September 9, 2026 • 40 mins
Jamie Mackay talks to Winston Peters, Jane Smith, Jamie Cunningham, Chris Russell and Matt Gray.
See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
Listen
Watch
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:01):
The Country with Jamie Mackay and Farmlands. Because rural never
grows it alone. Newstalk ZV. Welcome to your life.
Speaker 2 (00:16):
There's no turning back.
Speaker 3 (00:20):
Even while we sleep, we will.
Speaker 4 (00:25):
Find you acting on your best behavior.
Speaker 2 (00:32):
Turn your back on Mother Nature.
Speaker 5 (00:39):
Good afternoon, New Zealand. Welcome to the country. I'm Jamie Mackay.
A show brought to you by Isuzu. Have we got
a deal for you when it comes to a new
Isuzu and Farmlands. Remember with Farmlands, by the way, before
I forget, you can win 50 grand with their rugby
legend promotion. What a great promotion that is for your
footy club. Rightio, we're going to kick off the show
(01:03):
with someone. I don't know if he wants to rule
the world. He certainly wouldn't mind Ruling New Zealand, given
the chance, New Zealand First Leader, former Deputy Prime Minister
Winston Peters. A couple of big issues facing the rural
communities as we head into the election. The Paris Accord,
we're kind of split on that one, aren't we? And
(01:23):
the pricing of ag emissions, we all seem to be
in agreement on that one. We'll get Winston's thoughts on
that and other things. Jane Smith, North Otago farmer, award-winning environmentalist,
Balance Farm Environment Awards winner. She was quite chuffed with
what Mark Delatorre from Open Country Dairy had to say
(01:43):
on yesterday's show. We're going to talk to Jamie Cunningham
about the rise and continued rise of dairy beef. Our
Aussie correspondent, Chris Russell, bird flu going from bad to
worse over there. And as I said, I've got a
great deal for you a wee bit later in the show.
Michelle will have rural news for you and we'll have
(02:03):
a look at sports news for you as well. Looking
forward to the naming of our all-black team for Sunday
morning's test against the South Africans in Baltimore. But up next,
Winston Peters. Always enjoy chewing the fat with this man,
(02:40):
New Zealand First Leader, former Deputy Prime Minister Winston Peters. Winston,
less than two months out from the election, let's have
a look at the farmer vote. There's a couple of
key issues out there. The rural community's pretty split over Paris,
I put it to you, but pretty much united over
their pricing of agricultural emissions. Where do you sit on
(03:01):
all those?
Speaker 1 (03:02):
Well, the rural community's split because the very party they'd
be supporting all these years were the ones that went
off to Paris, both the National Party and ACT was
there at the time, and signed up to an agreement
which had these features. that's going to require us to
pay an enormous amount of money offshore if we didn't
meet certain targets. And that figures up to $ 22 billion,
and that's colossal when you think about it. And the
(03:24):
second thing is, though, there was a provider or proviso
in the agreement that food production would be exempt, excepting
back here the politicians had not argued for that. And
that's why the farmers are in such a conundrum at
this point in time when they should not be.
Speaker 5 (03:39):
Well, what do you say, and the likes of Todd McClay,
the Prime Minister, any number of people will tell you
that if we were to pull out of the Paris
Accord slash agreement, that we would end up cutting our
own throat in some of the more niche European markets.
They don't want a bar of it. They're looking for
an excuse to go elsewhere.
Speaker 1 (03:58):
Well, look, I'm just sick and tired of hearing, in
many cases, inexperience and lack of detail. They said the
same thing about the Union Free Trade deal. and they'll
never be able to prove it to the farmers because
they've left out completely when it comes to that deal,
when it comes to dairying for a start. But the
reality is that scaremongering is what they chiefly use as
a means of getting past their own incapacity to do
(04:21):
the job that they should be doing. Look, if 60%
of the emissions is coming from China, India, Russia, United States,
what good can we do in this circumstance? It's all
there plain as daylight in many of the countries I
started to understand that. And the longest serving Labour Prime
Minister of the UK, Tony Blair, came out recently and
(04:42):
said exactly what Winston Peters has been saying. That's a fact.
Some people are coming to grips with the facts. Others
are sticking to where they got themselves because of their
political naivety.
Speaker 5 (04:52):
So you won us out of Paris. Are you pretty
much united with your coalition partners over pricing ag emissions?
Interesting to see Labour came out. and said this week
that they wouldn't be pricing agricultural emissions. That is a
big policy U-turn from the days of He Waka Eke Noa,
and I think David Parker will be rolling in his
political grave at the thought of all this.
Speaker 1 (05:15):
All right, so Labour came out and said that, so
what did they mean by that? Because if they're going
to stand up for the Paris Agreement, which they are,
and so does National, and after all, Prime Minister Luxon
said it was a bottom line, then how are they
going to handle the situation where up to $ 22 billion
will be required to leave our economy to appraise ourselves
(05:37):
or get past our failures and go to some other economy?
Speaker 5 (05:40):
Yeah, but the Prime Minister said on this show yesterday
not a cent will go offshore.
Speaker 1 (05:44):
Oh, excuse me. I mean, look, where does it speak?
I've got a legal training. I'm not going to stand
back and listen to information which is not based on
the facts of the legislation and the statutory requirements that
we've entered into. No, I'm sorry. That is not the case.
Speaker 5 (06:01):
Can I just ask you a question? And this is
one that came in from a listener. Why does a
state bank, and I know you want to nationalise the BNZ,
make sense, yet Chloe's Pack and Soviet, as they're calling it, supermarket,
doesn't make sense? Why do minor parties, and you'll hate
me calling you a minor party, but why do minor
parties throw out harebrained policies that will never have a
(06:25):
chance of getting across the lines?
Speaker 1 (06:28):
Well, obviously, you were born yesterday. I was, and I
was born decades ago when we went out of the
country under two former great parties, Labour when they were
great and National when they were great, and started our
own bank called the BNZ to take on foreign competition,
to drive down unfair costs. It's exactly what's going on now.
So we started the BNZ, and when the Labour Party
(06:48):
sold one third of it, the National Party sold the
second two thirds off in October 1992. Six out of
10 banking clients in New Zealand belong to the BNZ.
That's the kind of treachery and traitorous behavior these politicians
are guilty of. And you're saying it's some extraordinary idea
to get back our own bank. Now, the second thing is,
the guy Stubbs from Simplicity recently, six years ago, said
(07:10):
this as well. We should be merging Kiwi Bank with BNZ.
And he put out the whole statement the way New
Zealand First did. And did anybody shout communism then? Did
anybody shout nationalisation then? No. Look, stop this nonsense. You
should remember when we used to have competitive bank rates
and we're being screwed now. How come Ned Kelly of
Banks in Australia earn far more in a smaller market
(07:32):
per capita than they do in the biggest market of Australia?
And the answer is we're being ripped off and people
like you in the national party are letting that happen.
Speaker 5 (07:41):
Oh, it's all my fault. Hey, public meetings. Chippy got
100 or 100. Well, it is.
Speaker 1 (07:45):
Your fault if you give a claim to that sort
of nonsense.
Speaker 5 (07:49):
I'm duly scolded. Public meetings. Chippy got 100 or 150,
depend on who you believe, and a cat last night
at his sort of first public meeting. You wouldn't get
out of bed for that many people, Winston Peters.
Speaker 1 (08:02):
Well, that's not a meeting. I mean, this guy wants
to be the next prime minister. This guy's the next
prime minister. Hey, he's standing up after the COVID disgrace
had been on me. But that's why it's only getting
up to 100 or so long to these meetings because
nobody's interested anymore. And the mainstream media can do it.
They like to prop them up, but it's not going
to work in this campaign.
Speaker 5 (08:20):
How many do you get at your meetings?
Speaker 1 (08:23):
Well, we get hundreds and hundreds of people. We pack
the halls. I mean, our team knows there should never
be a spare seat at any meeting that we do
because people are out there interested. Our job is to
make sure, unlike the rest of them, we've been out
there on the road since March holding these meetings. We've
held between myself and Shane Jones scores of meetings around
the country. We've got a huge meeting coming up this Sunday,
(08:45):
for example, as well.
Speaker 5 (08:46):
Does anyone under 60 turn up?
Speaker 1 (08:51):
See, that's a kind of snide remark.
Speaker 5 (08:54):
No, it's just social commentary. Hey, I look at your meetings, Winston,
and it's a sea of grey.
Speaker 1 (09:02):
Oh, look, at our convention, we had 30 tables of
young people's. That's how many people turn up who are
young on our side. The whole sea change is happening. But,
of course, you keep on wanting to repeat the same
old dismissive comments. Well, let me tell you this. I've
got news for you, some sceptical people, and it's all bad.
Speaker 5 (09:23):
Can I just finish on 9-11? It'll be our time Saturday.
Trump is telling terrible porkies about that, but I just
want to reflect with you, because you've been about for
a long time. Where were you? What were you doing
when the world changed forever?
Speaker 1 (09:40):
I was, again, early in the morning. I can recall,
I think Ron Mark called me up to say, look,
this has happened, because we were wondering what the news
was all about, and then Ron called up to say, look,
it's got these sort of details, the speeches about it.
It looks like a terrorist attack, and sure enough, it was.
It was so unbelievable that it could actually have And
that's a long, long time ago, but I can recall
(10:03):
what I was... It's early in the morning we found
this out. Shocking, actually, when I think about it.
