July 15, 2024 • 38 mins
Jamie Mackay talks to John McOviney, Dr Jacqueline Rowarth, Jim Hopkins, Grant McCallum and Jeremy Rookes.
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
Catch all the latest from the land. It's the Country
Podcast with Jamie McKay Thanks to Brent You're specialist in
John Deere construction equipment.
Speaker 2 (00:16):
Labor is How big Nom the Man?
Speaker 3 (00:19):
Social credit is?
Speaker 4 (00:20):
How big Non Green?
Speaker 1 (00:24):
How Beignmed the hero com.
Speaker 5 (00:30):
He no get a New Zealand This is the Country.
I'm Jamie McKay. That song was written about the late
Norman Kirk. I was taken aback this morning when I
found about found out about my old mate Norm Hewitt
passing away at the age of fifty five, the tender
age of fifty five, from motor neuron disease. The song
(00:55):
could have easily been written about him. MC norm larger
than life character, as I recall it, he burst onto
the scene for a very good Hawks bay side against
the nineteen ninety three lines. He went on to play
twenty three games for the All Blacks over about six seasons.
(01:15):
Of his twenty three games, only nine were tests. Basically
he had to sit on the bench all the time
for Sean Fitzpatrick, who played ninety two tests ten times
as many. Norm did get through three hundred or nearly
three hundred first class games over his thirteen years as
I said, most of it spent as an understudy for
Fitzie and the All Blacks. Of course, we'll all remember
(01:37):
the famous Harker stand off with Richard Cockrel, who was
well named was and he what a little cock rooster
he was in nineteen ninety seven in Manchester. Of course.
Then there was Dancing with the Stars in two thousand
and five with Norm's perfect Pasadobla, who's a very good athlete,
very coordinated. My connection with Norm Hewitt came in the
(01:59):
midnight when I was found on Southland. He played twenty
two games for the Stags, or they were called Southland
in those days from ninety ninety five to ninety seven.
Their Material Licensing Trust brought him down to play for Southland.
Back in those days we used to buy a footy team.
Now we're breeding one. The then chief executive, John Wyth,
(02:21):
hello John, if you're listening perchance, asked me to be
Norm's minder while he was living in Gore, where I
was living at the time. And it'd be fair to
say I failed miserably, especially well, not especially only when
Norm was drinking Norman drinking or a bit of a
lethal cocktail. We all found that out but sober, you
(02:42):
wouldn't meet a nicer man, were a kinder, more generous
man than Norm Hewitt. He figured out his drinking issues
and ended up dealing with them. My last memory of
Norm Hewitt was catching up with them a few years
ago at field Days and I, foolish forgetting he wasn't drinking,
said we'll go and have a bear after I finished
(03:03):
the show. He said no, no, we'll just have a
coffee and we did. And that's the last time I
saw Norm Hewitt. A man who really reinvented himself, who's
a magnificent rugby player. Very unfortunate, as I said with
Sean Fitzpatrick, there these days he would have played seventy
or eighty tests. Rest in peace, Norm Hewitt. Okay. On
(03:29):
the show today, we're going to talk to a bloke
who's not only a farmer, but he's also a retailer.
His name is John McAvennie runs a large scale sheep
and beef property. White's Homo also runs steel Fort. He's
just come back from China. We'll get his take on
(03:49):
the Chinese economy. Dr Jack willn raw with Jim Hopkins
to lighten things up a bit on a sad day
and we really might lighten things up with you with
our I'm calling them. My former farmer panel Grant McCullum,
MP for Northland. He sent me a text yesterday he said,
have you forgotten all about me? Why am I never
on your show? I said, well, basically I've forgotten all
(04:11):
about you. So I'm going to bring him back today.
And Jeremy Rook's former farmer these days Lifestyler just outside
of Christchurch, so we'll try and bring you some chair
on a very very sad day. Mister Norman, Norman's king
(04:36):
of He's a Whitomo's sheep and beef farmer we keep
an eye on. He's also a retailer, the chief executive
of Steelfort. Both tough gigs at the moment, farming and
retail John McAvennie, which is the hardest at the moment.
Speaker 6 (04:58):
They're both pretty much the same. I would suggest the
lamb prices are pretty doer, and you know, I just
I'm not too sure when they were coming up. But
it irks me when I go into the supermarket and
still see legs of lamb sitting in there for thirty
bucks thirty five dollars a leg you know, and you know,
it's just a shame that it's so depressed at the
(05:22):
moment because we've got such a great product.
Speaker 5 (05:24):
Well, I reckon the meat companies or the supermarkets or both.
I don't know how they work. This need to start
specialing lamb again like they did at Christmas time when
it was nine or ten dollars a kilo. Admittedly a
lost leader, John, but it's given Kiwi families the chance
to sample lamb at a reasonable and affordable price. Because
the farmers aren't getting rich on it at the moment.
(05:47):
Someone in the middle is no.
Speaker 6 (05:50):
Well, we've told most of our stall I mean, we
don't fit in anything. We most sold most of our
store lambs around sort of nineteen ninety two ninety three dollars,
so we did pretty well apparently, you know, compared to
somewhere around them, and a lot of them have been
around eighty bucks. But you know, when you look at
the you know, once you get that product, as you
suggested there, once you get the product and people sample
(06:10):
the product, they'll come back because it's such a great product.
A league of Lamb is fantastic, and you know, you
get those Midlain chops and things like that. You know,
they're a magnificent product there. I'm very keen to see
the meat companies do that sort of thing.
Speaker 5 (06:24):
Now, are you going to have to head over because
you live on the eighth fairway at Mount Monganoi. I'm
so jealous of your location there at the golf course.
I'm talking about John, But are you going to have
to go over to your White Tomo sheep and beef
farm and do some hard yards? Namely because your manager,
a guy by the name of Brent Gowlers, got two
daughters rowing in the Paris Olympics.
Speaker 6 (06:44):
Yeah, well he's away on the twenty third, I think
it is. So we're flat out at the moment getting
we've shared, we've completed sharing, we've drafted everything up in
terms of inoculating, and they're spreading everything this week. So
we hope to have you know, about six thousand years
plus the two year seventy thing will be spread by
the end of this week, ready for lamming. We've got
(07:06):
fertilizers going on this week and Brent's going away I
think on the twenty third, and he's got both Carrie
or she's Kirie Williams and she was Kirie Gower and Jackie,
the youngest daughter in the Coxlers four. So it'll be
very very interesting to see how those two girls go
(07:27):
because they are pretty committed and Brent's going over there
for the ten days from the twenty third, I think
till about the sixth and seventh of August, so it'll
be very interesting to see how they's got. The Olympics
will be a great event to watch, and that's something
of it for us, you know, in our family, knowing
those girls, to really focus in on them and.
Speaker 7 (07:47):
See how they go.
Speaker 5 (07:48):
We'll go the Gala girls. Now I caught up with
you at the test here in Dunedin, John McAvennie, you'd
not recently been long back from China. You buy all
your products for Steelford effectively now out of China. What's
your take on their economy?
Speaker 6 (08:05):
Well, I mean I absolutely enjoyed it over there, honest.
I don't know whether I was saying to you previously.
Speaker 7 (08:12):
But I really enjoyed.
Speaker 6 (08:13):
It over there, because you know, China is, as I
say once before, you know, there's no I didn't see
it pothole anywhere. I didn't see any graffiti. This bugger
all crime and and I think they do a lot
of things very well. I know it's a communist regime
and you know it's a long way before you try
and get to that situation. But I didn't notice any downturn.
(08:34):
I mean, there's there's still a hell of a lot
of tower cranes in the sky, and you know, there
was one and a half billion people over there, so
you know, people eat, and you know, I still still
believe that economy is still going pretty good.
Speaker 7 (08:46):
If we had six to seven.
Speaker 6 (08:47):
Percent growth here, we'd be absolutely rapped. And I think
that's about what they've got over there.
Speaker 5 (08:52):
John mcavinnie, you told me also while we were having
a bear at the test in Dunedin here that you're
the same age is Trump. And if you don't mind
me saying so, and please take this as a compliment,
you're a bit like Trump. You know, you're not a
spring chicken anymore, but you seem to have boundless energy.
Does the idea of retirement not resonate with.
Speaker 6 (09:13):
You, Jamie, It's not something that's in my vocabulary. And
when you look at old Trump, you got that he
got that bullet through's ear. Yesterday's immediate reaction he put
his fist in the air, and shook it three times
and said, I'm here to fight. I don't there's a
lot of things about Donald Trump that I would not
like to have in my personality, but he's certainly a fighter.
