The Country 19/11/25: Christopher Luxon talks to Jamie Mackay

The PM dismisses the polls, and applauds record red meat prices and the future of AgriZeroNZ.

 

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Wednesdays on the Country, the PM kicks off the show.
We do appreciate this time Tuesday evenings for me Prime
Minister is picking up the rubbish bins, getting ready for
my Heather Duplessy, Allen Cross and getting the left leaning
listener out of the mailbox. And I went to grab
it last night and lo and behold, I got a
hell of a fright. You and Nikola were staring at me.

(00:20):
It's pamphlet time.

Speaker 2 (00:23):
So you've got a party, got a pamphlet from us
saying all the things.

Speaker 3 (00:26):
We've done over the last two years.

Speaker 2 (00:28):
Have you have it come up to the tea?

Speaker 1 (00:29):
Yeah, yeah, yes it does. You've done all these wonderful things.
But obviously all the people have been polled recently, haven't
read the pamphlet.

Speaker 2 (00:37):
No, it's good and that we've been really busy actually
when you think about it, I mean we've had sort
of two things to do. One is just to fix
the basics. That's really been the focus of the first
two years. And now it's sort of built out the future.
And so it's really genuinely as you know, when you
take a snapshot and you look back and you think
about what we've done about trying to get the economy
and the books back in order, trying to make.

Speaker 3 (00:56):
Sure we restore law and order.

Speaker 2 (00:57):
It's of a better health education, get them for a
program up and running and moving. You know, there's been
a lot of work going through. So I think, you know,
someone can tell me the other day. I think they've
been the busiest government in Parliament in terms of more
passing than they've probably seen since I hate our minister.

Speaker 1 (01:12):
It's one thing being busy, it's another one being popular
and popular enough to be re elected. Just before we
get onto the good news story, which is red meat,
I want to ask you if you've read that Tova
O'Brien column and stuff, and she probably makes a fair point.
You know, Labor and National flip a coin there at
the moment in terms of popularity. I'm not saying it'll

(01:32):
stay there because I think the economy is going to
improve next year. But she makes the point, and she's
bang on. The minority parties will decide the selection, so
it's ACT and New Zealand first versus Greens and to
PARTI Maurray advantage National.

Speaker 2 (01:49):
Yeah, I just say, you know, I think we've got
a long way to go. I get lots of people
want to talk poles all the time. I get all that,
But the point is, honestly, we have got so little
time and so much to do to turn the show around.
That's what I've got to be focused on. As you
could understand. But with respect to MMP, New New Zealand
rightly or wrongly have voted many many times to say
MMP is a system they want. As a result, as

(02:12):
you look at Western Europe that has exactly the same
system as New Zealand, you have to form coalition governments.
You know, I'm thinking of countries like Finland and Netherlands
that have four party coalitions, five party coalitions, and so
you know, that is the reality of what you need
to do because of the political system that we have.
But I just say, I think when you look at
a coalition of you know, Labor Greens, to Party Mari

(02:33):
and two independence chucked in, you know there's seven of
your twenty ministers essentially already predetermined. And I just don't
think now other people to take the country forward.

Speaker 1 (02:41):
When I caught up with here at the christ Show,
you were no bad pun intended, very bullish about red meat.
I think you've just been talking to Dan Bolton, chief
executive of Silver Firm Farms. So it had just come
back from an offshore marketing trip, and of course over
the weekend we got Trump dropping the tar offfs on
air beef. So red meat is a bit of a
star of the stable at the moment.

Speaker 3 (03:02):
Yeah.

