The Country 12/06/25: Todd McClay talks to Jamie Mackay

The Minister of Agriculture and Trade takes time out of his busy Fieldays schedule to sing the praises of the primary sector and how he's willing to work with Labour leader Chris Hipkins to do "what's right for our farmers".

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Todd McLay if you just wander up here Agriculture and
Trade Minister, because I know he's a busy man and
he's got so many events to get to and go to. Todd,
good to see you, mate. It's unusual for you not
to be or to be in New Zealand these days.

Speaker 2 (00:13):
Well, I'm normally on airplane with my red bands on.
You're right, and they make me clean them at the border.
But good to be here, Jamie. There is a fantastic
feeling around the show at the moment and I think
it's because and I did like some of the things
Chris Hippins just said. Actually, across our parliament you have
got people celebrating the hard work of men and women
in primary New Zealander and that's a New Zealand. That's

(00:35):
a really good thing.

Speaker 1 (00:36):
I think Chris Hipkins is a bit of a pragmatist.
He's probably more farmer friendly than previous labor leaders. But
his problem, as I pointed out to him, is not
his Labor party, it's his coalition partners.

Speaker 2 (00:47):
Oh. I think that's one of a number of problems
you're going to have. But you're right, the next government
if he's going to lead. It will have the Maori
Party and the Green Party in there. It doesn't matter
what he says on the stage with you. They are
going to make it hard for him to do anything
good for provincial New Zealand, for our farmers. But I
did hear him this week say that they were having
a look at their climate change policy, and I have

(01:08):
an offer for him. If he wants to be sensible,
then I'm willing to work with labor because what the
primary sector needs is certainty, not just in this term
of parliament, but for decades to come. You are right,
they are, you know, from the grassroots, rebuilding our economy.
Actually that always happens. So we're going to find a
way between our parties to stop bickering and do what's
right for our farmers. Get some good common sense rules

(01:31):
in place so they could just get on a farm.

Speaker 1 (01:32):
Well you had some bipartisan approach courtesy of James Shaw.
What a shame he's still not with the Greens around
the zero carbonacy.

Speaker 2 (01:41):
Well, we're going to have to do some hard work
on that. Because we took agriculture out of the emissions
trading scheme, we have to meet our international obligations no question,
But we have to do that without shutting down farms
or sending jobs and production overseas. Chris was right. There
are opportunities to use innovation. It's as simple as this.

(02:01):
The last government set a target a ten percent reduction
of mesawing by twenty thirty. We're on track to do that,
but we can't do another ten percent of the same
way because that came at the expense of sheep and
beef farmers from planting trees. And you will have seen that.
I have introduced a parliament this week that ban on
full farm to forest conversions and then ultimately we can
use technology to do the rest, but we cannot put

(02:23):
farmers out of business to achieve that.

Speaker 1 (02:25):
So I said this to the through this at the
Prime Minister yesterday. You know, are you shutting the stable
door after the horse has bolted with the carbon farming?

Speaker 2 (02:34):
No, when we're not. Although two hundred and fifty thousand
hat dares of predominantly sheepland was planted since the etis
came into effect. They rules the new law will be
passed by October of this year. It'll take effect from
December fourth of December last year, and all it says
is that farmers can plant if they want to, but

(02:54):
we're going to put very very clear restrictions on that
because we must produce this high quality, safe food that
the world wants and we have to protect our rural communities.

Speaker 1 (03:03):
Hey, just to finish on these numbers that came out
this morning on the soapy, the Situation and Outlook report
from the MPI outstanding.

Speaker 2 (03:11):
Absolutely outstanding. Not surprising. Comes on the back of a
couple of good seasons of grass growth, which is really
good for dairy but we're seeing sheep and beef numbers up,
horticulture up across the board, so we're producing more. Farmers
are working harder for that, but we're getting better access
to markets around the world, and I think that actually
the figures in there for years to come will be

(03:33):
surpassed by the hard work of a farmers on behalf
of the government, all three parties there can I thank
them for their hard work and say we recognize what
they're doing. They are rebuilding the economy. They deserve every
New Zealander recognizing that and thanking them for it.

Speaker 1 (03:47):
There you go. Todd McClay, Minister of Agriculture and Trade,
doing a really good job,