(09:36):
And yeah, I mean, you know, I'm seventy eight this year,
so I'm getting to He and I very similar in age.
But I enjoy what I'm doing, and I enjoy getting
involved in the farm. In fact, I've got a couple
of grandsons over there this morning and they're helping in
the ads and working. So you know, I'm ten to
get over there. So I'll probably go over there on
Wednesday tomorrow.
Speaker 5 (09:55):
I might bundle Winston Peters into this as well. Get
the trifecta, all about the same age, all seemed to
have boundless energy. Once again, join a compliment.
Speaker 6 (10:06):
Thank you, Jamie. Ye appreciate that. Yeah, I know we're
all sort of similar age. But there's a lot of
people I guess I would imagine that, you know, in
the sort of mid late seventies that are still pretty
active in the working force, and I don't think it
does us. You only any.
Speaker 5 (10:19):
Ham, Hey, good on your John mcavinny. Always good to
catch up here. Keep up the good work. You're going
to have to do some on your sheep farm while
Brent Gowl is away at the Olympics. And remember, if
you're after a really good power to get those battery
powered lawn master and steel forught products, especially that we
hand chainsaw. It's a ripper. John, thanks for your time.
Speaker 8 (10:39):
Yeah, thanks, Jamie.
Speaker 3 (10:40):
Good to door.
Speaker 5 (10:43):
Twenty after twelve. John mcavinnie playing Norm songs today. This
is Spirit in the Sky by Norm Green Balm, Greenbalm.
I think how you pronounce his name? What one hit
wonder from the sixties or was it seventies? Anyhow, for
Norm Hewitt passed away. I didn't even know Norm had
motor neuron disease. Fifty five passed away. Yesterday. I got
(11:07):
a text in from a regular text here to the
country Muzz in hawks Bay. He says, shit, Jamie, Muzz's words,
not mine. Before you complain about the language, folks. Norm
dead at fifty five, I'm bloody fifty four. That's scary.
I used to play against him when he was at
Tiati College, which is one of the great rugby schools.
(11:29):
I'm assuming it still is. I'm assuming it's still going
one of the great rugby schools in Hawk's Bay, and
I know from my conversations to Norm over the years
that he was a bit of a beast, be fair
to say, at high school, but of a manchild to
be perfectly honest. I think he was in the Hawks
Bay rugby team literally straight out of school, and I
(11:50):
still remember him just storming through the British Lions for
Hawks Bay and a nineteen ninety three. Up next on
the Country, Doctor Jacqueline Rowath before the end of the
Jim Hopkins and a former farmer panel Grant McCullum, MP
for Northland, and Jeremy Rocks. How do you describe Jeremy?
(12:10):
We'll ponder that, friend. The best conversations, unfortunately they have
on this show are often during the commercial break. So
I wish i'd recorded that and just played it to
(12:32):
Dr Jacqueline Rawth, because you and I, in the space
of about two and a half minutes, had solved all
the problems of the world, and we both agreed that
the world's a dodgy place at the moment. It's probably
always been a dodgy place. After all, we've had a
couple of world wars and all sorts of other events happening.
But we're lucky here in New Zealand, and sometimes we
just need to sit back and remind ourselves of it.
Speaker 3 (12:56):
We are extremely fortunate, and when we look at the
well reports, actually we can see that most people know that,
and then they get quickly about things around the edges.
But most people know that they have a very good
life in New Zealand. And part of it is that
we don't get people like our prime ministers assassinated or
attempted to assassinate them. It is because there are food
(13:18):
security networks so that people don't have to be food poor.
But we I do agree that that needs some fine tuning,
but it's also sorting out all the things to do
with our economy, and that is happening.
Speaker 5 (13:33):
Hey, just before we get onto what's in your excellent
Fortnightly column, doctor Jaquelin Rowth, I've been reading an excellent
piece in The Listener. I know that some people would
say the Listener's gone a wee bit woken, is a
bit left leaning, but they're political guys. Written a two
part piece on the nineteen eighty four election, basically the
Snaps election, and he does sort of a political history
(13:57):
of how New Zealand got to that point where doing
it almost bankrupted and what bankrupted us and why neoliberalism
under Roger Douglass sort of took place. But one of
the really interesting stats I picked out, did you realize
that we used to be literally a full employment economy.
This reached a high point in March of nineteen fifty six,
(14:20):
Wait for this, Jacqueline, when only five people in the
entire nation received the unemployment benefit. Can you believe that?
Speaker 4 (14:29):
Well?
Speaker 3 (14:29):
I guess that the standards for receiving it were somewhat different,
But nineteen fifty six a great year was probably you know,
the sheep boom and all of those sorts of things,
so that there were more people in agriculture and people
don't want to work. Well.
Speaker 5 (14:44):
But my point is we look at the nineteen fifties,
the Korean wall boom, and we look also at the sixties,
you know, the milk and honey period under Kiwi, Keith Holyoaken.
It would appear to me that back then, even though
we were incredibly boring country in which to live Jacqueline,
I was only a week could but the difference between
the haves and have nots was far more narrow than
(15:06):
it is today.
Speaker 3 (15:07):
Yes, that much is absolutely true, but the increases have
been in the super wealthy rather than the bottom end,
and there is research on it, and the Genie coefficient
has tracked that over the years, a name for a
particular tracker. So we are no more diverse than most
EU type countries. I should then say the mold developed
(15:30):
ones of them, and certainly not my home country of
the UK. Where are the worst things? They tend to
be in South America. So it's the super rich that
have got super rich rather than the bottom getting poorer
according to the Genie coefficient.
Speaker 5 (15:47):
Now, while I'm on the case of really good stats
and we're getting way off topic here, but this is
an interesting chat. Gwin Dyah write's an excellent column and
the Otago Daily Times syndicated his column. I think worldwide
is making the point that there have been forty five
American presidents. Four have been assassinated, three have been wounded
(16:07):
by assassin's bullets, and a couple of others have missed.
So he's saying seven out of forty five American presidents
have either been killed or wounded by gunfire. And he
said you wouldn't get that stat anywhere else in the world,
not even in the most despotic if that's the quite
the word I'm looking for South American countries.
Speaker 3 (16:30):
It is staggering, and it does make rue Wando whether
sensible people are avoiding.
Speaker 5 (16:36):
The role anyhow. Okay, right, I better get back on track.
You've written a column about the government's new climate strategy,
and I'm going to throw this one at you again,
because we're all talking about how to fix climate change.
Do we fix it, do we mitigate or do we
just adapt jacqueline of sea levels arising? Do we build
(16:57):
just bigger sea walls?
Speaker 3 (17:00):
Would never just build bigger at sea walls because then
we get to one and one hundred year events within
five years, that sort of thing. But certainly I think
it's both the mitigation and the adaptation must be hand
in hand, and we can certainly do things like I
think that's a vulnerable area, we shouldn't build a house
on it and a lot of people. And actually we
can go back to some of the Mari mythology about
(17:21):
where you should or shouldn't build, and the answers really
don't build if the Tanafi is going to get cross
and then one delves into the Taniphi and it turns
out to be the flood mechanism. So can we avoid
things absolutely, But we must always remember that being resilient,
being adaptable takes energy because it means in plants, for instance,
(17:45):
they have to support more genes than they would need
if they were just for a specific environment. And it's
the same for people. The more adaptation that you are expecting,
the more resilience that you are expecting from them, the
more energy takes. And in humans that energy also means
time and dollars. So we need to find this very
(18:06):
careful balance, which is sort of what the column touches
on in thinking about all the unintended consequences of well,
any well meaning group making a statement, which is why
there is this Climate Change Chief Executives Board. Fascinating.
Speaker 5 (18:24):
Well, come out of time, and I've been way off
topic the whole interview, So I change the habit of
a lifetime. One more to throw at you. And I'm
not detracting from your excellent column at all, Jacqueline. But
Peter Alexander, well known christ Church farm accountant, talking about
climate migration, and he's talking about four billion people in
Africa by the end of this century. It's going to
(18:45):
get too hot for them to live in the Middle
but they're going to migrate to the northern hemisphere, most
probably to Europe. What an issue we face.
Speaker 3 (18:54):
Absolutely huge. So we have to sort out all the
food production through Russia, Ukraine, all that sort of areas.
