The Country 11/02/26: Nathan Guy talks to Jamie Mackay

What better way to kick off the National Lamb Day proceedings than with the chairman of the Meat Industry Association?

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Kicking off the show in the absence of the Prime
Minister is a former National Party minister, former Minister for
Primary Industries, Nathan Guy, who was wearing his Meat Industry
Association hat today because the Meat Industry Association, along with
Beef and Lamb New Zealand, are putting on this National
Lamb Day barbecue. Good afternoon, Nathan, and good to catch
you for a bear and Wellington last night.

Speaker 2 (00:21):
It was great, Jamie. It's surprising how you bump into
oh late at night in Wellington.

Speaker 1 (00:26):
Well it is. And I did a bit at fair
bit of celebrity spotting on the way here. I was
sitting behind Dane Cole's on the plane and engaged and
bought him a wee bit about rugby. Of course he
was down looking at Jamie Joseph yes, and I think
he's off to Japan to have a look at Dave Rennie.
And then I get out to the uber rank at
Wellington Airport and they've changed it since last time I

(00:47):
was here, so I sort of yelled out to anyone
who would listen, where's the Uber rank. And this bloke
gets out of a car and says it's over there,
and I say, oh, Hello you and Chatfield lovely to
meatshow so there you go.

Speaker 2 (00:59):
It's such a named but.

Speaker 1 (01:00):
I am a name dropper and I saw you. Stuart
Todd McLay of the Federated Farmers Boys were all in
back benches last night with a rumor running rife. And
we're going to have to deal with this one today.
Wayne Langford, potential Labor Party candidate for Tasman West Coast.

Speaker 2 (01:16):
Wow, off the press.

Speaker 1 (01:18):
Off the press, but let's get onto your job.

Speaker 2 (01:20):
Wow shit. I wonder if Wayne will be in a
blue car or a red car on the West coast.
Interesting to see.

Speaker 1 (01:27):
We will watch that space. Indeed, look this. We were
celebrating a National Lamb Day on Sunday, one hundred and
forty four years since the good ship Dunedin left for
Port Charmers. They had over five thousand carcasses and they
actually had some two hundred and forty six kegs a butter.
So not only was it the birth of our frozen

(01:47):
meat industry, it was almost the birth of our export
dairy industry as well. And that ninety eight days at
sea when they got there, only one carcass was unfit
for sale.

Speaker 2 (01:57):
Isn't that amazing. That was the start of what we're
celebrating today. That first shipment really got us into gear
in the UK and as a result of that, we're
celebrating one hundred and forty four years of a magnificent product,
the best in the world, and that is our lamb.
I'm so excited about today. I'm really looking forward to
tasting a beautiful lamb shop. Celebrate our farmers, Celebrate our processes.

(02:23):
When you think about the processes that I represent, we
have to deal with such a lot geopolitical issues, exchange
rate fluctuations, there's numerous issues domestic policies. I see Chris
Hipkins is here, so that's going to be an interesting
take to hear from him and what the opposition parties
are thinking coming into the election. We're working on our

(02:45):
own election manifesto on bre behalf of the red meat
sector to make sure that when politicians are thinking about
their policies that they're cognizant of the fact that we
are the biggest manufacturing industry in New Zealand jobs when
you think about direct and indirect and twelve billion dollars
of exports.

Speaker 1 (03:05):
And I want to give a bit of a pat
on the back to the meat industry suppliers who are
putting on the lamb shops, lamb wrecks hopefully today the
Alliance Group, ansco Ovation and Greenley, so they're all supporting.

Speaker 2 (03:17):
This day, Yes they are, and others are supporting other
initiatives up and down the country. Why Mumu you alluded
to happening down south. There's other localized events happening. This
is really a day of celebrating success.

Speaker 1 (03:33):
Absolutely. Hey, just before I let get Chris Hipkins on.
Very good of them to turn up for the prime
Minister's not here yet, so maybe it could be the
next prime minister. But bipartisan politics is important and I'll
be really interested to hear what Chris Hipkins has to
say about this India Free Trade deal because there seems
to be a lot of controversy about it at the moment.

(03:54):
I'm hoping, and I don't know whether or nods head
or not that Labor will support this. I'm sure they will.

Speaker 2 (04:00):
My view is that labor will support it. It will
pass with a majority. Yes, there'll be one or two
political parties that might kick up, but let's be clear,
we're five million people here. We export around the world.
India is a massive market one point five billion potential population.
We've been battling against a thirty percent tariff for lamb

(04:23):
into India and it's a market that could be really big.
This could be like China was to us when we
started off. Small steps but massive to the New Zealand
economy and to our farmers and processes. So my plea
to all politicians is get behind the FTA, bang it
through the Parliament so that we can try and get

(04:44):
ahead of the European settling. There is because they've got
a better wine deal than we have, so we need
to move fast.

Speaker 1 (04:49):
Okay, there we go. Nathan Guide, chair of the Meat
Industry Association,