Speaker 2 (03:02):
Look, I think there's several things going on. I've had
Nathan Guy with me on many of my most my
delegations over the last year, and we've been pushing this
case of pasture fed, grass fed red meat as we
have with dairy, and I think it's going really well
and it's a unique story that we can tell. The
second thing is that, you know, when I was an APEC,
I'm looking at an economics report and you can see
that essentially there is more demand for red meat in

(03:25):
the world than there is supply, and actually to rebuild
back those herds in those livestock is going to take
some time, so at least out to twenty thirty, I
think there'll be more demand and there will be supply.
So as a result, all around the world, prices for
red meats have gone through the roof. And as you've
seen that, then on the weekend, you know President Trump

(03:45):
has obviously decided beef has become very unaffordable, and actually
in the US you've had a declining livestock herd, but
you've also had high quality beef from New Zealand that's
often mixed with lower quality US beef and maybe just
and to go back to pre Liberation Day tariffs and
back to that position. That is awesome for US because

(04:06):
for the US red meat is our number one export
into that market, and so that means that we're back
to where we were before Trump introduced tariff.

Speaker 3 (04:13):
So that's really good.

Speaker 2 (04:14):
It's about thirty percent of our total business that we
do with the US, which is really fantastic. The other
seventy percent obviously still carries the fifteen percent tariff. We
continue to pack the case against that. So I think
that's really good. And actually in the last year after
the end of September, it was a twenty nine percent
increase year on year, and it's growth everywhere. It's growth
into the US obviously, but it's also very strong growth

(04:36):
into the EU, into the UK, and also into China
as well. So there is a huge amount of opportunity
and I just think that should give confidence and clarity
to the red meat guys to say, yep, we can
build good businesses over the coming years and actually invest appropriately.

Speaker 1 (04:52):
The final question for you, Prime Minister, have you heard
of the Methane Science Accord.

Speaker 2 (04:57):
No, but I'm very proud of the methane decision that
we made, which was to say we'll work within a
boundary of ten to twenty four and whether we can
do that, we can also deliver through our technology in
our Agri zero program, we can deliver some really good
innovation going forward.

Speaker 1 (05:11):
Well, these guys are saying or they're putting the boot
into agrizero in Z. They're saying New Zealand spending over
a billion dollars on methane mitigation research for a problem
that does not measurably exist. They say current methane accounting
rules exaggerate New Zealand's warming impact by three to four
hundred percent. I kind of agree with their last comment.

(05:33):
Livestock farms are in most cases carbon neutral or better
in this country. Once we account for everything, what do
you say, are we wasting money with agri zero n Z.
I know Wayne McNee has been on my case. He's
a staunch advocate of what he's doing.

Speaker 2 (05:48):
Yeah, look, agrizero, we haven't. It's a four hundred and
fifty million or a billion. And I think I just
say to you, over the last one hundred and fifty years,
New Zealand's farming success has been built about constant, constant
adoption of technology and innovation, you know, and if it's
the day we stop doing that, I'm telling you, is
the day that we'll stop being the world's best farmers
and the best and the most carbon efficient farmers in

(06:10):
the world. We have some really smart projects in that system.

Speaker 3 (06:15):
They're not just ideas, they're actually real projects.

Speaker 2 (06:18):
That can have real benefits on the emission side, but
also ultimately about improving productivity. And I think, as you've
seen over the last fifty years, we can improve productivity
and lower emissions at the same time and going forward,
and I'm very confident about that. So I was more
concerned that the AGRA zero projects were sort of ideas.
They weren't actual real innovations that could actually deliver real benefits.

(06:41):
So we just need one or two of those ideas
to come off that are in that fun I think
there's sixteen projects or something from memory. We just need
one or two of them to come off and we
can continue to be carbon efficient and we continue to
be highly productive. And that's what we've got to keep doing.
I mean, you know, it's often.

Speaker 3 (06:58):
Say it's like the All Blacks. If the All Blacks
play rugby like they played ten years ago, they'd lose today.
If they play like they play today, they're going to
lose in ten years time. You've just got to be constantly, constantly,
constantly improving and adopting technology innovation.

Speaker 1 (07:10):
Well, that's not a good example. The All Blacks are
playing like they're playing at the moment and they're losing.

Speaker 2 (07:14):
Well I realized that as I said, yeah.

Speaker 1 (07:17):
Never mind, you can't take it back Live Radio. Thanks
for your time, Prime Minister

Speaker 2 (07:21):
Good to be worth you rate have a great week.