Speaker 5 (10:09):
It's probably the biggest event, Winston, post-World War II, and
I know that you were born just before the end
of World War II. Would it be the single biggest
event in our lifetimes?
Speaker 1 (10:20):
Of that nature, there's been other dramatic things as well,
you know, very sad cases where we've overlooked the fact
of it all. But in terms of Western society, yeah,
it was a pretty dramatic event. I wouldn't say the
biggest one, but what was very clear the moment you
heard the news was this world will not be the
same again because it'll have these features. There'll be costs
(10:41):
for terrorism detection, which will be massively passed on to
everybody that's travelling, everybody that's moving and everything. sense of
transport internationally. And it has had a huge cost with
no productivity as a result. We don't really understand how
damaging it's been.
Speaker 5 (11:01):
Yes, airports have never been the same since. Osama bin
Laden has a lot to answer for. Winston Peters, thanks
for some of your time today on The Country as
we count down less than two months to go to
the election.
Speaker 1 (11:12):
Thank you very much. And don't forget to tell your
farming community to hang on to health science away. See
you later. Bye-bye.
Speaker 5 (11:25):
Thank you, Winston. Help is on its way, eh? Anyhow,
Michelle's wandered in, very kindly made me a cup of tea.
I owe you a coffee tomorrow, Michelle. Thank you very
much for doing that. You have thrown the music in
today and you've gone with an 80s theme and this
is to do with the trend online where you can
go with a bit of help of a bit of
(11:46):
AI and see what you would look like in the 80s.
Speaker 6 (11:49):
Yeah, I was going to do yours, but I thought
you might have a real photo.
Speaker 5 (11:52):
Well, some of us are old enough to know what
we looked like in the 80s. Glorious, glorious decade, I
might add. Great music decade, too. It was.
Speaker 6 (12:01):
I've thrown a few one-hit wonder surprises in there. We'll
see if you keep them in through the show.
Speaker 5 (12:05):
Well, normally I change the music because it's crap, but,
you know, how can you butcher the.
Speaker 1 (12:11):
80s, Michelle?
Speaker 6 (12:11):
I love the 80s. I think you and I have
the similar taste from the 80s.
Speaker 5 (12:14):
Actually, I want to go back and I want to
go back a decade, if I can, from the 80s
to the 70s. This weekend, and I've literally been nowhere
for a month, haven't left the house, haven't had a drink,
haven't done anything for a month, but I'm very excited.
I'm heading down to Invercargill, Southland, my home province, and
(12:35):
what I was going to say, I was asked, but
that's not the truth. I demanded that I emcee the
reunion of the Southland rugby team's from 1970 to 1980.
And a few of the younger guys were guys I
played with, but most of them was when I was
at high school or secondary school. They were heroes of mine.
(12:56):
Ken Stewart, Lester Rutledge, Brian McKechnie, you name it, Stephen Pokeri.
Southland had a great record in the 70s, especially against
touring teams. So I'm really looking forward to that. 50
years on from the start of the NPC.
Speaker 6 (13:12):
It's amazing, isn't it? A lot of clubs are actually
celebrating over the next year or so. I think Kaitangata
are celebrating theirs. Maybe March next year, 150th, I think
it might be.
Speaker 5 (13:21):
150, 125. Riversdale's 125 next year. Looking forward to that one. Anyhow,
from the 80s to the 70s, up next, well, she's
a girl of the 2020s. Can I call her that?
Jane Smith. And she's all fired up. It's like Pat Benatar.
We might sneak Pat in there as well. MUSIC MUSIC
(14:15):
Jane Smith is a North Otago farmer, former winner of
the Balance Farm Environment Awards. Jane, what did you make
of my commentary to Winston that the two key issues
or two of the key issues out there in rural
New Zealand, one, Paris, and I reckon the rural community
is pretty split over that. And the other one is
pricing ag emissions. And everyone seems to be in agreement
(14:37):
with that. We don't want to do it.
Speaker 3 (14:39):
Good afternoon, Jamie.
Speaker 7 (14:39):
And firstly, Jamie, welcome back. I didn't know if you
were actually sick or whether you'd been kidnapped by the
Greens as part of their policy to cleanse the world
of white middle-aged men. But certainly pleased to hear you
back on the airwaves. But, yeah, I absolutely agree. And
it was really refreshing to hear Mark de la Tour
say from Open Country a couple of days ago in
(15:01):
terms of his reality or the reality around, you know,
they're playing in the same product, same markets, haven't been
swept up in the, you know, self-imposed righteousness of emissions
assumptions and subsequently punishing farmers for an issue that is
actually a non-issue if you look at it And I
(15:21):
guess Silver Fern Farms have, of course, been chasing the
methane apologist road for quite some time now, which is
such a shame because they do some excellent marketing, but
have certainly taken it a bridge too far. And if
we really look at this, we're simply adding costs onto
a product that's beyond the premium that people are willing
to pay for something that we've already got balanced out.
(15:43):
And the reality is that we haven't actually managed bothered
as a country to genuinely market the other attractive aspects
of our pastoral production, i.e. GE-free, our hills are producing
free-range protein where no plant-based diet would ever be able
to grow. So the real cost of staying in Paris
when everyone's just too scared to pull out of a
meaningless piece of paper, Jamie.
Speaker 5 (16:04):
But what are the consequences of the Paris Agreement, Accord,
whatever you want to call it? Because As Winston pointed out,
food was meant to be exempt. And if we don't
meet our emissions targets, what happens to us? Do we
just get a slap over the wrist with a wet
bus ticket?
Speaker 1 (16:25):
Exactly, Jamie.
Speaker 7 (16:25):
And again, adhering to a very expensive piece of paper.
And let's put some, you know, some figures around this,
you know, in terms of what we're trying to be
meeting in terms of net zero, agri zero, carbon zero,
hero zero, and the Paris peril is, you know, being
modelled to be over sort of anywhere between 200,000 billion
and a trillion dollars for our country if you if
you scope that right out for what Jamie and this
(16:48):
is the thing we should be putting that money into
infrastructure etc and and some of our real basics in
our country in terms of health care and water storage
and and education and I guess this is the thing
like Again, as a country, we need to actually be
focused on our attributes rather than a fallacy that we're
going to change anything in terms of the climate. That
(17:09):
is already changing and will always change in perpetuity. So
what can we do to actually be a more robust country?
And it's really interesting. We seem to be sort of self-sabotaging.
And I think the most embarrassing reality is we've done
all of this to ourselves. We've created our own hoops.
And there's something really confronting about not being able to
blame someone else for burdening our country with a disturbing
(17:32):
suite of self-imposed penalties that everybody knows will not make
one iota of difference to how the climate may change
over time. And so, again, and I agree with the
tradies that when they say that our reputation is essential
to our trade relationships, But this could have all been
put to bed when we can actually, you know, you
can say a high proportion of our country's emissions are
(17:54):
biogenic methane, but at the same time that can be
completely put to bed by explaining the methane cycle and
stable methane is not contributing to any additional warming.
Speaker 1 (18:05):
And that is it.
Speaker 7 (18:06):
So that is a massive cost.
Speaker 5 (18:08):
Absolutely agree with you. Ruminants aren't the problem. Man burning
fossil fuel is the problem. Hey, do you know what
keeps me up at night, other than influencer A, Jane Smith,
is the prospect of a centre-left government for farming and
for small business. I watched that Q & A rural
leaders debate and I thought, heaven help us if the centre-left,
(18:29):
and I'm talking about Joe Luxton who said nothing, Daniel
Ebb who frightened me, and Steve Abel who showed his
true colours. If that's what we're up against, last one
to leave, turn the lights out.
Speaker 7 (18:41):
I know, Jamie, and I thought I would have to be,
I did actually hesitate to watch that because I thought
I'd have to be heavily sedated before doing so. And,
you know, they really did dance around the key issues.
I would have said rural health care and freshwater ownership
with the iwi lining up to own the South Island,
if not all freshwater. You know, none of that was
put forward. But probably the most disturbing narrative I heard
(19:03):
was the opportunity cost party, and you just mentioned that.
And his vision for farming. So he did mention in
a Chloe Swarbrick type scenario that he would help us
transition from our current farming practices. And of course, he
wants farm values to fall between 10 and 15 percent.
(19:23):
because apparently we're all farming for capital gain, he said,
and certainly one way to decrease our rates, thank you, Daniel,
would be that. But his vision was sort of a
cross between Gloria Vale and the Jetsons, and he said
each farm would be farming less livestock, supporting two or
three or four families, and a sort of socialist utopia
where one family would be paid to plant native trees,
(19:46):
I'm not sure by who. One would be doing a
project on farm connected to education.
Speaker 3 (19:51):
Sounds lovely.
Speaker 7 (19:52):
And one might be doing some country calendar type of
version of farm work. And I'm not sure who he
thought was going to be paying taxes to keep our roads,
schools and hospitals going, let alone the universal beneficiary concept.
And I think these people tend to forget that a 1%
drop in GDP equals at least $ 500 million less tax collected.
(20:13):
And this is a scary thing.
Speaker 3 (20:15):
In terms of.
Speaker 7 (20:15):
Economic benefits, All of these things lead into this. So, yeah,
it was an interesting sort of entertaining but also equally
concerning Q & A. I will say about Steve Abel,
he's actually a reasonable, rational type of person.
Speaker 1 (20:32):
And I guess when you're surrounded.