Remembering that their average week yield is three and a
half tons and ours is more like eight or ten,
depending whether you're talking feed wee to or human heat
human eating wheat. And it means that we have to
concentrate very much as we are doing in New Zealand
(19:15):
on efficient food production. Absolutely we are vital.
Speaker 5 (19:20):
And on that note, I'm going to wrap this because
I'm over time. I've really enjoyed ayan. I've got completely
off topic, but I've really enjoyed it. I don't know
if you have, but I have. Hey, Jacqueline, always good
to chat. See you lovely. Bye, Thank you, Jacqueline. It
is twenty eight and a half away from one, just
(19:42):
getting myself organized, and here we're trying to figure out
what song Norm did the Paso Doble too when he
won Dancing with the Stars in two thousand and five.
If you can tell us, give us a give us
a text please on five double O nine up next.
Michelle wat feverishly working on what song Norm did the
(20:03):
passadoble too? No answers yet, we will play it if
we can find that. We'll have a look at Rural
News and also Sports News Warriors Captain Toho Harris. Toho
Harris out for the rest of the season. We'll update
that one for you after the break all day long.
(20:27):
Please Norm, baby, won't you leave me?
Speaker 2 (20:29):
Musle the Countries and Jeopardy the Landers.
Speaker 5 (20:36):
Welcome back to the Country, brought to you by Brand
twenty five away from One. Looking forward to my former
farmer panel Grant McCallum, Northland MP Jeremy Rooks. I don't
know how to describe him. He's already fired the opening
shot at me if he want, He said you twat
sea levels are not rising. I think I feel like
(20:59):
an argument with Jeremy today. I think I'll have one.
But before I can do that, We've got to chat
to Jim Hopkins. In here the latest and rural news
from Michelle Watt.
Speaker 1 (21:08):
The country's world news with Coup Cadet, New Zealand's leading
right on lawn Bower Brand visit Steel for dot Co
dot NZ for your local stockist.
Speaker 5 (21:17):
Actually talking about arguments, Michelle. Sorry to interrupt your dynamic
news read of rural news. I hope it's better than
yesterday's really boring story you came up with. I need
to get Damien O'Connor back. He's good for ratings.
Speaker 2 (21:31):
Yeah, I think I don't make the news, Jamie. I
just want to point that out. And the offerings were slightly.
Speaker 5 (21:37):
Slim, righty. What do you got for us today?
Speaker 2 (21:41):
Agg Recovery, New Zealand's accredited product stewardship scheme operator for
Farm Plastics, has announced the launch of its latest initiative,
the recycling of wolffagers. Under the new scheme end of
Life HDPE, wolf fatgers will be collected, sorted and sent
to Recycle South's processing plant in Southland for recycling into
high quality plastic palets for resale. The new industry specific
(22:04):
scheme streamlines the recycling process, enhancing the life cycle of
these products within the circular economy and draws momentum from
the New Zealand will dumping groups demand for used and
repaired warpacks.
Speaker 5 (22:15):
Oh that's a starting story. Actually, in the old days.
This is the old days when DAGs were worth something.
That's what we did with their old wolfatgers. We put
DAGs in them and took them off and hocked the
DAGs off for cash. Ah, the days of getting cash,
defeating the defeating the taxation system. They're well and truly gone.
At one stage DAGs I can remember selling DAGs for
(22:37):
about sixty cents a kilo. Wow, which is a fortune.
They're worth nothing now, absolutely nothing. All they're any good
for nails putting around your young native trees when you
plant them. So there you go, useless trivia. The shows
Full of It.
Speaker 1 (22:51):
Sport with a FCO. Visit them online at FCO dot
co dot enzed.
Speaker 5 (22:56):
Yeah, and as we kicked off the show. Former All
Blacks hoker Norm Hewitt died age fifty five. He had
motor neuron disease. He played only nine tests for New
Zealand fourteen games and another fourteen for the All Blacks
between ninety three and ninety eight twenty three all up.
As I said earlier, if he was an All Black
these days, Norm would have had seventy or eighty tests.
(23:18):
Rest in peace, Norm an uncomfortable review session for one
half of the All Black squad and I'm assuming that's
the half that played against England, a shaky lineout that
saw just three or that saw three lost against the
throw and the second Test against England has been scrutinized
in San Diego. Maybe they mean the forward pack there.
(23:41):
As the side prepares to play Fiji on Saturday afternoon
two thirty, are we excited about that? I'm not sure.
Bad news for the Warriors. Tohu Harris is out for
the rest of the NRL season after going undergoing surgery
on a chronic wrist injury. The Lockford has been carrying
the injury for months, forcing a four week break in May,
(24:03):
and he will be missed. He's a great player. Up next,
it is Jim Hopkins, going to lighten things up a
even on a sad sad day. Norman's King of New Zealand,
Land of lands, big fed lambs. He's a rural raconteur
(24:31):
here on the country. He's also Hawai Taki District counselor
are you the JD Vance Jim Hopkins of the Waheitechi
District Council? Have you got aspirations for higher office?
Speaker 7 (24:44):
I's for higher arts all my life. I've fit my
CVS to the Mexican I'm applying for the John's Pope.
I've missed out on that one and various others. I'm
not sure about dad Vans. I don't have a bed
and I'm not sure that I actually think Ukraim should
give any charritory Russia. I think Ukraine should give one
very very substantial middle finger to Russia. And the more
(25:05):
I hope we can give them to achieve that effectively,
the better in my humble opinion. That said, it'll be
interesting to see how jade Vans goes and how his
views on these matters are influenced by the wider American
public and establishment.
Speaker 5 (25:21):
I want to talk about the Young Farmer Grand Final
up and over the weekend in Hamilton and Young Well
he is young, he's only twenty three years of age,
George Dodson winning it. And what I found George, Yes,
well done George. And what I found fascinating was that
his dad, Fred was a finalist in the year two thousand,
representing Otago in South and that's when you would have
(25:43):
been in your heyday, Bdy. But wait, there's more. His
uncle Malcolm Dodson won at in nineteen eighty five. That's
pre you and I'm thinking And I said to George yesterday,
that's fifteen years between drinks between your father and your uncle.
And he said, yes, well, but there was seventeen years
between them. What a great family story.
Speaker 7 (26:03):
Absolutely well, kind of mean eighty five. I wasn't doing it,
but I'm pretty sure I kicked in around nineteen nineteen
ninety one. I know I did it for twenty one
years and I finished in the post twenty ten. There
were twenty twelve, twenty thirteen, twenty fourteen, something like that.
Fred would have been one of the finalists. And as
(26:24):
you say, two thousand and I was definitely doing them then, yes,
very much so, and enjoying them, may I say, and
building a huge respect in the process for New Zealand
farmers and farming.
Speaker 5 (26:33):
My favorite fact, and I've gone way off the track
with doctor Jacqueline Rawath Rowath, I'd better get it right
and I will with you as well. I love this.
This is my favorite stat of the day. In March
nineteen fifty six, there were only five people in the
entire nation received the unemployment benefit. My point being with
Jacquel owners we have changed. We were the land of
(26:54):
milk and honey under the whole. In the fifties we
had the Korean Wall boom and we had you know,
the Holy Oak years. Everyone had a job. Admittedly, as
I said to Jacqueline, we were living in a really
boring country, but the gap between haves and have nots
was much more narrower then than it is now.
Speaker 7 (27:11):
You're right about being a different country. You're also write
what you haven't taken into account. It was also a
different world. We had an extraordinarily comfortable and privileged relationship
with a very large and very powerful country and empire
dissolving but still very potent i e.
Speaker 8 (27:33):
The UK.
Speaker 7 (27:34):
They essentially colonized and died with a view to it
being a Britain's farm, and we had been and we
benefited from that relationship, and that guaranteed access to a
market for from eighteen forty onwards essentially, and that certainly
did contribute to full employment, as did things like Injedah,
(27:59):
remember the General I remember the famous mcpail engaged with
Joke who we got half a mind to work railways,
that's all you need. There were an awful lot of
people who were probably technically unemployed, but still officially working
in you know, in some of those protected and sheltered
state monopolies. Yes, things have changed, but then so has
(28:21):
the world. And the big massive change for us was
that you know, Britain, John and the scene essentially divorcing
us or no longer guaranteeing us access to their market.
We had to go alone. We had to reinvent ourselves,
if you like, as did an awful lot of farmers
(28:42):
in the nineteen eighties when Douglas pulled the pen on
those subsidies, an action that I think was long overdue
but astonishingly, agonizingly painful at the time.
