June 3, 2025 • 7 mins
The Prime Minister has told UK climate scientists to “send their letters to other countries”, after they accused the government of ignoring scientific evidence over methane emissions. Plus, we yarn about Winston and David, Landcorp and NZ Post, Jacinda’s book and Fieldays.
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
Wednesdays on the Country, the PM kicks off the show.
So here's the go. Okay, more than twenty five international
climate change scientists have written an open letter the Christopher
Luxen accusing the government of ignoring scientific evidence. Christopher Luxe
and I say to you, good on you for telling
the Wokes to UK climate scientists to send their letters
(00:22):
to other countries. That's good stuff.
Speaker 2 (00:24):
Well, I mean, it's just I got no time for
it at all, because we are currently the most carbon
efficient farmers in the world. If you shut down all
of New Zealand farming, you just literally make global greenhouse
gas emissions worse. It's the engine room of the New
Zealand economy. And the other cool thing is, just like
the last one hundred and fifty years, we have an
awesome pipeline of science and technology which will help us
(00:45):
be more productive and actually a lot a lot more
carbon efficient as well. So that's all coming down the pike.
It's for real, it's happening. And so you actually want
more production in New Zealand after to lower global greenhouse
gas emission. So you know, so I think we're getting
into a world where we can say we're the most
carbon efficient. We've got a great science technology through that
(01:06):
we will actually be able to increase production in this country.
And that's where we should go to when.
Speaker 1 (01:10):
You're going to set your methane targets.
Speaker 2 (01:12):
Shortly, there's obviously we've had two reviews, obviously one from
the Climate Commission, obviously an independent one. We've got other
advice as well, and we're close to that. It'll be
a matter of months, yeah, a couple months.
Speaker 1 (01:23):
I watched One News last night as Mikey Sherman breathlessly
declared it a shock Pole result, and I'm looking at
the results and thinking, well, Labor and National are down
a couple of points, the Nats are still at thirty four.
Where's the shock? And that the only shock that I
got was that twelve percent of the population is silly
enough to vote for the Greens alternate budget.
Speaker 2 (01:44):
Look, I think that's asimple as this. There's poles up
the wazoo, right, and there's lots of different poles and
they do different things, and they anyway, you can argue
that all day long. I literally do not care about
that stuff, because you know, we're elected in twenty twenty three,
and we'll get re elected again. In twenty twenty six
with New Zealander a chance to think about it, and
the choice will be pretty clear. You know we are
you better off than you were three years ago? Do
(02:05):
you have people actually competent enough to run the economy
or are you going to throw the keys back to
the last experience we had with Labor and the Greens
Into Party Maori? And I just think, you know, my
job is to stay very very focused on getting stuff
done for Keywis and sorting stuff out and cleaning up
the mess. And ultimately, if we do our job right
and we deliver, they'll make their decision. And that's the
only poll I care about.
Speaker 1 (02:26):
You realize your greatest allies are the Greens Into Party MARII.
Speaker 2 (02:31):
Well, I mean it's just I mean, you think about it.
You're seriously got a table. You know, the alternative would
be Hipkins, MARIMC. Davis and Chloe Swarbrick Rawori. You know
why Teddy you got Demi no a pack. Imagine the
five of them sitting around the cabinet room discussing economic policy.
If you thought it was bad with a sole charge
labor government that ran deet up one hundred and twenty
billion dollars in there for inflation and interrostrates and put
(02:53):
us into recession. Just imagine the chaos that ensues with
those those five leaders coming together. You know, we've got
a three party coup and I think people we've demonstrated
people we can make it work. Yeah, we have differences,
but we agree a lot on a large part of
their gen doesn't.
Speaker 1 (03:07):
All right, how's the love and going with the government coalition?
Because whiley old Winston, you've got to hand it to him,
he said, to see more, ol go deputy prime minister first,
you can go second. This is playing right into the
Winston Peter's handbook. I mean he's let off the chain
for the last eighteen months heading into the election.
Speaker 2 (03:25):
Look, I think what people, as I said from day one,
we're doing something very different and this is the reality
of MMP. This morning, I've woken up and the Dutch
government has collapsed after a year with a four party coalition.
They have exactly the same system as us. Right, so
you know the reality is the Zealand people rightly or wrongly,
chose an MMP system. We've had several goes at staying
about what you want. They've said, yep, so then they
(03:45):
vote for us, and then we have to make it work.