Speaker 7 (20:34):
By sort of three or four crazy Green Party female
rainbow warriors, it is probably easier to look pretty rational.
Speaker 1 (20:40):
But he does actually... That did.
Speaker 7 (20:42):
Come across as very good, but certainly not a reason
to be putting the Greens into, yeah, and to be
there with top and their socialist utopia. Jamie, that would
absolutely keep, should keep every New Zealander awake at night.
Speaker 5 (20:55):
Bring back James Shaw, I say. Jane Smith, thanks for
your time today on The Country.
Speaker 1 (20:59):
Thanks, Jamie. Thanks, Jane.
Speaker 5 (21:01):
Yeah, very sensible Green was James. That's why they got
rid of him, I think. Some of your feedback coming in.
I reckon Winnie's losing it a little. Glimpses of sanity.
when he's not duly scolding you. Thank you, Texter. Here's
another one, Jamie. We move away from the Paris Agreement.
We're toast as a major exporter of dairy and meat products.
(21:22):
Our biggest companies, customers, demand we stay in. If not,
they can source products elsewhere. That's from Alpha New Plymouth.
Thanks for that, Alpha. Interesting, Mark Delatour's commentary yesterday would be,
Fly in the face of that one. Some more of
your feedback. Great to get some feedback about those magnificent
(21:45):
rugby teams, the Southland teams of the 1970s. I neglected,
I mentioned, I think, four players. Ash McGregor, my old
rugby coach and neighbour. He used to use his wool
shed to shear my sheep. He was an All Black,
as was Bob Barber. Six of them will be there
on Saturday night at the Ascot Park. and also there
(22:06):
are some bitter and twisted people here. This bloke will
be on the show tomorrow. Jamie, is it true you
feature in the Guinness Book of Records for the most
tackles missed in a season whilst playing for Southland B? No,
Jeremy Rooks, I do not. There was a bloke who
played on the wing for Southland B the same year
I did. He could run like the wind. Hello, Sean Bailey,
(22:27):
if you're listening. And he's in a very select group.
He was a worse tackler than me. Up next, we're
going to talk dairy beef. Let's talk a bit of
(22:51):
dairy now on the country. Jamie Cunningham is PGG Wrightson's
National Dairy Specialist. He's based in one of my favourite towns,
I think, in this country. Fielding, Jamie, where else do
you have the stockyards? Right smack in the middle of.
Speaker 1 (23:05):
Town, eh?
Speaker 3 (23:06):
Yeah, good afternoon, Jamie.
Speaker 4 (23:07):
Yes, there's plenty happening in New Year in Fielding on
a sale day, that's for sure. And it's quite an
iconic and unique setting for sale yards to be where
they are. There's no doubt about that.
Speaker 5 (23:19):
Now, my old mate Hamish Mackay, he loves nothing better
than getting down to the Fielding sale yards. It's a
Friday sale, isn't it, and having a cup of tea?
Speaker 4 (23:27):
Yeah, our major store sales on a Friday and then
we have prime sales on a Monday and then we
also have seasonal sales throughout the season on different days
of the week which are generally fairs and things like that.
Speaker 5 (23:42):
And if that's not enough, Fielding has a clock tower
as well. I want to talk to you today, Jamie,
putting on your dairy hat here, the rise and rise,
if you want to call it that, of dairy beef.
Is this going to get rid of our Bobby calf problem?
Speaker 4 (23:58):
Yeah, there's no doubt that dairy beef has, you know,
building momentum and come a long way. There's, you know,
farmers have looked at lots of different options around, you know,
putting some dairy beef in the mix over the last
few years. And it's been pleasing to see the numbers
of calves that have been read over the last couple
of years, but also the interest in dairy beef and calves,
(24:22):
from feeded calves this year, which we've seen read in
the spring. So it's definitely a step in the right direction.
Whether it's going to entirely fix our bobby car thing,
I'm unsure about that.
Speaker 5 (24:35):
Well, you've still got to get your replacements, obviously. Has
the sex semen helped out there? It must have.
Speaker 3 (24:42):
Yeah, it definitely has.
Speaker 4 (24:43):
And the AI companies and things have done a lot
of work in that dairy beef space and finding bulls
that are purpose-fit for the dairy space. but also give
a viable dairy beef calf for finishers and for people
to grow on and rear. So it's definitely helping. There's
(25:04):
no doubt about that.
Speaker 5 (25:05):
I want to get a plug in for the charity
that I'm lucky enough to be the ambassador for, the
IHC Calf and Rural Scheme. But before I do, I'm
going to give you a wee chance, Jamie Cunningham out
of Fielding, to give a plug for Deferable. Quite a
good play on words, that one.
Speaker 4 (25:21):
Yeah, deferrable is our serviceable phonics and an option that
we have– that we have within the company. It's a
big product now. It's been going for a number of years,
20-plus years, and gets repeat users year and year. The
great thing about it is people can buy their bulls
in the spring when cash flows a little tight and
(25:45):
not have to pay for them until they're finished with
the bulls. And generally speaking, it could be out as
four to six months down the track. So it's a
great way to... help farmers with spring cash flow, and
they can still get their bull teams that they need
and park them at a later payment date once they're
finished with the bull. So great product, repeat users year
(26:06):
and year, and we definitely get a lot of interest
in that, that's for sure.
Speaker 5 (26:10):
You guys at PGG Wrightson do a great job around
the IHC Cartham Rural Scheme, back since the days, or
back in the days, when pine tree meads kicked it
all off, which is over $ 40 years ago, and you've
raised over $ 40 million. I know the canvases have probably
been around the dairy farms and the cattle farms, the
(26:31):
beef farms, but it's not too late to donate.
Speaker 4 (26:35):
No, the I Exceed Carp Scheme is a fantastic charity,
and it's something that we've been involved with since day dot,
and the company's very proud of that. It's still heaps
of time for, you know, if you did want to
pledge a car, The only thing I'd say with the
guys around that is.
Speaker 3 (26:53):
Pledging a good quality calf.
Speaker 4 (26:55):
That's well marked, rear it well, and it's a fantastic
charity to donate towards. It's changed a lot in the
last few years because now there's an option to donate
a virtual calf. if you don't have the ability or
don't want to rear any extras, then the virtual calf
is a great way to donate to a fantastic charity
(27:17):
as well.
Speaker 3 (27:17):
Yep.
Speaker 5 (27:17):
Come on, farmers, you can just carry one more calf
over the spring, summer and autumn and it's for a
great cause. Hey, Jamie Cunningham out of PGG Wrightson, out
of Fielding, one of my favourite towns in the country.
Thanks for your time.
Speaker 4 (27:32):
Thanks very much. Have a good day.
Speaker 3 (27:34):
I will.
Speaker 5 (27:34):
Thank you very much, Jamie. 22 away from one year
with the country, brought to you by Isuzu. Have I
got a deal for you? More about that later. Chris
Russell's coming up, our Aussie correspondent as well. Some of
your feedback. We don't need Winston anymore, Jamie. Time he retired. Cheers, Tony. Well,
compared to other 80-year-old politicians around the world, namely one
(27:56):
in Washington, I think Winston's doing OK. And, Jamie, please
stop referring to James Shaw as a sane green. The
man is heavily involved in the Nuts Opportunity Party. What
James says and what he thinks are two different things. Well,
as nutty as the Opportunity Party might be, they're not
(28:16):
as nutty as the Greens. I go back to the
days of Rod Donald, believe it or not, on this show.
Always enjoyed him, and same with James Shaw. Always found
him to be pretty up front. Anyhow, up next, Rural
News with Michelle and Sport. Michelle, with the music today,
(28:40):
you can't get much more 80s than Rick Astley. Let's
see what she's got for rural news.
Speaker 3 (28:46):
The country's rural news with Cub Cadet. It's one thing
to talk innovation, another to back it up.
Speaker 1 (28:52):
Drive it. We dare you.
Speaker 8 (28:53):
Visit steelfort.co.nz for your local stockist.
Speaker 6 (28:58):
And New Zealand's forestry sector could be underutilising a vital superpower.
New research shows the forestry sector is worth $ 5. 4 billion
and is one of the biggest contributors among land-based industries
in some regions. The Institute of Economic Research finds a 10%
drop in output in Tairawhiti would cut household spending by 1.4%
and exports by 4.4%. And that's rural news. You have
(29:21):
sport there, Jamie.
Speaker 5 (29:22):
Absolutely agree with you. Very important. Our fourth biggest industry
behind dairy, red meat... And horticulture. Horticulture is a group, yeah. Actually,
kiwifruit's getting up with forestry, but very important. It's just
the carbon farming.
Speaker 1 (29:34):
I don't know.
Speaker 5 (29:35):
I don't like his sport.
Speaker 8 (29:37):
Sport on the Country with AFCO.
Speaker 3 (29:40):
Business well done.
Speaker 5 (29:42):
Former PGA golfer Marcus Wheelhouse. Isn't he Foxy's coach? I
think he might be. Thinks Live Golf has achieved its
goal of being a disruptor and should be thanked for
increasing player power and prize money globally. And All Black's
short-term set-piece struggles against the Springboks make for long-term World
Cup lessons in the eyes of scrum guru Mike Cron.
(30:05):
Looking forward to that all-black team being named. Up next,
our Aussie correspondent, Chris Russell. Well, I've missed this bloke
on the country. Haven't chatted to him for a month.