Speaker 5 (28:52):
Have to wrap this. I've got one minute left, and
just segueing on from your comments about Douglas in the eighties,
I hope you read the Listener article reference with Jaqueline.
It's called New Dawn, the rise of Rogernomics and how
it continues to shape our lives. Neoliberalism as it was
back in those days. We needed it, but we didn't
need it as badly as what Roger gave it to us.
(29:14):
Is that how you say it?
Speaker 7 (29:15):
Well, no, I don't think. I think we didn't need
it as badly as that.
Speaker 8 (29:19):
I mean.
Speaker 7 (29:21):
The wage price freeze was Muldoon essentially becoming financially and
intellectually bankrupt, and he meant it to introduced it initially
for one year, rolled it over for a second. If
I was being a historian, I would say there was
an economic cycle that began with the election of the
Labor government in nineteen thirty five, with a whole series
(29:42):
of controls and protections and important managements and so on,
and ended in eighty four because it had to. It
had done its dash, it had run its course. The
world was no longer you know, that model was no
longer fit for purpose in the world we had, And
since then we had another economic model that I think
right now is being changed again. Not quite fifty years on,
(30:06):
but certainly I think that the Roger Douglas economic cycle
is now in the process of being reinvented, remanaged, recreated.
And when you think that our mages are thirty percent
lower than Australia's, if we cannot solve that issue very quickly,
we have got even bigger problems that we have at
(30:28):
the moment. And the thrust of the new government to
sort of actually get it back into industries that have
been sort of frowned on for decades now and my
view is inescapable and essential and it's all part of
the great cycle of Jamie, the great cycle of life.
Speaker 5 (30:48):
They might have to fade up some Elton John just
to finish this interview. In fact, I think I will
do that. Hey, Jim Hopkins, been good to see the fact.
Once again we're off topic, but I enjoy with the
see no.
Speaker 7 (31:01):
Go well mate, you talk.
Speaker 5 (31:13):
Bit of a slighter hand there. How good was that
finding that one so quickly it is? I'm going to
go with eleven away from one. You're with the Country,
brought to you by Brandt Up. Next a former farmer panel,
Grant McCullum, Northland MP and Jeremy Rook's climate change denial. Okay,
(32:01):
welcome back to the Country. Wrapping up with our former
farmer panel, That's what I'm calling them anyhow, Northland MP
Grant McCullum, former chow cocky I think he still keeps
his hand in on the weekends. And Jeremy Rook's hobby
farmer and professional insulter from Canterbury. Jeremy, what do you
mean the sea levels aren't rising?
Speaker 4 (32:23):
Well they're not, Jamie. You tell me where the sea
levels are rising, Can you tell me, like the Great
Barrier reachs still the same. The Statue of Liberty isn't
exactly the same spot at New York where it's always been.
Barack Obama's just bought a house in the Hampton's off
New York. So you tell me if the sea levels
are rising, well what about those?
Speaker 5 (32:44):
What about those specific nation islands that are going underwater?
Speaker 4 (32:48):
Well, they are built on they our sand, Jamie. The
thing is called tides and currents.
Speaker 8 (32:53):
The East Way.
Speaker 4 (32:53):
At the problem with you nutty lefties, But you've never got.
Speaker 5 (33:02):
Hey, Jeremy, just while we're on the subject of sand,
what's it like having your head buried in it?
Speaker 8 (33:08):
Yes, he's got buried in the snow where I'll.
Speaker 5 (33:11):
Tell you what. You'd have to take a big hole
to get that big sweet of yours into the sand.
Two rocks.
Speaker 4 (33:17):
Personal insults are always the domain of the defeat.
Speaker 5 (33:20):
Of Okay, Grant feel much more enlightened as climate change things.
Speaker 8 (33:28):
Of course it is, Jesus. I mean you just have
to look around in the world at the moment, go
and look at the ice mountain and guard. In all seriousness,
you know that is a general generally actually happening and maggium,
and that's not something we need to continue to see.
Look at the the increased number of weather events we're getting,
and then also look at that there there was an
(33:48):
interesting stats for you. The average winery and grave harvest
in France is taking two weeks shorter to achieve a
ripeness because global temperatures are rising. So these are a
few examples of Rooks seemed to take his head out
of the snow, so which is clearly done. So we
can have this interview. I suspect, you know, he's must
about trouble conesay, when I presume at the moment working
(34:10):
hard as usual, and.
Speaker 4 (34:12):
I was a gob center know how last week.
Speaker 7 (34:15):
Actually grant.
Speaker 5 (34:17):
Hearing me you into what wasn't hearing a snow?
Speaker 4 (34:21):
Climate change?
Speaker 8 (34:22):
Wasn't wasn't it didn't snow till like quite late. Did
you go and talk to the people running ski fields
about about climate change? They'll give you a view. They
don't really worried about it.
Speaker 4 (34:32):
Yeah, but it's always been like this, even in the seventies.
Speaker 8 (34:35):
Mates, So anyway, we're not down.
Speaker 5 (34:37):
Come on, okay, any any any phone memories of Norm Hewitt? Lads?
Speaker 8 (34:43):
Yeah, actually I do have one when he was in
the Walks Bay team that beat the Lions in ninety three,
they cleaned them up, and he played a great game,
scored a try, and he would just he was just
as you said, he was bloody unlucky to be behind
Titsy in that for that era. But he was a
damn good rugby player. And it was someone who had
to own his own mistakes in life, and that's in
(35:04):
public and in public too, which is really a big
thing to do. And I admire them and I wish
all the all my sympodies out of stamily and friends
because he was he was generally a good chum.
Speaker 5 (35:16):
Well he had absolutely you know, sorry Jeremy, I'll let
you go next, but I mean post you know, he
had his issues with the drink. He owned them and
he got over that and he reinvented himself and he
did a hell of a lot of work for with
troubled youth and all that sort of stuff. In his
latter years. He really turned his life around.
Speaker 4 (35:35):
One hundred percent. Note, and I just reiterate what you
got said, nothing more to say. Was a bit of
a rough diamond who turned his life around, and it's
a real tragedy that he's gone. So rest in peace,
norm Yeah, yeah.
Speaker 8 (35:50):
Am I lad to have a go at the fact
that up here in Northland we're getting we're getting completely
done over by people like Transpower moved after the pylons
fell over and they that output won't won't you trying
to They're they're not going to pay compensation which they
dare well should be to the people of Northen's. I mean,
it wasn't like an act of God. I mean you had.
What you had was a situation where they told me
(36:12):
if two took too many nuts off.
Speaker 5 (36:13):
It was a lot of It was an active stupidity.
What do you reckon, Jeremy?
Speaker 4 (36:17):
Oh well, it just defied belief and the theory and everything.
And I mean it just sums up what's wrong with
this country. And don't even start me on the road
cones just around the corner here. We've got this normal.
Speaker 8 (36:29):
We're doing something about those. Come on.
Speaker 4 (36:32):
And piously, I blame the National government. They should change
it immediately the stroke of a pen on it.
Speaker 8 (36:39):
We've actually made changes in that space. Be announces last
week there's going to be a lot less road tones,
a lot more common sense will come under the whole pro.
Speaker 5 (36:47):
Jeremy, you're about it with Jeremy, you're a bit anti
than the current National government, not not the coalition government
because you like Winston and David Seymour, but you have
to admit Simme and Brown as Minister of Transports not
doing a bad job job starting with the Orange Road cones.
Speaker 7 (37:02):
Yeah.
Speaker 4 (37:03):
No, I just think this will get up the National
But I just think there's we need some real leadership
in this country and we're not getting it.
Speaker 7 (37:10):
It's just at the.
Speaker 4 (37:11):
Moment they're making it a few changes, but there's a
whole lot of societal changes around culture and things like sexuality,
all these things that are really annoying people that are
just as important as the rest of it. So my
challenge is to stop all this hatred going on in
Parliament by a party there and lucking to get on
top of them, stand up against these guys and get
(37:33):
into them.
Speaker 5 (37:35):
Grant, you've got ten seconds be quote.
Speaker 8 (37:38):
Ultimately, you've got to take people with you on this duty.
And yes, we have to turn this country around, and
that's exactly what we're doing.
Speaker 5 (37:44):
Well, you're not you're not allowed to say the word
journey on this show. That's you gone. All learnings. There
are both forbidden words on the show. Hey, that's us
done and dusted for the day. Rest and peace, norm
hewermn to do. Hang there.