And then you've got to try and find a way
to get coalition government to be as stable as possible
so that actually you can get things done for his Elanders.
If you don't, you just keep having elections every year.
Basically is what happens around the world with MMP type
systems if they're unstable. And so the reality for us is, look,
we agree on about ninety five percent of the stuff,
you know, grow the economy, restore or in order better
(04:07):
health education. There are differences also between the parties, and
I want enough space where everybody, you know, Winston and
David will say things different from me. I lead the
National Party obviously Prime minis for a coalition government, you know,
and as minor parties they need to obviously have space
to talk to their constituents and they do have differences
from us from time to time. But you can manage
that if you give everyone enough space within that within
(04:28):
that coalition government. And I think that's what I'm proud
of what we've built so far.
Speaker 1 (04:31):
Sam and Brown has warned Land Corp and in z
Posts that they're not performing and as we discussed last week.
I think there are some issues around Land Corp. They
would argue they're improving their performance, but should the government
be in the business of running a state farm.
Speaker 2 (04:47):
Well, what we've said is we wouldn't undertake our set
sales this three year period because essentially we need to
focus on getting the fundamentals fixed and sort of and right.
But Simian's quite right to call these enterprises the government
and the taxpayer. Ultimore has an interest in to say
we expect performance out of you as well. We're expecting
performance out of public service. We expect performance out of
(05:08):
state on enterprises as well. So you know, I think
it's a really good shot to say, hang on, we've
got dairy and red meat now. Dairy's up four and
a half billion and exports, red meats up one point
two billion, hawts up a billion and exports in the
last twelve months. We're making some good progress and primary induties.
If you can't run state farms well in that environment,
there's some serious questions to be asked. So I think
(05:30):
he's doing the right thing by pushing and challenging and
to perform better.
Speaker 1 (05:33):
Have you registered his book yet? Do you think she's
in denial over what kindness did to our economy or
was she misjudged?
Speaker 2 (05:41):
Look, I haven't read it. I frankly got other things
I got to do and sort out. I saw how
the movie ended, and it was a financial pain and
chaos and nothing got delivered. So you know, that's my
job is to, I guess, deal with the aftermath of
it all. And that's what we're fixing.
Speaker 1 (05:55):
It's not bad from the PR department. I saw how
the movie ended.
Speaker 2 (06:01):
That's how I feel about it.
Speaker 1 (06:02):
Do you focus group that?
Speaker 2 (06:04):
No, mate, we don't have time. We've got a country
to sort out. They've got things to get fixed for people,
and we're cracking on.
Speaker 1 (06:12):
You have got time to go to field Days next week.
In fact, this time before next week we'll be chatting
at field Days. What does field Days mean for you?
Speaker 2 (06:20):
Oh? Look, I mean it's a fantastic event and actually
I want it to get bigger and bigger. And I've actually,
when I've been overseas, been encouraging world leaders to come down.
And so I was in Britain trying to encourage the
Agriculture Minister to come down not this year but next year.
I quite like us to think about what else we
could build around it with respect to some of the
diplomacy stuff around our trade agenda, in particular, because I
(06:42):
think I want people understand we're the best in the world,
most carbon efficient in the world. But I'm looking forward.
There's a great science for Farmer's Hub I what you
might remember, and it keeps getting bigger and better every year.
There's some really cool innovation, and I love the innovation
because when you keep embracing innovation, that's how the sector
keeps growing. I think frankly, we saw a wool you know,
thirty something years ago we stopped the levy, but obviously
(07:03):
we just stopped innovating as well, and so yeah, there's
things we can do around procuring wool and all that
good stuff. But actually that's a great product. We need
more innovation in that sectorm like we've seen in dairy
around some of the products that are now sold to
the world. Obviously, Rural Support Trust's going to catch up
with them. They do amazing work. And then just to
meet lots of Keyweason actually is interesting farmers I've spoken to.
(07:23):
I spoke to a guy Timaru was on his way
up tash Burton and he was going off to buy
a tractor and a new head of because he basically said,
you know, that investment boost stuff has gone down a
treatment in the rural community. So you know, I'm just
keen to get a sense of you know, now people
hopefully've got confidence inflation's low, interest rates are coming down,
the economy is growing again, export lead recovery primary industries,
(07:45):
and investment boost to encourage people to buy new assets
would be I'm keen to see that working. Well.