(30:26):
Chris Russell, our Aussie correspondent, our longest... standing correspondent here
on the show. I've been on my deathbed, well, not
quite deathbed, Chris, but I've been crook with influenza A.
So let's segue from my flu to the bird flu,
which is a much bigger problem.
Speaker 3 (30:42):
Yes, well, it is a big problem.
Speaker 8 (30:44):
And now, of course, as I told Hamish last week,
it's now spread to urban foxes. So, you know, one
in Adelaide so far and one in Melbourne. And, of course,
it's brought up one of the issues here in Australia
that foxes in metropolitan areas are three times higher than
they are in urban areas. So it's about 1.7 million
(31:07):
foxes estimated to be in Australia. And some of the
parts of Melbourne have as many as 16 to 20
foxes per square kilometre running around.
Speaker 3 (31:18):
So, of course, now that they're not really worried about.
Speaker 8 (31:21):
The foxes transmitting the disease to humans or anything like that,
but they are saying that because they scavenge and move
around and get into backyard chooks and all that sort
of thing, that they could aid in the spread of
the bird flu through the backyards of all these urban areas.
(31:42):
And we really need to think about how we're going
to start controlling and culling these animals.
Speaker 3 (31:46):
They're like cats.
Speaker 8 (31:47):
Walking along the top of fences and running around, and
they find much more nutrition in the garbage bins of
the big cities than they do running around the bush.
Speaker 3 (31:56):
Looking for rabbits.
Speaker 5 (31:57):
Chris, are you allowed to shoot them?
Speaker 3 (31:59):
Yeah, you're allowed to, definitely allowed to shoot them.
Speaker 8 (32:01):
In fact, there's a bounty on them in many areas
where you can actually take in their scalp and down
the back, including the tail, and you can get a
bounty for that. You can't use guns in metropolitan areas.
Speaker 5 (32:14):
Yeah, I guess that's the issue. You can't go being
Rambo in the middle of Melbourne. Talking about culling pests,
kangaroo and dingo management has been taken over by the
Woke Brigade. and farmers are being overwhelmed by red tape.
Speaker 8 (32:29):
Yes, well, this is really annoying people because once upon
a time, you know, farmers could manage their kangaroo populations
and they used to apply to the New South Wales.
Speaker 3 (32:40):
National Parks and Wildlife.
Speaker 8 (32:42):
But now that's been changed to being looked after Penny
Sharp's Department of Climate Change, Energy and the Environment and Water.
Speaker 3 (32:50):
And all of a sudden, all the sort.
Speaker 8 (32:53):
Of urban latte-drinking woke people are making decisions about this.
Speaker 3 (32:57):
And, of course, they all.
Speaker 8 (32:58):
think that kangaroos and our national symbols shouldn't be culled
at all, when in fact they haven't taken any notice
of the fact that millions of them die in the
droughts in terrible circumstances. No support given to kangaroos to
survive the drought, and yet farmers who are facing overpopulation,
damaging crops, damaging fences, they have to now send in
(33:19):
evidence of that damage, including photos and videos and so on,
and invoices for damage repair. They have to Provide evidence
of non-lethal attempts at kangaroo management, which have been tried
and proved to have failed. And of course, the much
more sensible option is to actually allow professional hunters who
(33:40):
are trained to do this to actually turn it into
a business and keep these animals under control. A, so
they are not overpopulated in times of drought. and B,
so that they can make sure these are humanely killed
rather than left to die from lack of salvation. The
whole thing is just a shambles shrouded in sort of
(34:02):
woke idealism about our national symbol.
Speaker 3 (34:05):
I fear, Jamie.
Speaker 5 (34:07):
Don't start me on woke idealism. I could talk about
your Prime Minister, Alba, but I won't. I haven't got time.
I want to talk about because we've had record prices
here in New Zealand this season for our bulls, for
our beef bulls. You've sold one for nearly half a
million dollars. I'm assuming it's a beef bull.
Speaker 8 (34:24):
Yeah, it is a beef bull, and it's a Miller
Murrah Angus beef bull, $ 430, 000, which is a hell of
a lot of money for a.
Speaker 3 (34:33):
Bull called Miller Murrah Wyatt W50.
Speaker 8 (34:39):
And 834 kilograms, 19 months old, 44 centimeter scrotal circumference,
if you're interested in that.
Speaker 3 (34:47):
Amazing.
Speaker 8 (34:47):
Bull bought down to spend that sort of money on
a bull, it's a heck of a lot of money.
And it surpassed the previous record for any sort of
bull or female sold for $ 400, 000 in 2022. And, you know,
they're saying this is a magnificent animal. And it just
shows you the faith people have, particularly in black animals,
(35:11):
Angus or Wagyu. And they had an amazing sale this
year of Angus's up their annual sale, averaging $ 48, 000. So
it's been a good year for bulls. And this is
an amazing animal. I'm sure it's going to produce some
amazing steers in its time.
Speaker 5 (35:29):
OK, Chris Russell, I'm out of time. I haven't even
got time to talk about the LA Rams and the
San Francisco 49ers who have made their way to Melbourne.
We might touch on that one next week for a
bit of NFL. Of course, we've got NRL to worry
about in this country, and I know that our Warriors
are up against your Dolphins, so look forward to a
bit of trans-Tasman rivalry this weekend. We'll see you next week.
Speaker 3 (35:52):
No worries, Jamie.
Speaker 5 (35:54):
Look forward to it, Chris. Lest we forget, Jamie writes
a text to Winston as the man who gave us
Jacinda due to his longstanding beef with National and Bill English.
Thank you, Tony. That's a fair cop. That is a
fair cop. Up next, we're heading down to Southland where
I'm going this weekend for the 70s rugby reunion. We
(36:19):
are off to God's own farming province, Southland. There we
find Matt Gray. He's the local Isuzu guy down there. Hey, Matt,
you've got a really interesting backstory for a young bloke,
born and bred Southlander, but you've travelled a long road
to get back down to Southland. Tell me a wee
bit about your background, because this is fascinating.
Speaker 3 (36:41):
I have, I have.
Speaker 2 (36:43):
I left high school, got a jib-stopping trade behind me
in Queenstown, Spent five or six.
Speaker 3 (36:49):
Years there working and then went over to.
Speaker 2 (36:52):
Otago University, did a commerce degree in tourism and then
a master's in entrepreneurship.
Speaker 3 (36:59):
And then part of that, or at the end of that, while.
Speaker 2 (37:01):
I was doing my thesis, I went up to Auckland
and did a living internship with the Venn Foundation, which
is a sort of a public policy think tank with
a bit of a Christian perspective. And then From that,
part of that was a work experience. I ended up
doing mine with Tupuanga Coffee in Auckland, which is a
Tongan coffee company, a bit of a social enterprise where
(37:24):
they sell the roasted bean in Auckland that they've brought
off the factory in Tonga, and then the money raised
from that funds a youth mentoring program in South Auckland
for Pacific youth. So really enjoyed that, but wanted to
get more into the sales side of things, so I
left there and went door-knocking for charities around the North
Island for a year, which was an eye-opening experience and
(37:48):
gave me some great first-hand sales experience. And then after that,
I started at Honda in Newmarket in Auckland in the
used car department, cut my teeth there, and then, yeah,
came back down to Southlands and took up the role
at Southland Vehicle Sales.
Speaker 5 (38:05):
Gee, you've squeezed a lot into a few years. Well done. Hey, Matt,
you've found your way back down to Southland. As I said,
you were born and bred Southlander like myself. You're now
selling Isuzu's, the D-Max's and the MUX's at Southland Vehicle Sales.
Do you like that?
Speaker 3 (38:21):
Oh, absolutely. I love it.
Speaker 2 (38:24):
I find it very easy to sell a product when I.
Speaker 3 (38:27):
Believe in the product.
Speaker 2 (38:28):
And Isuzu has shown me time and time again they're
a great, reliable truck, built well, built to work and
do the job that they were designed for. And, yeah,
just I really enjoy the culture and the people we
get to meet.
Speaker 3 (38:43):
And, yeah.
Speaker 5 (38:44):
We talked about this one on yesterday's show. You can
now get a D-Max. This is a promotional offer out
on the market at the moment for under $ 56, 000. You
get with that a six-year warranty. You've got a three-litre
turbo diesel. They do go like a cut cat because
they're the same motor as the MUX. And, of course,
you've got a three-and-a-half-tonne towing capacity.
Speaker 2 (39:06):
Yeah, that's absolutely correct. It's a great deal. There's a
few more savings going up the chain as well in
the model range. So, yeah, it's been really good and
very popular.
Speaker 5 (39:17):
Matt Gray out of Southland Vehicle Sales down there in Southland. Hey,
thanks for giving us some of your time today. What
a great story you've got. Go in and see your
local Isuzu dealer around the country for a great deal.
Speaker 4 (39:28):
Thanks, Jack.
Speaker 1 (39:30):
Appreciate it.
Speaker 5 (39:31):
Good on you, Matt. That is a good story, isn't it? Okay,
under $ 56, 000 you can get a brand new D-Max from Isuzu. Well,
that wraps the show for today. I'm not sure who's
on tomorrow yet. I might have a 70s theme, I think,
for the rugby reunion of the Decade of players who
played for Southland from 1970 to 1980. Catch you back tomorrow.
The Country with Jamie Mackay and Farmlands. Because rural never
grows it alone. Newstalk ZV. Welcome to your life.
Speaker 2 (00:16):
There's no turning back.