Speaker 1 (38:01):
Catch all the latest from the land. It's the Country
Podcast with Jamie McKay. Thanks to Brent, your specialist in
John Deere machinery.
Catch all the latest from the land. It's the Country
Podcast with Jamie McKay Thanks to Brent You're specialist in
John Deere construction equipment.
Speaker 2 (00:16):
Labor is How big Nom the Man?
Speaker 3 (00:19):
Social credit is?
Speaker 4 (00:20):
How big Non Green?
Speaker 1 (00:24):
How Beignmed the hero com.
Speaker 5 (00:30):
He no get a New Zealand This is the Country.
I'm Jamie McKay. That song was written about the late
Norman Kirk. I was taken aback this morning when I
found about found out about my old mate Norm Hewitt
passing away at the age of fifty five, the tender
age of fifty five, from motor neuron disease. The song
(00:55):
could have easily been written about him. MC norm larger
than life character, as I recall it, he burst onto
the scene for a very good Hawks bay side against
the nineteen ninety three lines. He went on to play
twenty three games for the All Blacks over about six seasons.
(01:15):
Of his twenty three games, only nine were tests. Basically
he had to sit on the bench all the time
for Sean Fitzpatrick, who played ninety two tests ten times
as many. Norm did get through three hundred or nearly
three hundred first class games over his thirteen years as
I said, most of it spent as an understudy for
Fitzie and the All Blacks. Of course, we'll all remember
(01:37):
the famous Harker stand off with Richard Cockrel, who was
well named was and he what a little cock rooster
he was in nineteen ninety seven in Manchester. Of course.
Then there was Dancing with the Stars in two thousand
and five with Norm's perfect Pasadobla, who's a very good athlete,
very coordinated. My connection with Norm Hewitt came in the
(01:59):
midnight when I was found on Southland. He played twenty
two games for the Stags, or they were called Southland
in those days from ninety ninety five to ninety seven.
Their Material Licensing Trust brought him down to play for Southland.
Back in those days we used to buy a footy team.
Now we're breeding one. The then chief executive, John Wyth,
(02:21):
hello John, if you're listening perchance, asked me to be
Norm's minder while he was living in Gore, where I
was living at the time. And it'd be fair to
say I failed miserably, especially well, not especially only when
Norm was drinking Norman drinking or a bit of a
lethal cocktail. We all found that out but sober, you
(02:42):
wouldn't meet a nicer man, were a kinder, more generous
man than Norm Hewitt. He figured out his drinking issues
and ended up dealing with them. My last memory of
Norm Hewitt was catching up with them a few years
ago at field Days and I, foolish forgetting he wasn't drinking,
said we'll go and have a bear after I finished
(03:03):
the show. He said no, no, we'll just have a
coffee and we did. And that's the last time I
saw Norm Hewitt. A man who really reinvented himself, who's
a magnificent rugby player. Very unfortunate, as I said with
Sean Fitzpatrick, there these days he would have played seventy
or eighty tests. Rest in peace, Norm Hewitt. Okay. On
(03:29):
the show today, we're going to talk to a bloke
who's not only a farmer, but he's also a retailer.
His name is John McAvennie runs a large scale sheep
and beef property. White's Homo also runs steel Fort. He's
just come back from China. We'll get his take on
(03:49):
the Chinese economy. Dr Jack willn raw with Jim Hopkins
to lighten things up a bit on a sad day
and we really might lighten things up with you with
our I'm calling them. My former farmer panel Grant McCullum,
MP for Northland. He sent me a text yesterday he said,
have you forgotten all about me? Why am I never
on your show? I said, well, basically I've forgotten all
(04:11):
about you. So I'm going to bring him back today.
And Jeremy Rook's former farmer these days Lifestyler just outside
of Christchurch, so we'll try and bring you some chair
on a very very sad day. Mister Norman, Norman's king
(04:36):
of He's a Whitomo's sheep and beef farmer we keep
an eye on. He's also a retailer, the chief executive
of Steelfort. Both tough gigs at the moment, farming and
retail John McAvennie, which is the hardest at the moment.
Speaker 6 (04:58):
They're both pretty much the same. I would suggest the
lamb prices are pretty doer, and you know, I just
I'm not too sure when they were coming up. But
it irks me when I go into the supermarket and
still see legs of lamb sitting in there for thirty
bucks thirty five dollars a leg you know, and you know,
it's just a shame that it's so depressed at the
(05:22):
moment because we've got such a great product.
Speaker 5 (05:24):
Well, I reckon the meat companies or the supermarkets or both.
I don't know how they work. This need to start
specialing lamb again like they did at Christmas time when
it was nine or ten dollars a kilo. Admittedly a
lost leader, John, but it's given Kiwi families the chance
to sample lamb at a reasonable and affordable price. Because
the farmers aren't getting rich on it at the moment.
(05:47):
Someone in the middle is no.
Speaker 6 (05:50):
Well, we've told most of our stall I mean, we
don't fit in anything. We most sold most of our
store lambs around sort of nineteen ninety two ninety three dollars,
so we did pretty well apparently, you know, compared to
somewhere around them, and a lot of them have been
around eighty bucks. But you know, when you look at
the you know, once you get that product, as you
suggested there, once you get the product and people sample
(06:10):
the product, they'll come back because it's such a great product.
A league of Lamb is fantastic, and you know, you
get those Midlain chops and things like that. You know,
they're a magnificent product there. I'm very keen to see
the meat companies do that sort of thing.
Speaker 5 (06:24):
Now, are you going to have to head over because
you live on the eighth fairway at Mount Monganoi. I'm
so jealous of your location there at the golf course.
I'm talking about John, But are you going to have
to go over to your White Tomo sheep and beef
farm and do some hard yards? Namely because your manager,
a guy by the name of Brent Gowlers, got two
daughters rowing in the Paris Olympics.
Speaker 6 (06:44):
Yeah, well he's away on the twenty third, I think
it is. So we're flat out at the moment getting
we've shared, we've completed sharing, we've drafted everything up in
terms of inoculating, and they're spreading everything this week. So
we hope to have you know, about six thousand years
plus the two year seventy thing will be spread by
the end of this week, ready for lamming. We've got
(07:06):
fertilizers going on this week and Brent's going away I
think on the twenty third, and he's got both Carrie
or she's Kirie Williams and she was Kirie Gower and Jackie,
the youngest daughter in the Coxlers four. So it'll be
very very interesting to see how those two girls go
(07:27):
because they are pretty committed and Brent's going over there
for the ten days from the twenty third, I think
till about the sixth and seventh of August, so it'll
be very interesting to see how they's got. The Olympics
will be a great event to watch, and that's something
of it for us, you know, in our family, knowing
those girls, to really focus in on them and.
Speaker 7 (07:47):
See how they go.
Speaker 5 (07:48):
We'll go the Gala girls. Now I caught up with
you at the test here in Dunedin, John McAvennie, you'd
not recently been long back from China. You buy all
your products for Steelford effectively now out of China. What's
your take on their economy?
Speaker 6 (08:05):
Well, I mean I absolutely enjoyed it over there, honest.
I don't know whether I was saying to you previously.
Speaker 7 (08:12):
But I really enjoyed.
Speaker 6 (08:13):
It over there, because you know, China is, as I
say once before, you know, there's no I didn't see
it pothole anywhere. I didn't see any graffiti. This bugger
all crime and and I think they do a lot
of things very well. I know it's a communist regime
and you know it's a long way before you try
and get to that situation. But I didn't notice any downturn.
(08:34):
I mean, there's there's still a hell of a lot
of tower cranes in the sky, and you know, there
was one and a half billion people over there, so
you know, people eat, and you know, I still still
believe that economy is still going pretty good.
Speaker 7 (08:46):
If we had six to seven.
Speaker 6 (08:47):
Percent growth here, we'd be absolutely rapped. And I think
that's about what they've got over there.
Speaker 5 (08:52):
John mcavinnie, you told me also while we were having
a bear at the test in Dunedin here that you're
the same age is Trump. And if you don't mind
me saying so, and please take this as a compliment,
you're a bit like Trump. You know, you're not a
spring chicken anymore, but you seem to have boundless energy.
Does the idea of retirement not resonate with.
Speaker 6 (09:13):
You, Jamie, It's not something that's in my vocabulary. And
when you look at old Trump, you got that he
got that bullet through's ear. Yesterday's immediate reaction he put
his fist in the air, and shook it three times
and said, I'm here to fight. I don't there's a
lot of things about Donald Trump that I would not
like to have in my personality, but he's certainly a fighter.