Speaker 1 (07:51):
Catch you in seven days time, Prime Minister. Thanks for
your time.
Speaker 2 (07:54):
Thanks mate, have a great week. You take care
Wednesdays on the Country, the PM kicks off the show.
So here's the go. Okay, more than twenty five international
climate change scientists have written an open letter the Christopher
Luxen accusing the government of ignoring scientific evidence. Christopher Luxe
and I say to you, good on you for telling
the Wokes to UK climate scientists to send their letters
(00:22):
to other countries. That's good stuff.
Speaker 2 (00:24):
Well, I mean, it's just I got no time for
it at all, because we are currently the most carbon
efficient farmers in the world. If you shut down all
of New Zealand farming, you just literally make global greenhouse
gas emissions worse. It's the engine room of the New
Zealand economy. And the other cool thing is, just like
the last one hundred and fifty years, we have an
awesome pipeline of science and technology which will help us
(00:45):
be more productive and actually a lot a lot more
carbon efficient as well. So that's all coming down the pike.
It's for real, it's happening. And so you actually want
more production in New Zealand after to lower global greenhouse
gas emission. So you know, so I think we're getting
into a world where we can say we're the most
carbon efficient. We've got a great science technology through that
(01:06):
we will actually be able to increase production in this country.
And that's where we should go to when.
Speaker 1 (01:10):
You're going to set your methane targets.
Speaker 2 (01:12):
Shortly, there's obviously we've had two reviews, obviously one from
the Climate Commission, obviously an independent one. We've got other
advice as well, and we're close to that. It'll be
a matter of months, yeah, a couple months.
Speaker 1 (01:23):
I watched One News last night as Mikey Sherman breathlessly
declared it a shock Pole result, and I'm looking at
the results and thinking, well, Labor and National are down
a couple of points, the Nats are still at thirty four.
Where's the shock? And that the only shock that I
got was that twelve percent of the population is silly
enough to vote for the Greens alternate budget.
Speaker 2 (01:44):
Look, I think that's asimple as this. There's poles up
the wazoo, right, and there's lots of different poles and
they do different things, and they anyway, you can argue
that all day long. I literally do not care about
that stuff, because you know, we're elected in twenty twenty three,
and we'll get re elected again. In twenty twenty six
with New Zealander a chance to think about it, and
the choice will be pretty clear. You know we are
you better off than you were three years ago? Do
(02:05):
you have people actually competent enough to run the economy
or are you going to throw the keys back to
the last experience we had with Labor and the Greens
Into Party Maori? And I just think, you know, my
job is to stay very very focused on getting stuff
done for Keywis and sorting stuff out and cleaning up
the mess. And ultimately, if we do our job right
and we deliver, they'll make their decision. And that's the
only poll I care about.
Speaker 1 (02:26):
You realize your greatest allies are the Greens Into Party MARII.
Speaker 2 (02:31):
Well, I mean it's just I mean, you think about it.
You're seriously got a table. You know, the alternative would
be Hipkins, MARIMC. Davis and Chloe Swarbrick Rawori. You know
why Teddy you got Demi no a pack. Imagine the
five of them sitting around the cabinet room discussing economic policy.
If you thought it was bad with a sole charge
labor government that ran deet up one hundred and twenty
billion dollars in there for inflation and interrostrates and put
(02:53):
us into recession. Just imagine the chaos that ensues with
those those five leaders coming together. You know, we've got
a three party coup and I think people we've demonstrated
people we can make it work. Yeah, we have differences,
but we agree a lot on a large part of
their gen doesn't.
Speaker 1 (03:07):
All right, how's the love and going with the government coalition?
Because whiley old Winston, you've got to hand it to him,
he said, to see more, ol go deputy prime minister first,
you can go second. This is playing right into the
Winston Peter's handbook. I mean he's let off the chain
for the last eighteen months heading into the election.
Speaker 2 (03:25):
Look, I think what people, as I said from day one,
we're doing something very different and this is the reality
of MMP. This morning, I've woken up and the Dutch
government has collapsed after a year with a four party coalition.
They have exactly the same system as us. Right, so
you know the reality is the Zealand people rightly or wrongly,
chose an MMP system. We've had several goes at staying
about what you want. They've said, yep, so then they
(03:45):
vote for us, and then we have to make it work.
And then you've got to try and find a way
to get coalition government to be as stable as possible
so that actually you can get things done for his Elanders.
If you don't, you just keep having elections every year.
