June 10, 2026 • 4 mins
Labour’s leader discusses the latest Situation and Outlook for Primary Industries report (SOPI) and the current Government’s comments on carbon credits. He also defended his party’s public transport policy, which Mackay described as “underwhelming”.
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
Chris Hipkins was late.
Speaker 2 (00:01):
Everyone was late.
Speaker 1 (00:02):
So Chris Cheppy, you're kicking off the show. You've booted
the director general of MPI. But I am keen to
get your take on the great numbers that Raysmith released
this morning. Good afternoon, by the way.
Speaker 2 (00:13):
Great to be here, Jamen.
Speaker 3 (00:14):
Look at as a testament to our agricultural sector that
our numbers are looking so good. You know, sixty nearly
sixty five billion dollars to the New Zealand economy, hundreds
of thousands of jobs across the agricultural and associated sectors,
and a lot of hard work over a lot of
a long period of time to grow our exports, to
(00:35):
really grow the industry.
Speaker 2 (00:36):
All of New Zealand's benefiting from that.
Speaker 3 (00:38):
And it is a testament to our farming community that
we're seeing such impressive numbers.
Speaker 1 (00:42):
Now you've openly admitted that you guys got it wrong
in the last term twenty twenty to twenty twenty three.
You had to undo a lot of damage done by
that labor led government.
Speaker 2 (00:52):
You have appreciated that if.
Speaker 1 (00:55):
You get the treasury benches come November the seventh, how
farmer friendly you're going to be.
Speaker 2 (00:59):
I think continuity is really important.
Speaker 3 (01:01):
But I think the number one message that I've heard
from our farming community, which I think is really really
important for any government to hear, quite frankly, is tell
us what you want us to achieve. Don't always tell
us how to do it. We'll figure out the best
way of doing it. You tell us what the goal is,
You tell us what it is that we've got to
work towards, and we'll figure out the best way of
achieving that. And I think that's really good and fair feedback.
Speaker 1 (01:22):
What do you make of the news this morning that
the Prime Minister says the government will give twenty thirty
climate change targets a good goal, but he's ruling out
paying billions for carbon credits, and apparently the number is
it's here somewhere. We could be up for a five
billion dollar bill to honor the Paris Agreement.
Speaker 3 (01:41):
I think there's some real questions around that, because not
honoring our Paris Agreements obligations potentially actually as an impact
on trade. So if you look at the European Union
Free Trade Agreement, our export industries, our farmers have really
benefited from that. Not hitting our Paris Agreement obligations potentially
compromises that. So we've got to hear a bit more
from the government about Okay, if they're not going to
hit those targets and they're not going to buy international credits,
(02:03):
how exactly are they going to meet the commitments that
we've made internationally so that our export industries don't suffer
because of our failure to do that.
Speaker 1 (02:11):
Now, talking about failures, the Labor Party didn't turn up yesterday,
but you're here today, and I know we were here yesterday.
Speaker 3 (02:17):
I wasn't here yesterday, but the labor ship have a no,
we've not had an empty site.
Speaker 2 (02:21):
Look they speak. Chris Fisher was in trouble.
Speaker 3 (02:24):
There was David Seymour down the back complaining that no
one was coming to talk to him because the reality
and I can understand that, but we don't actually have
a stool because I don't think people should have to
come to us. I think we should go to them.
So at Field Days, we've got a big labor contingent
here and we go out and we talk to people
and we go to you.
Speaker 2 (02:41):
We don't wait for you to come to us.
Speaker 1 (02:42):
You had a good labor contingent at the Rural Support
Trust de Bait last night show Lux and your agg
person was there. Damien was there. I didn't catch up
with them. You were there and you were rocking your
best rural look. You had the Swan drive shirt on.
Speaker 3 (02:55):
I was, you know, it's nice to be a little
bit more, a bit more informal out out here in
the country.
Speaker 2 (03:02):
Okay, and one more.
Speaker 1 (03:03):
I've been waiting and I've been picking on poor old Joe,
saying when you're going to come out with some agg policy,
I might be at while I'm already an old man,
but I'll be an older man by the time you
get some. But you did come out with some policy
yesterday around public transport. It was a wee bit underwhelming,
if you don't mind me saying so.
Speaker 2 (03:18):
Well, and it's actually been very widely received. And the
big public.
Speaker 3 (03:21):
Transport issue in rural communities is school buses, and so
we've got more coming on school buses that what the
current government are doing around school buses is making a
hell of a mess of it, and I think a
lot of rural communities are really upset about that because
getting their kids to and from school safely using school
buses is incredibly important to our rural communities and the
current government are messing around with that. So my reassurance
(03:42):
to our rural communities will we see you and we
hear you on that iss you.
Speaker 2 (03:45):
We've got to fix the school buses.
Speaker 1 (03:47):
It isn't the guts of your bus policy, if I
can call it that, just subsidizing travel for urban nights.
Speaker 3 (03:52):
Yeah, I mean will primarily benefit those living in towns
and cities rather than rurally.
Speaker 2 (03:57):
What about these people out here?
Speaker 3 (03:59):
What's in it for this all buses? Well, there'll be
other policies that benefit them. Not every policy we announce
is going to benefit every community, but in terms of buses,
school buses is the big thing that I get from
our rural communities, and we are going to do some
more about that.
Speaker 1 (04:10):
All right, Chris Hipkins, I'll let you go. I know
you've got to go and have lunch with the European ambassador.