(09:36):
And yeah, I mean, you know, I'm seventy eight this year,
so I'm getting to He and I very similar in age.
But I enjoy what I'm doing, and I enjoy getting
involved in the farm. In fact, I've got a couple
of grandsons over there this morning and they're helping in
the ads and working. So you know, I'm ten to
get over there. So I'll probably go over there on
Wednesday tomorrow.
Speaker 5 (09:55):
I might bundle Winston Peters into this as well. Get
the trifecta, all about the same age, all seemed to
have boundless energy. Once again, join a compliment.
Speaker 6 (10:06):
Thank you, Jamie. Ye appreciate that. Yeah, I know we're
all sort of similar age. But there's a lot of
people I guess I would imagine that, you know, in
the sort of mid late seventies that are still pretty
active in the working force, and I don't think it
does us. You only any.
Speaker 5 (10:19):
Ham, Hey, good on your John mcavinny. Always good to
catch up here. Keep up the good work. You're going
to have to do some on your sheep farm while
Brent Gowl is away at the Olympics. And remember, if
you're after a really good power to get those battery
powered lawn master and steel forught products, especially that we
hand chainsaw. It's a ripper. John, thanks for your time.
Speaker 8 (10:39):
Yeah, thanks, Jamie.
Speaker 3 (10:40):
Good to door.
Speaker 5 (10:43):
Twenty after twelve. John mcavinnie playing Norm songs today. This
is Spirit in the Sky by Norm Green Balm, Greenbalm.
I think how you pronounce his name? What one hit
wonder from the sixties or was it seventies? Anyhow, for
Norm Hewitt passed away. I didn't even know Norm had
motor neuron disease. Fifty five passed away. Yesterday. I got
(11:07):
a text in from a regular text here to the
country Muzz in hawks Bay. He says, shit, Jamie, Muzz's words,
not mine. Before you complain about the language, folks. Norm
dead at fifty five, I'm bloody fifty four. That's scary.
I used to play against him when he was at
Tiati College, which is one of the great rugby schools.
(11:29):
I'm assuming it still is. I'm assuming it's still going
one of the great rugby schools in Hawk's Bay, and
I know from my conversations to Norm over the years
that he was a bit of a beast, be fair
to say, at high school, but of a manchild to
be perfectly honest. I think he was in the Hawks
Bay rugby team literally straight out of school, and I
(11:50):
still remember him just storming through the British Lions for
Hawks Bay and a nineteen ninety three. Up next on
the Country, Doctor Jacqueline Rowath before the end of the
Jim Hopkins and a former farmer panel Grant McCullum, MP
for Northland, and Jeremy Rocks. How do you describe Jeremy?
(12:10):
We'll ponder that, friend. The best conversations, unfortunately they have
on this show are often during the commercial break. So
I wish i'd recorded that and just played it to
(12:32):
Dr Jacqueline Rawth, because you and I, in the space
of about two and a half minutes, had solved all
the problems of the world, and we both agreed that
the world's a dodgy place at the moment. It's probably
always been a dodgy place. After all, we've had a
couple of world wars and all sorts of other events happening.
But we're lucky here in New Zealand, and sometimes we
just need to sit back and remind ourselves of it.
Speaker 3 (12:56):
We are extremely fortunate, and when we look at the
well reports, actually we can see that most people know that,
and then they get quickly about things around the edges.
But most people know that they have a very good
life in New Zealand. And part of it is that
we don't get people like our prime ministers assassinated or
attempted to assassinate them. It is because there are food
(13:18):
security networks so that people don't have to be food poor.
But we I do agree that that needs some fine tuning,
but it's also sorting out all the things to do
with our economy, and that is happening.
Speaker 5 (13:33):
Hey, just before we get onto what's in your excellent
Fortnightly column, doctor Jaquelin Rowth, I've been reading an excellent
piece in The Listener. I know that some people would
say the Listener's gone a wee bit woken, is a
bit left leaning, but they're political guys. Written a two
part piece on the nineteen eighty four election, basically the
Snaps election, and he does sort of a political history
(13:57):
of how New Zealand got to that point where doing
it almost bankrupted and what bankrupted us and why neoliberalism
under Roger Douglass sort of took place. But one of
the really interesting stats I picked out, did you realize
that we used to be literally a full employment economy.
This reached a high point in March of nineteen fifty six,
(14:20):
Wait for this, Jacqueline, when only five people in the
entire nation received the unemployment benefit. Can you believe that?
Speaker 4 (14:29):
Well?
Speaker 3 (14:29):
I guess that the standards for receiving it were somewhat different,
But nineteen fifty six a great year was probably you know,
the sheep boom and all of those sorts of things,
so that there were more people in agriculture and people
don't want to work. Well.
Speaker 5 (14:44):
But my point is we look at the nineteen fifties,
the Korean wall boom, and we look also at the sixties,
you know, the milk and honey period under Kiwi, Keith Holyoaken.
It would appear to me that back then, even though
we were incredibly boring country in which to live Jacqueline,
I was only a week could but the difference between
the haves and have nots was far more narrow than
(15:06):
it is today.
Speaker 3 (15:07):
Yes, that much is absolutely true, but the increases have
been in the super wealthy rather than the bottom end,
and there is research on it, and the Genie coefficient
has tracked that over the years, a name for a
particular tracker. So we are no more diverse than most
EU type countries. I should then say the mold developed
(15:30):
ones of them, and certainly not my home country of
the UK. Where are the worst things? They tend to
be in South America. So it's the super rich that
have got super rich rather than the bottom getting poorer
according to the Genie coefficient.
Speaker 5 (15:47):
Now, while I'm on the case of really good stats
and we're getting way off topic here, but this is
an interesting chat. Gwin Dyah write's an excellent column and
the Otago Daily Times syndicated his column. I think worldwide
is making the point that there have been forty five
American presidents. Four have been assassinated, three have been wounded
(16:07):
by assassin's bullets, and a couple of others have missed.
So he's saying seven out of forty five American presidents
have either been killed or wounded by gunfire. And he
said you wouldn't get that stat anywhere else in the world,
not even in the most despotic if that's the quite
the word I'm looking for South American countries.
Speaker 3 (16:30):
It is staggering, and it does make rue Wando whether
sensible people are avoiding.
Speaker 5 (16:36):
The role anyhow. Okay, right, I better get back on track.
You've written a column about the government's new climate strategy,
and I'm going to throw this one at you again,
because we're all talking about how to fix climate change.
Do we fix it, do we mitigate or do we
just adapt jacqueline of sea levels arising? Do we build
(16:57):
just bigger sea walls?
Speaker 3 (17:00):
Would never just build bigger at sea walls because then
we get to one and one hundred year events within
five years, that sort of thing. But certainly I think
it's both the mitigation and the adaptation must be hand
in hand, and we can certainly do things like I
think that's a vulnerable area, we shouldn't build a house
on it and a lot of people. And actually we
can go back to some of the Mari mythology about
(17:21):
where you should or shouldn't build, and the answers really
don't build if the Tanafi is going to get cross
and then one delves into the Taniphi and it turns
out to be the flood mechanism. So can we avoid
things absolutely, But we must always remember that being resilient,
being adaptable takes energy because it means in plants, for instance,
(17:45):
they have to support more genes than they would need
if they were just for a specific environment. And it's
the same for people. The more adaptation that you are expecting,
the more resilience that you are expecting from them, the
more energy takes. And in humans that energy also means
time and dollars. So we need to find this very
(18:06):
careful balance, which is sort of what the column touches
on in thinking about all the unintended consequences of well,
any well meaning group making a statement, which is why
there is this Climate Change Chief Executives Board. Fascinating.
Speaker 5 (18:24):
Well, come out of time, and I've been way off
topic the whole interview, So I change the habit of
a lifetime. One more to throw at you. And I'm
not detracting from your excellent column at all, Jacqueline. But
Peter Alexander, well known christ Church farm accountant, talking about
climate migration, and he's talking about four billion people in
Africa by the end of this century. It's going to
(18:45):
get too hot for them to live in the Middle
but they're going to migrate to the northern hemisphere, most
probably to Europe. What an issue we face.
Speaker 3 (18:54):
Absolutely huge. So we have to sort out all the
food production through Russia, Ukraine, all that sort of areas.
Remembering that their average week yield is three and a
half tons and ours is more like eight or ten,
depending whether you're talking feed wee to or human heat
human eating wheat. And it means that we have to
concentrate very much as we are doing in New Zealand
(19:15):
on efficient food production. Absolutely we are vital.