Speaker 3 (00:20):
Even while we sleep, we will.
Speaker 4 (00:25):
Find you acting on your best behavior.
Speaker 2 (00:32):
Turn your back on Mother Nature.
Speaker 5 (00:39):
Good afternoon, New Zealand. Welcome to the country. I'm Jamie Mackay.
A show brought to you by Isuzu. Have we got
a deal for you when it comes to a new
Isuzu and Farmlands. Remember with Farmlands, by the way, before
I forget, you can win 50 grand with their rugby
legend promotion. What a great promotion that is for your
footy club. Rightio, we're going to kick off the show
(01:03):
with someone. I don't know if he wants to rule
the world. He certainly wouldn't mind Ruling New Zealand, given
the chance, New Zealand First Leader, former Deputy Prime Minister
Winston Peters. A couple of big issues facing the rural
communities as we head into the election. The Paris Accord,
we're kind of split on that one, aren't we? And
(01:23):
the pricing of ag emissions, we all seem to be
in agreement on that one. We'll get Winston's thoughts on
that and other things. Jane Smith, North Otago farmer, award-winning environmentalist,
Balance Farm Environment Awards winner. She was quite chuffed with
what Mark Delatorre from Open Country Dairy had to say
(01:43):
on yesterday's show. We're going to talk to Jamie Cunningham
about the rise and continued rise of dairy beef. Our
Aussie correspondent, Chris Russell, bird flu going from bad to
worse over there. And as I said, I've got a
great deal for you a wee bit later in the show.
Michelle will have rural news for you and we'll have
(02:03):
a look at sports news for you as well. Looking
forward to the naming of our all-black team for Sunday
morning's test against the South Africans in Baltimore. But up next,
Winston Peters. Always enjoy chewing the fat with this man,
(02:40):
New Zealand First Leader, former Deputy Prime Minister Winston Peters. Winston,
less than two months out from the election, let's have
a look at the farmer vote. There's a couple of
key issues out there. The rural community's pretty split over Paris,
I put it to you, but pretty much united over
their pricing of agricultural emissions. Where do you sit on
(03:01):
all those?
Speaker 1 (03:02):
Well, the rural community's split because the very party they'd
be supporting all these years were the ones that went
off to Paris, both the National Party and ACT was
there at the time, and signed up to an agreement
which had these features. that's going to require us to
pay an enormous amount of money offshore if we didn't
meet certain targets. And that figures up to $ 22 billion,
and that's colossal when you think about it. And the
(03:24):
second thing is, though, there was a provider or proviso
in the agreement that food production would be exempt, excepting
back here the politicians had not argued for that. And
that's why the farmers are in such a conundrum at
this point in time when they should not be.
Speaker 5 (03:39):
Well, what do you say, and the likes of Todd McClay,
the Prime Minister, any number of people will tell you
that if we were to pull out of the Paris
Accord slash agreement, that we would end up cutting our
own throat in some of the more niche European markets.
They don't want a bar of it. They're looking for
an excuse to go elsewhere.
Speaker 1 (03:58):
Well, look, I'm just sick and tired of hearing, in
many cases, inexperience and lack of detail. They said the
same thing about the Union Free Trade deal. and they'll
never be able to prove it to the farmers because
they've left out completely when it comes to that deal,
when it comes to dairying for a start. But the
reality is that scaremongering is what they chiefly use as
a means of getting past their own incapacity to do
(04:21):
the job that they should be doing. Look, if 60%
of the emissions is coming from China, India, Russia, United States,
what good can we do in this circumstance? It's all
there plain as daylight in many of the countries I
started to understand that. And the longest serving Labour Prime
Minister of the UK, Tony Blair, came out recently and
(04:42):
said exactly what Winston Peters has been saying. That's a fact.
Some people are coming to grips with the facts. Others
are sticking to where they got themselves because of their
political naivety.
Speaker 5 (04:52):
So you won us out of Paris. Are you pretty
much united with your coalition partners over pricing ag emissions?
Interesting to see Labour came out. and said this week
that they wouldn't be pricing agricultural emissions. That is a
big policy U-turn from the days of He Waka Eke Noa,
and I think David Parker will be rolling in his
political grave at the thought of all this.
Speaker 1 (05:15):
All right, so Labour came out and said that, so
what did they mean by that? Because if they're going
to stand up for the Paris Agreement, which they are,
and so does National, and after all, Prime Minister Luxon
said it was a bottom line, then how are they
going to handle the situation where up to $ 22 billion
will be required to leave our economy to appraise ourselves
(05:37):
or get past our failures and go to some other economy?
Speaker 5 (05:40):
Yeah, but the Prime Minister said on this show yesterday
not a cent will go offshore.
Speaker 1 (05:44):
Oh, excuse me. I mean, look, where does it speak?
I've got a legal training. I'm not going to stand
back and listen to information which is not based on
the facts of the legislation and the statutory requirements that
we've entered into. No, I'm sorry. That is not the case.
Speaker 5 (06:01):
Can I just ask you a question? And this is
one that came in from a listener. Why does a
state bank, and I know you want to nationalise the BNZ,
make sense, yet Chloe's Pack and Soviet, as they're calling it, supermarket,
doesn't make sense? Why do minor parties, and you'll hate
me calling you a minor party, but why do minor
parties throw out harebrained policies that will never have a
(06:25):
chance of getting across the lines?
Speaker 1 (06:28):
Well, obviously, you were born yesterday. I was, and I
was born decades ago when we went out of the
country under two former great parties, Labour when they were
great and National when they were great, and started our
own bank called the BNZ to take on foreign competition,
to drive down unfair costs. It's exactly what's going on now.
So we started the BNZ, and when the Labour Party
(06:48):
sold one third of it, the National Party sold the
second two thirds off in October 1992. Six out of
10 banking clients in New Zealand belong to the BNZ.
That's the kind of treachery and traitorous behavior these politicians
are guilty of. And you're saying it's some extraordinary idea
to get back our own bank. Now, the second thing is,
the guy Stubbs from Simplicity recently, six years ago, said
(07:10):
this as well. We should be merging Kiwi Bank with BNZ.
And he put out the whole statement the way New
Zealand First did. And did anybody shout communism then? Did
anybody shout nationalisation then? No. Look, stop this nonsense. You
should remember when we used to have competitive bank rates
and we're being screwed now. How come Ned Kelly of
Banks in Australia earn far more in a smaller market
(07:32):
per capita than they do in the biggest market of Australia?
And the answer is we're being ripped off and people
like you in the national party are letting that happen.
Speaker 5 (07:41):
Oh, it's all my fault. Hey, public meetings. Chippy got
100 or 100. Well, it is.
Speaker 1 (07:45):
Your fault if you give a claim to that sort
of nonsense.
Speaker 5 (07:49):
I'm duly scolded. Public meetings. Chippy got 100 or 150,
depend on who you believe, and a cat last night
at his sort of first public meeting. You wouldn't get
out of bed for that many people, Winston Peters.
Speaker 1 (08:02):
Well, that's not a meeting. I mean, this guy wants
to be the next prime minister. This guy's the next
prime minister. Hey, he's standing up after the COVID disgrace
had been on me. But that's why it's only getting
up to 100 or so long to these meetings because
nobody's interested anymore. And the mainstream media can do it.
They like to prop them up, but it's not going
to work in this campaign.
Speaker 5 (08:20):
How many do you get at your meetings?
Speaker 1 (08:23):
Well, we get hundreds and hundreds of people. We pack
the halls. I mean, our team knows there should never
be a spare seat at any meeting that we do
because people are out there interested. Our job is to
make sure, unlike the rest of them, we've been out
there on the road since March holding these meetings. We've
held between myself and Shane Jones scores of meetings around
the country. We've got a huge meeting coming up this Sunday,
(08:45):
for example, as well.
Speaker 5 (08:46):
Does anyone under 60 turn up?
Speaker 1 (08:51):
See, that's a kind of snide remark.
Speaker 5 (08:54):
No, it's just social commentary. Hey, I look at your meetings, Winston,
and it's a sea of grey.
Speaker 1 (09:02):
Oh, look, at our convention, we had 30 tables of
young people's. That's how many people turn up who are
young on our side. The whole sea change is happening. But,
of course, you keep on wanting to repeat the same
old dismissive comments. Well, let me tell you this. I've
got news for you, some sceptical people, and it's all bad.
Speaker 5 (09:23):
Can I just finish on 9-11? It'll be our time Saturday.
Trump is telling terrible porkies about that, but I just
want to reflect with you, because you've been about for
a long time. Where were you? What were you doing
when the world changed forever?
Speaker 1 (09:40):
I was, again, early in the morning. I can recall,
I think Ron Mark called me up to say, look,
this has happened, because we were wondering what the news
was all about, and then Ron called up to say, look,
it's got these sort of details, the speeches about it.
It looks like a terrorist attack, and sure enough, it was.
It was so unbelievable that it could actually have And
that's a long, long time ago, but I can recall
(10:03):
what I was... It's early in the morning we found
this out. Shocking, actually, when I think about it.
Speaker 5 (10:09):
It's probably the biggest event, Winston, post-World War II, and
I know that you were born just before the end
of World War II. Would it be the single biggest
event in our lifetimes?
