
can enjoy it on Saturday morning between six and seven.
We do it courtesy of Rabobank, who are growing a
better New Zealand for us. Every dollar you invest with
(37:36):
them goes into the primary sector. Rabobank's proud to be
returning as a principal partner of National Lamb Day, which
is coming up on February fifteen, one hundred and forty
four years on from the good Ship Dunedin leaving porch
Armers for London on board. Listen to these stats. Four
hundred and thirty one carcasses of mutton, five hundred and
ninety eight of lamb, twenty two of pig, along with hair, pheasant, turkey, chicken,
(38:00):
and twenty two hundred and twenty six sheep tongues. I
wonder who counted those plus two hundred and forty six
kegs of butter. When it got to London ninety eight
days later, only one carcass was deemed unfit for sale.
What a great story. As we celebrate National Lamb Day
Sunday week, catch you back Saturday week.
Speaker 2 (38:23):
But in a corner rock my Man celebrated glamin.
Speaker 1 (38:33):
That was that s.
Speaker 11 (38:36):
In the tstuff submaration you went selling be free? Can't
you find you by a little glum with sound whatever?
Speaker 10 (38:49):
Se?
Speaker 2 (38:52):
I just watch you back the girl? You see your
watch whatever the just tell me the son that us
sing it. You'll me ride and understand what you want
your back.
Speaker 8 (39:14):
And we'll be.
Speaker 11 (39:15):
Twogether this time as it will be so we will
never be.
Speaker 2 (39:43):
Whatever said, whatever had ever been in. I just want
you back the goch what you back? What you whatever? God?
I not telling the son that us sing it? You
do me ride and on the stage what you see
(40:05):
you want to back the girl? Butever n tell me
I want you back, what you want you back? I
want you back whenever, but.
Speaker 6 (40:23):
Not tell you.
Speaker 2 (40:26):
I want you back what I want your back? You
see you want to back the girl? Oh I gave
that's time, but you came back
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