Basically is what happens around the world with MMP type
systems if they're unstable. And so the reality for us is, look,
we agree on about ninety five percent of the stuff,
you know, grow the economy, restore or in order better
(04:07):
health education. There are differences also between the parties, and
I want enough space where everybody, you know, Winston and
David will say things different from me. I lead the
National Party obviously Prime minis for a coalition government, you know,
and as minor parties they need to obviously have space
to talk to their constituents and they do have differences
from us from time to time. But you can manage
that if you give everyone enough space within that within
(04:28):
that coalition government. And I think that's what I'm proud
of what we've built so far.
Speaker 1 (04:31):
Sam and Brown has warned Land Corp and in z
Posts that they're not performing and as we discussed last week.
I think there are some issues around Land Corp. They
would argue they're improving their performance, but should the government
be in the business of running a state farm.
Speaker 2 (04:47):
Well, what we've said is we wouldn't undertake our set
sales this three year period because essentially we need to
focus on getting the fundamentals fixed and sort of and right.
But Simian's quite right to call these enterprises the government
and the taxpayer. Ultimore has an interest in to say
we expect performance out of you as well. We're expecting
performance out of public service. We expect performance out of
(05:08):
state on enterprises as well. So you know, I think
it's a really good shot to say, hang on, we've
got dairy and red meat now. Dairy's up four and
a half billion and exports, red meats up one point
two billion, hawts up a billion and exports in the
last twelve months. We're making some good progress and primary induties.
If you can't run state farms well in that environment,
there's some serious questions to be asked. So I think
(05:30):
he's doing the right thing by pushing and challenging and
to perform better.
Speaker 1 (05:33):
Have you registered his book yet? Do you think she's
in denial over what kindness did to our economy or
was she misjudged?
Speaker 2 (05:41):
Look, I haven't read it. I frankly got other things
I got to do and sort out. I saw how
the movie ended, and it was a financial pain and
chaos and nothing got delivered. So you know, that's my
job is to, I guess, deal with the aftermath of
it all. And that's what we're fixing.
Speaker 1 (05:55):
It's not bad from the PR department. I saw how
the movie ended.
Speaker 2 (06:01):
That's how I feel about it.
Speaker 1 (06:02):
Do you focus group that?
Speaker 2 (06:04):
No, mate, we don't have time. We've got a country
to sort out. They've got things to get fixed for people,
and we're cracking on.
Speaker 1 (06:12):
You have got time to go to field Days next week.
In fact, this time before next week we'll be chatting
at field Days. What does field Days mean for you?
Speaker 2 (06:20):
Oh? Look, I mean it's a fantastic event and actually
I want it to get bigger and bigger. And I've actually,
when I've been overseas, been encouraging world leaders to come down.
And so I was in Britain trying to encourage the
Agriculture Minister to come down not this year but next year.
I quite like us to think about what else we
could build around it with respect to some of the
diplomacy stuff around our trade agenda, in particular, because I
(06:42):
think I want people understand we're the best in the world,
most carbon efficient in the world. But I'm looking forward.
There's a great science for Farmer's Hub I what you
might remember, and it keeps getting bigger and better every year.
There's some really cool innovation, and I love the innovation
because when you keep embracing innovation, that's how the sector
keeps growing. I think frankly, we saw a wool you know,
thirty something years ago we stopped the levy, but obviously
(07:03):
we just stopped innovating as well, and so yeah, there's
things we can do around procuring wool and all that
good stuff. But actually that's a great product. We need
more innovation in that sectorm like we've seen in dairy
around some of the products that are now sold to
the world. Obviously, Rural Support Trust's going to catch up
with them. They do amazing work. And then just to
meet lots of Keyweason actually is interesting farmers I've spoken to.
(07:23):
I spoke to a guy Timaru was on his way
up tash Burton and he was going off to buy
a tractor and a new head of because he basically said,
you know, that investment boost stuff has gone down a
treatment in the rural community. So you know, I'm just
keen to get a sense of you know, now people
hopefully've got confidence inflation's low, interest rates are coming down,
the economy is growing again, export lead recovery primary industries,
(07:45):
and investment boost to encourage people to buy new assets
would be I'm keen to see that working. Well.
Speaker 1 (07:51):
Catch you in seven days time, Prime Minister. Thanks for
your time.
Speaker 2 (07:54):
Thanks mate, have a great week. You take care
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