Speaker 5 (19:20):
And on that note, I'm going to wrap this because
I'm over time. I've really enjoyed ayan. I've got completely
off topic, but I've really enjoyed it. I don't know
if you have, but I have. Hey, Jacqueline, always good
to chat. See you lovely. Bye, Thank you, Jacqueline. It
is twenty eight and a half away from one, just
(19:42):
getting myself organized, and here we're trying to figure out
what song Norm did the Paso Doble too when he
won Dancing with the Stars in two thousand and five.
If you can tell us, give us a give us
a text please on five double O nine up next.
Michelle wat feverishly working on what song Norm did the
(20:03):
passadoble too? No answers yet, we will play it if
we can find that. We'll have a look at Rural
News and also Sports News Warriors Captain Toho Harris. Toho
Harris out for the rest of the season. We'll update
that one for you after the break all day long.
(20:27):
Please Norm, baby, won't you leave me?
Speaker 2 (20:29):
Musle the Countries and Jeopardy the Landers.
Speaker 5 (20:36):
Welcome back to the Country, brought to you by Brand
twenty five away from One. Looking forward to my former
farmer panel Grant McCallum, Northland MP Jeremy Rooks. I don't
know how to describe him. He's already fired the opening
shot at me if he want, He said you twat
sea levels are not rising. I think I feel like
(20:59):
an argument with Jeremy today. I think I'll have one.
But before I can do that, We've got to chat
to Jim Hopkins. In here the latest and rural news
from Michelle Watt.
Speaker 1 (21:08):
The country's world news with Coup Cadet, New Zealand's leading
right on lawn Bower Brand visit Steel for dot Co
dot NZ for your local stockist.
Speaker 5 (21:17):
Actually talking about arguments, Michelle. Sorry to interrupt your dynamic
news read of rural news. I hope it's better than
yesterday's really boring story you came up with. I need
to get Damien O'Connor back. He's good for ratings.
Speaker 2 (21:31):
Yeah, I think I don't make the news, Jamie. I
just want to point that out. And the offerings were slightly.
Speaker 5 (21:37):
Slim, righty. What do you got for us today?
Speaker 2 (21:41):
Agg Recovery, New Zealand's accredited product stewardship scheme operator for
Farm Plastics, has announced the launch of its latest initiative,
the recycling of wolffagers. Under the new scheme end of
Life HDPE, wolf fatgers will be collected, sorted and sent
to Recycle South's processing plant in Southland for recycling into
high quality plastic palets for resale. The new industry specific
(22:04):
scheme streamlines the recycling process, enhancing the life cycle of
these products within the circular economy and draws momentum from
the New Zealand will dumping groups demand for used and
repaired warpacks.
Speaker 5 (22:15):
Oh that's a starting story. Actually, in the old days.
This is the old days when DAGs were worth something.
That's what we did with their old wolfatgers. We put
DAGs in them and took them off and hocked the
DAGs off for cash. Ah, the days of getting cash,
defeating the defeating the taxation system. They're well and truly gone.
At one stage DAGs I can remember selling DAGs for
(22:37):
about sixty cents a kilo. Wow, which is a fortune.
They're worth nothing now, absolutely nothing. All they're any good
for nails putting around your young native trees when you
plant them. So there you go, useless trivia. The shows
Full of It.
Speaker 1 (22:51):
Sport with a FCO. Visit them online at FCO dot
co dot enzed.
Speaker 5 (22:56):
Yeah, and as we kicked off the show. Former All
Blacks hoker Norm Hewitt died age fifty five. He had
motor neuron disease. He played only nine tests for New
Zealand fourteen games and another fourteen for the All Blacks
between ninety three and ninety eight twenty three all up.
As I said earlier, if he was an All Black
these days, Norm would have had seventy or eighty tests.
(23:18):
Rest in peace, Norm an uncomfortable review session for one
half of the All Black squad and I'm assuming that's
the half that played against England, a shaky lineout that
saw just three or that saw three lost against the
throw and the second Test against England has been scrutinized
in San Diego. Maybe they mean the forward pack there.
(23:41):
As the side prepares to play Fiji on Saturday afternoon
two thirty, are we excited about that? I'm not sure.
Bad news for the Warriors. Tohu Harris is out for
the rest of the NRL season after going undergoing surgery
on a chronic wrist injury. The Lockford has been carrying
the injury for months, forcing a four week break in May,
(24:03):
and he will be missed. He's a great player. Up next,
it is Jim Hopkins, going to lighten things up a
even on a sad sad day. Norman's King of New Zealand,
Land of lands, big fed lambs. He's a rural raconteur
(24:31):
here on the country. He's also Hawai Taki District counselor
are you the JD Vance Jim Hopkins of the Waheitechi
District Council? Have you got aspirations for higher office?
Speaker 7 (24:44):
I's for higher arts all my life. I've fit my
CVS to the Mexican I'm applying for the John's Pope.
I've missed out on that one and various others. I'm
not sure about dad Vans. I don't have a bed
and I'm not sure that I actually think Ukraim should
give any charritory Russia. I think Ukraine should give one
very very substantial middle finger to Russia. And the more
(25:05):
I hope we can give them to achieve that effectively,
the better in my humble opinion. That said, it'll be
interesting to see how jade Vans goes and how his
views on these matters are influenced by the wider American
public and establishment.
Speaker 5 (25:21):
I want to talk about the Young Farmer Grand Final
up and over the weekend in Hamilton and Young Well
he is young, he's only twenty three years of age,
George Dodson winning it. And what I found George, Yes,
well done George. And what I found fascinating was that
his dad, Fred was a finalist in the year two thousand,
representing Otago in South and that's when you would have
(25:43):
been in your heyday, Bdy. But wait, there's more. His
uncle Malcolm Dodson won at in nineteen eighty five. That's
pre you and I'm thinking And I said to George yesterday,
that's fifteen years between drinks between your father and your uncle.
And he said, yes, well, but there was seventeen years
between them. What a great family story.
Speaker 7 (26:03):
Absolutely well, kind of mean eighty five. I wasn't doing it,
but I'm pretty sure I kicked in around nineteen nineteen
ninety one. I know I did it for twenty one
years and I finished in the post twenty ten. There
were twenty twelve, twenty thirteen, twenty fourteen, something like that.
Fred would have been one of the finalists. And as
(26:24):
you say, two thousand and I was definitely doing them then, yes,
very much so, and enjoying them, may I say, and
building a huge respect in the process for New Zealand
farmers and farming.
Speaker 5 (26:33):
My favorite fact, and I've gone way off the track
with doctor Jacqueline Rawath Rowath, I'd better get it right
and I will with you as well. I love this.
This is my favorite stat of the day. In March
nineteen fifty six, there were only five people in the
entire nation received the unemployment benefit. My point being with
Jacquel owners we have changed. We were the land of
(26:54):
milk and honey under the whole. In the fifties we
had the Korean Wall boom and we had you know,
the Holy Oak years. Everyone had a job. Admittedly, as
I said to Jacqueline, we were living in a really
boring country, but the gap between haves and have nots
was much more narrower then than it is now.
Speaker 7 (27:11):
You're right about being a different country. You're also write
what you haven't taken into account. It was also a
different world. We had an extraordinarily comfortable and privileged relationship
with a very large and very powerful country and empire
dissolving but still very potent i e.
Speaker 8 (27:33):
The UK.
Speaker 7 (27:34):
They essentially colonized and died with a view to it
being a Britain's farm, and we had been and we
benefited from that relationship, and that guaranteed access to a
market for from eighteen forty onwards essentially, and that certainly
did contribute to full employment, as did things like Injedah,
(27:59):
remember the General I remember the famous mcpail engaged with
Joke who we got half a mind to work railways,
that's all you need. There were an awful lot of
people who were probably technically unemployed, but still officially working
in you know, in some of those protected and sheltered
state monopolies. Yes, things have changed, but then so has
(28:21):
the world. And the big massive change for us was
that you know, Britain, John and the scene essentially divorcing
us or no longer guaranteeing us access to their market.
We had to go alone. We had to reinvent ourselves,
if you like, as did an awful lot of farmers
(28:42):
in the nineteen eighties when Douglas pulled the pen on
those subsidies, an action that I think was long overdue
but astonishingly, agonizingly painful at the time.
Speaker 5 (28:52):
Have to wrap this. I've got one minute left, and
just segueing on from your comments about Douglas in the eighties,
I hope you read the Listener article reference with Jaqueline.