Speaker 1 (10:20):
Of that nature, there's been other dramatic things as well,
you know, very sad cases where we've overlooked the fact
of it all. But in terms of Western society, yeah,
it was a pretty dramatic event. I wouldn't say the
biggest one, but what was very clear the moment you
heard the news was this world will not be the
same again because it'll have these features. There'll be costs
(10:41):
for terrorism detection, which will be massively passed on to
everybody that's travelling, everybody that's moving and everything. sense of
transport internationally. And it has had a huge cost with
no productivity as a result. We don't really understand how
damaging it's been.
Speaker 5 (11:01):
Yes, airports have never been the same since. Osama bin
Laden has a lot to answer for. Winston Peters, thanks
for some of your time today on The Country as
we count down less than two months to go to
the election.
Speaker 1 (11:12):
Thank you very much. And don't forget to tell your
farming community to hang on to health science away. See
you later. Bye-bye.
Speaker 5 (11:25):
Thank you, Winston. Help is on its way, eh? Anyhow,
Michelle's wandered in, very kindly made me a cup of tea.
I owe you a coffee tomorrow, Michelle. Thank you very
much for doing that. You have thrown the music in
today and you've gone with an 80s theme and this
is to do with the trend online where you can
go with a bit of help of a bit of
(11:46):
AI and see what you would look like in the 80s.
Speaker 6 (11:49):
Yeah, I was going to do yours, but I thought
you might have a real photo.
Speaker 5 (11:52):
Well, some of us are old enough to know what
we looked like in the 80s. Glorious, glorious decade, I
might add. Great music decade, too. It was.
Speaker 6 (12:01):
I've thrown a few one-hit wonder surprises in there. We'll
see if you keep them in through the show.
Speaker 5 (12:05):
Well, normally I change the music because it's crap, but,
you know, how can you butcher the.
Speaker 1 (12:11):
80s, Michelle?
Speaker 6 (12:11):
I love the 80s. I think you and I have
the similar taste from the 80s.
Speaker 5 (12:14):
Actually, I want to go back and I want to
go back a decade, if I can, from the 80s
to the 70s. This weekend, and I've literally been nowhere
for a month, haven't left the house, haven't had a drink,
haven't done anything for a month, but I'm very excited.
I'm heading down to Invercargill, Southland, my home province, and
(12:35):
what I was going to say, I was asked, but
that's not the truth. I demanded that I emcee the
reunion of the Southland rugby team's from 1970 to 1980.
And a few of the younger guys were guys I
played with, but most of them was when I was
at high school or secondary school. They were heroes of mine.
(12:56):
Ken Stewart, Lester Rutledge, Brian McKechnie, you name it, Stephen Pokeri.
Southland had a great record in the 70s, especially against
touring teams. So I'm really looking forward to that. 50
years on from the start of the NPC.
Speaker 6 (13:12):
It's amazing, isn't it? A lot of clubs are actually
celebrating over the next year or so. I think Kaitangata
are celebrating theirs. Maybe March next year, 150th, I think
it might be.
Speaker 5 (13:21):
150, 125. Riversdale's 125 next year. Looking forward to that one. Anyhow,
from the 80s to the 70s, up next, well, she's
a girl of the 2020s. Can I call her that?
Jane Smith. And she's all fired up. It's like Pat Benatar.
We might sneak Pat in there as well. MUSIC MUSIC
(14:15):
Jane Smith is a North Otago farmer, former winner of
the Balance Farm Environment Awards. Jane, what did you make
of my commentary to Winston that the two key issues
or two of the key issues out there in rural
New Zealand, one, Paris, and I reckon the rural community
is pretty split over that. And the other one is
pricing ag emissions. And everyone seems to be in agreement
(14:37):
with that. We don't want to do it.
Speaker 3 (14:39):
Good afternoon, Jamie.
Speaker 7 (14:39):
And firstly, Jamie, welcome back. I didn't know if you
were actually sick or whether you'd been kidnapped by the
Greens as part of their policy to cleanse the world
of white middle-aged men. But certainly pleased to hear you
back on the airwaves. But, yeah, I absolutely agree. And
it was really refreshing to hear Mark de la Tour
say from Open Country a couple of days ago in
(15:01):
terms of his reality or the reality around, you know,
they're playing in the same product, same markets, haven't been
swept up in the, you know, self-imposed righteousness of emissions
assumptions and subsequently punishing farmers for an issue that is
actually a non-issue if you look at it And I
(15:21):
guess Silver Fern Farms have, of course, been chasing the
methane apologist road for quite some time now, which is
such a shame because they do some excellent marketing, but
have certainly taken it a bridge too far. And if
we really look at this, we're simply adding costs onto
a product that's beyond the premium that people are willing
to pay for something that we've already got balanced out.
(15:43):
And the reality is that we haven't actually managed bothered
as a country to genuinely market the other attractive aspects
of our pastoral production, i.e. GE-free, our hills are producing
free-range protein where no plant-based diet would ever be able
to grow. So the real cost of staying in Paris
when everyone's just too scared to pull out of a
meaningless piece of paper, Jamie.
Speaker 5 (16:04):
But what are the consequences of the Paris Agreement, Accord,
whatever you want to call it? Because As Winston pointed out,
food was meant to be exempt. And if we don't
meet our emissions targets, what happens to us? Do we
just get a slap over the wrist with a wet
bus ticket?
Speaker 1 (16:25):
Exactly, Jamie.
Speaker 7 (16:25):
And again, adhering to a very expensive piece of paper.
And let's put some, you know, some figures around this,
you know, in terms of what we're trying to be
meeting in terms of net zero, agri zero, carbon zero,
hero zero, and the Paris peril is, you know, being
modelled to be over sort of anywhere between 200,000 billion
and a trillion dollars for our country if you if
you scope that right out for what Jamie and this
(16:48):
is the thing we should be putting that money into
infrastructure etc and and some of our real basics in
our country in terms of health care and water storage
and and education and I guess this is the thing
like Again, as a country, we need to actually be
focused on our attributes rather than a fallacy that we're
going to change anything in terms of the climate. That
(17:09):
is already changing and will always change in perpetuity. So
what can we do to actually be a more robust country?
And it's really interesting. We seem to be sort of self-sabotaging.
And I think the most embarrassing reality is we've done
all of this to ourselves. We've created our own hoops.
And there's something really confronting about not being able to
blame someone else for burdening our country with a disturbing
(17:32):
suite of self-imposed penalties that everybody knows will not make
one iota of difference to how the climate may change
over time. And so, again, and I agree with the
tradies that when they say that our reputation is essential
to our trade relationships, But this could have all been
put to bed when we can actually, you know, you
can say a high proportion of our country's emissions are
(17:54):
biogenic methane, but at the same time that can be
completely put to bed by explaining the methane cycle and
stable methane is not contributing to any additional warming.
Speaker 1 (18:05):
And that is it.
Speaker 7 (18:06):
So that is a massive cost.
Speaker 5 (18:08):
Absolutely agree with you. Ruminants aren't the problem. Man burning
fossil fuel is the problem. Hey, do you know what
keeps me up at night, other than influencer A, Jane Smith,
is the prospect of a centre-left government for farming and
for small business. I watched that Q & A rural
leaders debate and I thought, heaven help us if the centre-left,
(18:29):
and I'm talking about Joe Luxton who said nothing, Daniel
Ebb who frightened me, and Steve Abel who showed his
true colours. If that's what we're up against, last one
to leave, turn the lights out.
Speaker 7 (18:41):
I know, Jamie, and I thought I would have to be,
I did actually hesitate to watch that because I thought
I'd have to be heavily sedated before doing so. And,
you know, they really did dance around the key issues.
I would have said rural health care and freshwater ownership
with the iwi lining up to own the South Island,
if not all freshwater. You know, none of that was
put forward. But probably the most disturbing narrative I heard
(19:03):
was the opportunity cost party, and you just mentioned that.
And his vision for farming. So he did mention in
a Chloe Swarbrick type scenario that he would help us
transition from our current farming practices. And of course, he
wants farm values to fall between 10 and 15 percent.
(19:23):
because apparently we're all farming for capital gain, he said,
and certainly one way to decrease our rates, thank you, Daniel,
would be that. But his vision was sort of a
cross between Gloria Vale and the Jetsons, and he said
each farm would be farming less livestock, supporting two or
three or four families, and a sort of socialist utopia
where one family would be paid to plant native trees,
(19:46):
I'm not sure by who. One would be doing a
project on farm connected to education.
Speaker 3 (19:51):
Sounds lovely.
Speaker 7 (19:52):
And one might be doing some country calendar type of
version of farm work. And I'm not sure who he
thought was going to be paying taxes to keep our roads,
schools and hospitals going, let alone the universal beneficiary concept.
And I think these people tend to forget that a 1%
drop in GDP equals at least $ 500 million less tax collected.
(20:13):
And this is a scary thing.
Speaker 3 (20:15):
In terms of.
Speaker 7 (20:15):
Economic benefits, All of these things lead into this. So, yeah,
it was an interesting sort of entertaining but also equally
concerning Q & A. I will say about Steve Abel,
he's actually a reasonable, rational type of person.
Speaker 1 (20:32):
And I guess when you're surrounded.
Speaker 7 (20:34):
By sort of three or four crazy Green Party female
rainbow warriors, it is probably easier to look pretty rational.
Speaker 1 (20:40):
But he does actually... That did.
Speaker 7 (20:42):
Come across as very good, but certainly not a reason
to be putting the Greens into, yeah, and to be
there with top and their socialist utopia. Jamie, that would
absolutely keep, should keep every New Zealander awake at night.