He's a great like to Lawrence Mayor for thank you
very much, and he's got a big hand from the
punters here as well, some of the Labour Party faithful
over there.
Chris Hipkins was late.
Speaker 2 (00:01):
Everyone was late.
Speaker 1 (00:02):
So Chris Cheppy, you're kicking off the show. You've booted
the director general of MPI. But I am keen to
get your take on the great numbers that Raysmith released
this morning. Good afternoon, by the way.
Speaker 2 (00:13):
Great to be here, Jamen.
Speaker 3 (00:14):
Look at as a testament to our agricultural sector that
our numbers are looking so good. You know, sixty nearly
sixty five billion dollars to the New Zealand economy, hundreds
of thousands of jobs across the agricultural and associated sectors,
and a lot of hard work over a lot of
a long period of time to grow our exports, to
(00:35):
really grow the industry.
Speaker 2 (00:36):
All of New Zealand's benefiting from that.
Speaker 3 (00:38):
And it is a testament to our farming community that
we're seeing such impressive numbers.
Speaker 1 (00:42):
Now you've openly admitted that you guys got it wrong
in the last term twenty twenty to twenty twenty three.
You had to undo a lot of damage done by
that labor led government.
Speaker 2 (00:52):
You have appreciated that if.
Speaker 1 (00:55):
You get the treasury benches come November the seventh, how
farmer friendly you're going to be.
Speaker 2 (00:59):
I think continuity is really important.
Speaker 3 (01:01):
But I think the number one message that I've heard
from our farming community, which I think is really really
important for any government to hear, quite frankly, is tell
us what you want us to achieve. Don't always tell
us how to do it. We'll figure out the best
way of doing it. You tell us what the goal is,
You tell us what it is that we've got to
work towards, and we'll figure out the best way of
achieving that. And I think that's really good and fair feedback.
Speaker 1 (01:22):
What do you make of the news this morning that
the Prime Minister says the government will give twenty thirty
climate change targets a good goal, but he's ruling out
paying billions for carbon credits, and apparently the number is
it's here somewhere. We could be up for a five
billion dollar bill to honor the Paris Agreement.
Speaker 3 (01:41):
I think there's some real questions around that, because not
honoring our Paris Agreements obligations potentially actually as an impact
on trade. So if you look at the European Union
Free Trade Agreement, our export industries, our farmers have really
benefited from that. Not hitting our Paris Agreement obligations potentially
compromises that. So we've got to hear a bit more
from the government about Okay, if they're not going to
hit those targets and they're not going to buy international credits,
(02:03):
how exactly are they going to meet the commitments that
we've made internationally so that our export industries don't suffer
because of our failure to do that.
Speaker 1 (02:11):
Now, talking about failures, the Labor Party didn't turn up yesterday,
but you're here today, and I know we were here yesterday.
Speaker 3 (02:17):
I wasn't here yesterday, but the labor ship have a no,
we've not had an empty site.
Speaker 2 (02:21):
Look they speak. Chris Fisher was in trouble.
Speaker 3 (02:24):
There was David Seymour down the back complaining that no
one was coming to talk to him because the reality
and I can understand that, but we don't actually have
a stool because I don't think people should have to
come to us. I think we should go to them.
So at Field Days, we've got a big labor contingent
here and we go out and we talk to people
and we go to you.
Speaker 2 (02:41):
We don't wait for you to come to us.
Speaker 1 (02:42):
You had a good labor contingent at the Rural Support
Trust de Bait last night show Lux and your agg
person was there. Damien was there. I didn't catch up
with them. You were there and you were rocking your
best rural look. You had the Swan drive shirt on.
Speaker 3 (02:55):
I was, you know, it's nice to be a little
bit more, a bit more informal out out here in
the country.
Speaker 2 (03:02):
Okay, and one more.
Speaker 1 (03:03):
I've been waiting and I've been picking on poor old Joe,
saying when you're going to come out with some agg policy,
I might be at while I'm already an old man,
but I'll be an older man by the time you
get some. But you did come out with some policy
yesterday around public transport. It was a wee bit underwhelming,
if you don't mind me saying so.
Speaker 2 (03:18):
Well, and it's actually been very widely received. And the
big public.
Speaker 3 (03:21):
Transport issue in rural communities is school buses, and so
we've got more coming on school buses that what the
current government are doing around school buses is making a
hell of a mess of it, and I think a
lot of rural communities are really upset about that because
getting their kids to and from school safely using school
buses is incredibly important to our rural communities and the
current government are messing around with that. So my reassurance
(03:42):
to our rural communities will we see you and we
hear you on that iss you.
Speaker 2 (03:45):
We've got to fix the school buses.
Speaker 1 (03:47):
It isn't the guts of your bus policy, if I
can call it that, just subsidizing travel for urban nights.
Speaker 3 (03:52):
Yeah, I mean will primarily benefit those living in towns
and cities rather than rurally.
Speaker 2 (03:57):
What about these people out here?
Speaker 3 (03:59):
What's in it for this all buses? Well, there'll be
other policies that benefit them. Not every policy we announce
is going to benefit every community, but in terms of buses,
school buses is the big thing that I get from
our rural communities, and we are going to do some
more about that.
Speaker 1 (04:10):
All right, Chris Hipkins, I'll let you go. I know
you've got to go and have lunch with the European ambassador.
He's a great like to Lawrence Mayor for thank you
very much, and he's got a big hand from the
punters here as well, some of the Labour Party faithful
over there.
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