It's called New Dawn, the rise of Rogernomics and how
it continues to shape our lives. Neoliberalism as it was
back in those days. We needed it, but we didn't
need it as badly as what Roger gave it to us.
(29:14):
Is that how you say it?
Speaker 7 (29:15):
Well, no, I don't think. I think we didn't need
it as badly as that.
Speaker 8 (29:19):
I mean.
Speaker 7 (29:21):
The wage price freeze was Muldoon essentially becoming financially and
intellectually bankrupt, and he meant it to introduced it initially
for one year, rolled it over for a second. If
I was being a historian, I would say there was
an economic cycle that began with the election of the
Labor government in nineteen thirty five, with a whole series
(29:42):
of controls and protections and important managements and so on,
and ended in eighty four because it had to. It
had done its dash, it had run its course. The
world was no longer you know, that model was no
longer fit for purpose in the world we had, And
since then we had another economic model that I think
right now is being changed again. Not quite fifty years on,
(30:06):
but certainly I think that the Roger Douglas economic cycle
is now in the process of being reinvented, remanaged, recreated.
And when you think that our mages are thirty percent
lower than Australia's, if we cannot solve that issue very quickly,
we have got even bigger problems that we have at
(30:28):
the moment. And the thrust of the new government to
sort of actually get it back into industries that have
been sort of frowned on for decades now and my
view is inescapable and essential and it's all part of
the great cycle of Jamie, the great cycle of life.
Speaker 5 (30:48):
They might have to fade up some Elton John just
to finish this interview. In fact, I think I will
do that. Hey, Jim Hopkins, been good to see the fact.
Once again we're off topic, but I enjoy with the
see no.
Speaker 7 (31:01):
Go well mate, you talk.
Speaker 5 (31:13):
Bit of a slighter hand there. How good was that
finding that one so quickly it is? I'm going to
go with eleven away from one. You're with the Country,
brought to you by Brandt Up. Next a former farmer panel,
Grant McCullum, Northland MP and Jeremy Rook's climate change denial. Okay,
(32:01):
welcome back to the Country. Wrapping up with our former
farmer panel, That's what I'm calling them anyhow, Northland MP
Grant McCullum, former chow cocky I think he still keeps
his hand in on the weekends. And Jeremy Rook's hobby
farmer and professional insulter from Canterbury. Jeremy, what do you
mean the sea levels aren't rising?
Speaker 4 (32:23):
Well they're not, Jamie. You tell me where the sea
levels are rising, Can you tell me, like the Great
Barrier reachs still the same. The Statue of Liberty isn't
exactly the same spot at New York where it's always been.
Barack Obama's just bought a house in the Hampton's off
New York. So you tell me if the sea levels
are rising, well what about those?
Speaker 5 (32:44):
What about those specific nation islands that are going underwater?
Speaker 4 (32:48):
Well, they are built on they our sand, Jamie. The
thing is called tides and currents.
Speaker 8 (32:53):
The East Way.
Speaker 4 (32:53):
At the problem with you nutty lefties, But you've never got.
Speaker 5 (33:02):
Hey, Jeremy, just while we're on the subject of sand,
what's it like having your head buried in it?
Speaker 8 (33:08):
Yes, he's got buried in the snow where I'll.
Speaker 5 (33:11):
Tell you what. You'd have to take a big hole
to get that big sweet of yours into the sand.
Two rocks.
Speaker 4 (33:17):
Personal insults are always the domain of the defeat.
Speaker 5 (33:20):
Of Okay, Grant feel much more enlightened as climate change things.
Speaker 8 (33:28):
Of course it is, Jesus. I mean you just have
to look around in the world at the moment, go
and look at the ice mountain and guard. In all seriousness,
you know that is a general generally actually happening and maggium,
and that's not something we need to continue to see.
Look at the the increased number of weather events we're getting,
and then also look at that there there was an
(33:48):
interesting stats for you. The average winery and grave harvest
in France is taking two weeks shorter to achieve a
ripeness because global temperatures are rising. So these are a
few examples of Rooks seemed to take his head out
of the snow, so which is clearly done. So we
can have this interview. I suspect, you know, he's must
about trouble conesay, when I presume at the moment working
(34:10):
hard as usual, and.
Speaker 4 (34:12):
I was a gob center know how last week.
Speaker 7 (34:15):
Actually grant.
Speaker 5 (34:17):
Hearing me you into what wasn't hearing a snow?
Speaker 4 (34:21):
Climate change?
Speaker 8 (34:22):
Wasn't wasn't it didn't snow till like quite late. Did
you go and talk to the people running ski fields
about about climate change? They'll give you a view. They
don't really worried about it.
Speaker 4 (34:32):
Yeah, but it's always been like this, even in the seventies.
Speaker 8 (34:35):
Mates, So anyway, we're not down.
Speaker 5 (34:37):
Come on, okay, any any any phone memories of Norm Hewitt? Lads?
Speaker 8 (34:43):
Yeah, actually I do have one when he was in
the Walks Bay team that beat the Lions in ninety three,
they cleaned them up, and he played a great game,
scored a try, and he would just he was just
as you said, he was bloody unlucky to be behind
Titsy in that for that era. But he was a
damn good rugby player. And it was someone who had
to own his own mistakes in life, and that's in
(35:04):
public and in public too, which is really a big
thing to do. And I admire them and I wish
all the all my sympodies out of stamily and friends
because he was he was generally a good chum.
Speaker 5 (35:16):
Well he had absolutely you know, sorry Jeremy, I'll let
you go next, but I mean post you know, he
had his issues with the drink. He owned them and
he got over that and he reinvented himself and he
did a hell of a lot of work for with
troubled youth and all that sort of stuff. In his
latter years. He really turned his life around.
Speaker 4 (35:35):
One hundred percent. Note, and I just reiterate what you
got said, nothing more to say. Was a bit of
a rough diamond who turned his life around, and it's
a real tragedy that he's gone. So rest in peace,
norm Yeah, yeah.
Speaker 8 (35:50):
Am I lad to have a go at the fact
that up here in Northland we're getting we're getting completely
done over by people like Transpower moved after the pylons
fell over and they that output won't won't you trying
to They're they're not going to pay compensation which they
dare well should be to the people of Northen's. I mean,
it wasn't like an act of God. I mean you had.
What you had was a situation where they told me
(36:12):
if two took too many nuts off.
Speaker 5 (36:13):
It was a lot of It was an active stupidity.
What do you reckon, Jeremy?
Speaker 4 (36:17):
Oh well, it just defied belief and the theory and everything.
And I mean it just sums up what's wrong with
this country. And don't even start me on the road
cones just around the corner here. We've got this normal.
Speaker 8 (36:29):
We're doing something about those. Come on.
Speaker 4 (36:32):
And piously, I blame the National government. They should change
it immediately the stroke of a pen on it.
Speaker 8 (36:39):
We've actually made changes in that space. Be announces last
week there's going to be a lot less road tones,
a lot more common sense will come under the whole pro.
Speaker 5 (36:47):
Jeremy, you're about it with Jeremy, you're a bit anti
than the current National government, not not the coalition government
because you like Winston and David Seymour, but you have
to admit Simme and Brown as Minister of Transports not
doing a bad job job starting with the Orange Road cones.
Speaker 7 (37:02):
Yeah.
Speaker 4 (37:03):
No, I just think this will get up the National
But I just think there's we need some real leadership
in this country and we're not getting it.
Speaker 7 (37:10):
It's just at the.
Speaker 4 (37:11):
Moment they're making it a few changes, but there's a
whole lot of societal changes around culture and things like sexuality,
all these things that are really annoying people that are
just as important as the rest of it. So my
challenge is to stop all this hatred going on in
Parliament by a party there and lucking to get on
top of them, stand up against these guys and get
(37:33):
into them.
Speaker 5 (37:35):
Grant, you've got ten seconds be quote.
Speaker 8 (37:38):
Ultimately, you've got to take people with you on this duty.
And yes, we have to turn this country around, and
that's exactly what we're doing.
Speaker 5 (37:44):
Well, you're not you're not allowed to say the word
journey on this show. That's you gone. All learnings. There
are both forbidden words on the show. Hey, that's us
done and dusted for the day. Rest and peace, norm
hewermn to do. Hang there.
Speaker 1 (38:01):
Catch all the latest from the land. It's the Country
Podcast with Jamie McKay. Thanks to Brent, your specialist in
John Deere machinery.
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