Speaker 5 (20:55):
Bring back James Shaw, I say. Jane Smith, thanks for
your time today on The Country.
Speaker 1 (20:59):
Thanks, Jamie. Thanks, Jane.
Speaker 5 (21:01):
Yeah, very sensible Green was James. That's why they got
rid of him, I think. Some of your feedback coming in.
I reckon Winnie's losing it a little. Glimpses of sanity.
when he's not duly scolding you. Thank you, Texter. Here's
another one, Jamie. We move away from the Paris Agreement.
We're toast as a major exporter of dairy and meat products.
(21:22):
Our biggest companies, customers, demand we stay in. If not,
they can source products elsewhere. That's from Alpha New Plymouth.
Thanks for that, Alpha. Interesting, Mark Delatour's commentary yesterday would be,
Fly in the face of that one. Some more of
your feedback. Great to get some feedback about those magnificent
(21:45):
rugby teams, the Southland teams of the 1970s. I neglected,
I mentioned, I think, four players. Ash McGregor, my old
rugby coach and neighbour. He used to use his wool
shed to shear my sheep. He was an All Black,
as was Bob Barber. Six of them will be there
on Saturday night at the Ascot Park. and also there
(22:06):
are some bitter and twisted people here. This bloke will
be on the show tomorrow. Jamie, is it true you
feature in the Guinness Book of Records for the most
tackles missed in a season whilst playing for Southland B? No,
Jeremy Rooks, I do not. There was a bloke who
played on the wing for Southland B the same year
I did. He could run like the wind. Hello, Sean Bailey,
(22:27):
if you're listening. And he's in a very select group.
He was a worse tackler than me. Up next, we're
going to talk dairy beef. Let's talk a bit of
(22:51):
dairy now on the country. Jamie Cunningham is PGG Wrightson's
National Dairy Specialist. He's based in one of my favourite towns,
I think, in this country. Fielding, Jamie, where else do
you have the stockyards? Right smack in the middle of.
Speaker 1 (23:05):
Town, eh?
Speaker 3 (23:06):
Yeah, good afternoon, Jamie.
Speaker 4 (23:07):
Yes, there's plenty happening in New Year in Fielding on
a sale day, that's for sure. And it's quite an
iconic and unique setting for sale yards to be where
they are. There's no doubt about that.
Speaker 5 (23:19):
Now, my old mate Hamish Mackay, he loves nothing better
than getting down to the Fielding sale yards. It's a
Friday sale, isn't it, and having a cup of tea?
Speaker 4 (23:27):
Yeah, our major store sales on a Friday and then
we have prime sales on a Monday and then we
also have seasonal sales throughout the season on different days
of the week which are generally fairs and things like that.
Speaker 5 (23:42):
And if that's not enough, Fielding has a clock tower
as well. I want to talk to you today, Jamie,
putting on your dairy hat here, the rise and rise,
if you want to call it that, of dairy beef.
Is this going to get rid of our Bobby calf problem?
Speaker 4 (23:58):
Yeah, there's no doubt that dairy beef has, you know,
building momentum and come a long way. There's, you know,
farmers have looked at lots of different options around, you know,
putting some dairy beef in the mix over the last
few years. And it's been pleasing to see the numbers
of calves that have been read over the last couple
of years, but also the interest in dairy beef and calves,
(24:22):
from feeded calves this year, which we've seen read in
the spring. So it's definitely a step in the right direction.
Whether it's going to entirely fix our bobby car thing,
I'm unsure about that.
Speaker 5 (24:35):
Well, you've still got to get your replacements, obviously. Has
the sex semen helped out there? It must have.
Speaker 3 (24:42):
Yeah, it definitely has.
Speaker 4 (24:43):
And the AI companies and things have done a lot
of work in that dairy beef space and finding bulls
that are purpose-fit for the dairy space. but also give
a viable dairy beef calf for finishers and for people
to grow on and rear. So it's definitely helping. There's
(25:04):
no doubt about that.
Speaker 5 (25:05):
I want to get a plug in for the charity
that I'm lucky enough to be the ambassador for, the
IHC Calf and Rural Scheme. But before I do, I'm
going to give you a wee chance, Jamie Cunningham out
of Fielding, to give a plug for Deferable. Quite a
good play on words, that one.
Speaker 4 (25:21):
Yeah, deferrable is our serviceable phonics and an option that
we have– that we have within the company. It's a
big product now. It's been going for a number of years,
20-plus years, and gets repeat users year and year. The
great thing about it is people can buy their bulls
in the spring when cash flows a little tight and
(25:45):
not have to pay for them until they're finished with
the bulls. And generally speaking, it could be out as
four to six months down the track. So it's a
great way to... help farmers with spring cash flow, and
they can still get their bull teams that they need
and park them at a later payment date once they're
finished with the bull. So great product, repeat users year
(26:06):
and year, and we definitely get a lot of interest
in that, that's for sure.
Speaker 5 (26:10):
You guys at PGG Wrightson do a great job around
the IHC Cartham Rural Scheme, back since the days, or
back in the days, when pine tree meads kicked it
all off, which is over $ 40 years ago, and you've
raised over $ 40 million. I know the canvases have probably
been around the dairy farms and the cattle farms, the
(26:31):
beef farms, but it's not too late to donate.
Speaker 4 (26:35):
No, the I Exceed Carp Scheme is a fantastic charity,
and it's something that we've been involved with since day dot,
and the company's very proud of that. It's still heaps
of time for, you know, if you did want to
pledge a car, The only thing I'd say with the
guys around that is.
Speaker 3 (26:53):
Pledging a good quality calf.
Speaker 4 (26:55):
That's well marked, rear it well, and it's a fantastic
charity to donate towards. It's changed a lot in the
last few years because now there's an option to donate
a virtual calf. if you don't have the ability or
don't want to rear any extras, then the virtual calf
is a great way to donate to a fantastic charity
(27:17):
as well.
Speaker 3 (27:17):
Yep.
Speaker 5 (27:17):
Come on, farmers, you can just carry one more calf
over the spring, summer and autumn and it's for a
great cause. Hey, Jamie Cunningham out of PGG Wrightson, out
of Fielding, one of my favourite towns in the country.
Thanks for your time.
Speaker 4 (27:32):
Thanks very much. Have a good day.
Speaker 3 (27:34):
I will.
Speaker 5 (27:34):
Thank you very much, Jamie. 22 away from one year
with the country, brought to you by Isuzu. Have I
got a deal for you? More about that later. Chris
Russell's coming up, our Aussie correspondent as well. Some of
your feedback. We don't need Winston anymore, Jamie. Time he retired. Cheers, Tony. Well,
compared to other 80-year-old politicians around the world, namely one
(27:56):
in Washington, I think Winston's doing OK. And, Jamie, please
stop referring to James Shaw as a sane green. The
man is heavily involved in the Nuts Opportunity Party. What
James says and what he thinks are two different things. Well,
as nutty as the Opportunity Party might be, they're not
(28:16):
as nutty as the Greens. I go back to the
days of Rod Donald, believe it or not, on this show.
Always enjoyed him, and same with James Shaw. Always found
him to be pretty up front. Anyhow, up next, Rural
News with Michelle and Sport. Michelle, with the music today,
(28:40):
you can't get much more 80s than Rick Astley. Let's
see what she's got for rural news.
Speaker 3 (28:46):
The country's rural news with Cub Cadet. It's one thing
to talk innovation, another to back it up.
Speaker 1 (28:52):
Drive it. We dare you.
Speaker 8 (28:53):
Visit steelfort.co.nz for your local stockist.
Speaker 6 (28:58):
And New Zealand's forestry sector could be underutilising a vital superpower.
New research shows the forestry sector is worth $ 5. 4 billion
and is one of the biggest contributors among land-based industries
in some regions. The Institute of Economic Research finds a 10%
drop in output in Tairawhiti would cut household spending by 1.4%
and exports by 4.4%. And that's rural news. You have
(29:21):
sport there, Jamie.
Speaker 5 (29:22):
Absolutely agree with you. Very important. Our fourth biggest industry
behind dairy, red meat... And horticulture. Horticulture is a group, yeah. Actually,
kiwifruit's getting up with forestry, but very important. It's just
the carbon farming.
Speaker 1 (29:34):
I don't know.
Speaker 5 (29:35):
I don't like his sport.
Speaker 8 (29:37):
Sport on the Country with AFCO.
Speaker 3 (29:40):
Business well done.
Speaker 5 (29:42):
Former PGA golfer Marcus Wheelhouse. Isn't he Foxy's coach? I
think he might be. Thinks Live Golf has achieved its
goal of being a disruptor and should be thanked for
increasing player power and prize money globally. And All Black's
short-term set-piece struggles against the Springboks make for long-term World
Cup lessons in the eyes of scrum guru Mike Cron.
(30:05):
Looking forward to that all-black team being named. Up next,
our Aussie correspondent, Chris Russell. Well, I've missed this bloke
on the country. Haven't chatted to him for a month.
(30:26):
Chris Russell, our Aussie correspondent, our longest... standing correspondent here
on the show. I've been on my deathbed, well, not
quite deathbed, Chris, but I've been crook with influenza A.
So let's segue from my flu to the bird flu,
which is a much bigger problem.
Speaker 3 (30:42):
Yes, well, it is a big problem.
Speaker 8 (30:44):
And now, of course, as I told Hamish last week,
it's now spread to urban foxes. So, you know, one
in Adelaide so far and one in Melbourne. And, of course,
it's brought up one of the issues here in Australia
that foxes in metropolitan areas are three times higher than
they are in urban areas. So it's about 1.7 million
(31:07):
foxes estimated to be in Australia. And some of the
parts of Melbourne have as many as 16 to 20
foxes per square kilometre running around.
Speaker 3 (31:18):
So, of course, now that they're not really worried about.
Speaker 8 (31:21):
The foxes transmitting the disease to humans or anything like that,
but they are saying that because they scavenge and move
around and get into backyard chooks and all that sort
of thing, that they could aid in the spread of
the bird flu through the backyards of all these urban areas.
(31:42):
And we really need to think about how we're going
to start controlling and culling these animals.
Speaker 3 (31:46):
They're like cats.
Speaker 8 (31:47):
Walking along the top of fences and running around, and
they find much more nutrition in the garbage bins of
the big cities than they do running around the bush.
Speaker 3 (31:56):
Looking for rabbits.
Speaker 5 (31:57):
Chris, are you allowed to shoot them?
Speaker 3 (31:59):
Yeah, you're allowed to, definitely allowed to shoot them.
Speaker 8 (32:01):
In fact, there's a bounty on them in many areas
where you can actually take in their scalp and down
the back, including the tail, and you can get a
bounty for that. You can't use guns in metropolitan areas.
Speaker 5 (32:14):
Yeah, I guess that's the issue. You can't go being
Rambo in the middle of Melbourne. Talking about culling pests,
kangaroo and dingo management has been taken over by the
Woke Brigade. and farmers are being overwhelmed by red tape.
Speaker 8 (32:29):
Yes, well, this is really annoying people because once upon
a time, you know, farmers could manage their kangaroo populations
and they used to apply to the New South Wales.
Speaker 3 (32:40):
National Parks and Wildlife.
Speaker 8 (32:42):
But now that's been changed to being looked after Penny
Sharp's Department of Climate Change, Energy and the Environment and Water.
Speaker 3 (32:50):
And all of a sudden, all the sort.
Speaker 8 (32:53):
Of urban latte-drinking woke people are making decisions about this.
Speaker 3 (32:57):
And, of course, they all.
Speaker 8 (32:58):
think that kangaroos and our national symbols shouldn't be culled
at all, when in fact they haven't taken any notice
of the fact that millions of them die in the
droughts in terrible circumstances. No support given to kangaroos to
survive the drought, and yet farmers who are facing overpopulation,
damaging crops, damaging fences, they have to now send in
(33:19):
evidence of that damage, including photos and videos and so on,
and invoices for damage repair. They have to Provide evidence
of non-lethal attempts at kangaroo management, which have been tried
and proved to have failed. And of course, the much
more sensible option is to actually allow professional hunters who
(33:40):
are trained to do this to actually turn it into
a business and keep these animals under control. A, so
they are not overpopulated in times of drought. and B,
so that they can make sure these are humanely killed
rather than left to die from lack of salvation. The
whole thing is just a shambles shrouded in sort of
(34:02):
woke idealism about our national symbol.
Speaker 3 (34:05):
I fear, Jamie.
Speaker 5 (34:07):
Don't start me on woke idealism. I could talk about
your Prime Minister, Alba, but I won't. I haven't got time.
I want to talk about because we've had record prices
here in New Zealand this season for our bulls, for
our beef bulls. You've sold one for nearly half a
million dollars. I'm assuming it's a beef bull.
Speaker 8 (34:24):
Yeah, it is a beef bull, and it's a Miller
Murrah Angus beef bull, $ 430, 000, which is a hell of
a lot of money for a.
Speaker 3 (34:33):
Bull called Miller Murrah Wyatt W50.
Speaker 8 (34:39):
And 834 kilograms, 19 months old, 44 centimeter scrotal circumference,
if you're interested in that.
Speaker 3 (34:47):
Amazing.
Speaker 8 (34:47):
Bull bought down to spend that sort of money on
a bull, it's a heck of a lot of money.
And it surpassed the previous record for any sort of
bull or female sold for $ 400, 000 in 2022. And, you know,
they're saying this is a magnificent animal. And it just
shows you the faith people have, particularly in black animals,
(35:11):
Angus or Wagyu. And they had an amazing sale this
year of Angus's up their annual sale, averaging $ 48, 000. So
it's been a good year for bulls. And this is
an amazing animal. I'm sure it's going to produce some
amazing steers in its time.
Speaker 5 (35:29):
OK, Chris Russell, I'm out of time. I haven't even
got time to talk about the LA Rams and the
San Francisco 49ers who have made their way to Melbourne.
We might touch on that one next week for a
bit of NFL. Of course, we've got NRL to worry
about in this country, and I know that our Warriors
are up against your Dolphins, so look forward to a
bit of trans-Tasman rivalry this weekend. We'll see you next week.
Speaker 3 (35:52):
No worries, Jamie.
Speaker 5 (35:54):
Look forward to it, Chris. Lest we forget, Jamie writes
a text to Winston as the man who gave us
Jacinda due to his longstanding beef with National and Bill English.
Thank you, Tony. That's a fair cop. That is a
fair cop. Up next, we're heading down to Southland where
I'm going this weekend for the 70s rugby reunion. We
(36:19):
are off to God's own farming province, Southland. There we
find Matt Gray. He's the local Isuzu guy down there. Hey, Matt,
you've got a really interesting backstory for a young bloke,
born and bred Southlander, but you've travelled a long road
to get back down to Southland. Tell me a wee
bit about your background, because this is fascinating.
Speaker 3 (36:41):
I have, I have.
Speaker 2 (36:43):
I left high school, got a jib-stopping trade behind me
in Queenstown, Spent five or six.
Speaker 3 (36:49):
Years there working and then went over to.
Speaker 2 (36:52):
Otago University, did a commerce degree in tourism and then
a master's in entrepreneurship.
Speaker 3 (36:59):
And then part of that, or at the end of that, while.
Speaker 2 (37:01):
I was doing my thesis, I went up to Auckland
and did a living internship with the Venn Foundation, which
is a sort of a public policy think tank with
a bit of a Christian perspective. And then From that,
part of that was a work experience. I ended up
doing mine with Tupuanga Coffee in Auckland, which is a
Tongan coffee company, a bit of a social enterprise where
(37:24):
they sell the roasted bean in Auckland that they've brought
off the factory in Tonga, and then the money raised
from that funds a youth mentoring program in South Auckland
for Pacific youth. So really enjoyed that, but wanted to
get more into the sales side of things, so I
left there and went door-knocking for charities around the North
Island for a year, which was an eye-opening experience and
(37:48):
gave me some great first-hand sales experience. And then after that,
I started at Honda in Newmarket in Auckland in the
used car department, cut my teeth there, and then, yeah,
came back down to Southlands and took up the role
at Southland Vehicle Sales.
Speaker 5 (38:05):
Gee, you've squeezed a lot into a few years. Well done. Hey, Matt,
you've found your way back down to Southland. As I said,
you were born and bred Southlander like myself. You're now
selling Isuzu's, the D-Max's and the MUX's at Southland Vehicle Sales.
Do you like that?
Speaker 3 (38:21):
Oh, absolutely. I love it.
Speaker 2 (38:24):
I find it very easy to sell a product when I.
Speaker 3 (38:27):
Believe in the product.
Speaker 2 (38:28):
And Isuzu has shown me time and time again they're
a great, reliable truck, built well, built to work and
do the job that they were designed for. And, yeah,
just I really enjoy the culture and the people we
get to meet.
Speaker 3 (38:43):
And, yeah.
Speaker 5 (38:44):
We talked about this one on yesterday's show. You can
now get a D-Max. This is a promotional offer out
on the market at the moment for under $ 56, 000. You
get with that a six-year warranty. You've got a three-litre
turbo diesel. They do go like a cut cat because
they're the same motor as the MUX. And, of course,
you've got a three-and-a-half-tonne towing capacity.
Speaker 2 (39:06):
Yeah, that's absolutely correct. It's a great deal. There's a
few more savings going up the chain as well in
the model range. So, yeah, it's been really good and
very popular.
Speaker 5 (39:17):
Matt Gray out of Southland Vehicle Sales down there in Southland. Hey,
thanks for giving us some of your time today. What
a great story you've got. Go in and see your
local Isuzu dealer around the country for a great deal.
Speaker 4 (39:28):
Thanks, Jack.
Speaker 1 (39:30):
Appreciate it.
Speaker 5 (39:31):
Good on you, Matt. That is a good story, isn't it? Okay,
under $ 56, 000 you can get a brand new D-Max from Isuzu. Well,
that wraps the show for today. I'm not sure who's
on tomorrow yet. I might have a 70s theme, I think,
for the rugby reunion of the Decade of players who
played for Southland from 1970 to 1980. Catch you back tomorrow.
Popular Podcasts
Stuff You Should Know
If you've ever wanted to know about champagne, satanism, the Stonewall Uprising, chaos theory, LSD, El Nino, true crime and Rosa Parks, then look no further. Josh and Chuck have you covered.
Dateline NBC
Current and classic episodes, featuring compelling true-crime mysteries, powerful documentaries and in-depth investigations. Follow now to get the latest episodes of Dateline NBC completely free, or subscribe to Dateline Premium for ad-free listening and exclusive bonus content: DatelinePremium.com
The Joe Rogan Experience
The official podcast of comedian Joe Rogan.