The Country Full Show: Wednesday, August 13, 2025

Jamie Mackay talks to Christopher Luxon, Pete Turner, Kate Acland, and Tracy Brown.

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Catch all the latest from the land. It's the Country
Podcast with Jamie mckue. Thanks to Brent. You're specialist in
John Dere machinery, So I like.

Speaker 2 (00:20):
To know when to shine.

Speaker 3 (00:26):
Goody good afternoon, New Zealand. I'm Jamie McKay. This is
the Country, brought to you by Brandt seven after twelve.
No time to waste a day, got a full dance
card for You're going to kick it off with the
Prime Minister. What did he make of Winston's comments yesterday
about the sale of the Alliance Group to an Irish
based meat company and what is the urgent action the

(00:48):
government has just undertaken to protect exports and what does
he say about the poles? Will he do a Jim
Bolger and say bug of the poles? Pete Turner, We're
heading to the coal Face and Outland to talk to us.
Surprisingly Southland Sheep and Beef Farm, a large scale Alliance
Group shareholder. What does he make of the deal? It

(01:08):
is the day for the female chairs today yet Kate Ackland,
Chair of Beef and Lamb New Zealand and Tracy Brown,
chair of darien Z. Women are running the place. We've
got all that to do between now and one o'clock,
we'll have sports news for you in Rural News. I
was listening to the sports news at the top of

(01:31):
the hour about the inclusion and diversity in the America's Cup.
What happened to Merit? What happened to being on the boat?
Because you're good enough to be on the boat anyhow,
I'm probably completely out of touch on that one. Give
us your feelings on that one. Our text number is
five double nine and we've got some really good feedback

(01:52):
that came in at the end of the show yesterday
regarding the carbon farming. We'll be talking to Kate Ackland
about that very issue. Following on from the Oracle on
yesterday's show, Dennis Nelson, it's the Country. It's brought to
you by Brandt, So i'd like to know where you

(02:13):
got the ship.

Speaker 1 (02:15):
To know that you.

Speaker 3 (02:17):
Got Wednesday's on the Country. The PM kicks off the show,
Christopher Luxen. Do you want to start with the urgent
economic action taken this week to protect the exports or
do you want to start with your former Deputy Prime
Minister Winston Peters. He's very much against the proposed sale
of the Alliance Group or sixty five percent of it

(02:39):
to an Irish based meat company. Now he's totally anti
foreign investment. Surely that flies in the face of what
you're trying to achieve in this country right now.

Speaker 2 (02:50):
Yeah, look, I mean.

Speaker 4 (02:51):
In my conversations with a net exk up for very
much productive overseas foreign direct investment Ja zell In. In fact,
we need in this country right how we get capital
and you know, to keep companies, you know, as the
companies have cash that they can expand and grow with.
But it's also how we get knowledge and you know,
and often connections to overseas market. So look, you know
on the alliance thing, Look, it's ultimately a matter for

(03:12):
farmers and shareholders be able to make the best decision
for their company. I understand it's kind of a lot
of consultation. I guess before the vote, just encourage everyone
to get involved. But you know, our job is to
keep making decisions and ultimately, you know, everyone's in toige
of their opinion once included. But in the end it's
only the shareholders that will make that decision.

Speaker 3 (03:31):
Does the coalition government have a position on wearing Hiver's vests?

Speaker 4 (03:36):
Did you see a trip on the first test train
on the CRL, which was a bit unusual because you
know it was a test you know train sort of service.
But as to why exactly we needed hard hats and
glasses and stuff, I'm not quite sure. But I was,
frankly just much more excited to get on board and
see a project that I know will be very important
to the Yorklands CBD and has been going for a

(03:57):
very long time. It's it's actually, Jamie really very impressive.
I mean I used to catch the underground in New
York and London when I lived there, and you know
what they've built. It actually world class. I mean it's
like excellent times.

Speaker 3 (04:09):
Prime Minister. It's a nice deflection. But he has a
cantankero Assault Barger, isn't he, even though we do love.

Speaker 4 (04:15):
Frim Swinston Winston Winston and we love them.

Speaker 3 (04:18):
Yeah, it's all good, okay, happiness filled on the Coalition government.
Talk to me about the urgent action taken to prevent
what could have amounted to a stop work notice for
thousands of New Zealand farmers.

Speaker 4 (04:31):
Yeah, look, I mean I think there was about there
was a discharged rules that the RMA had that what
I think required from memory, Jamie, just under three thousand
my caadow farms to go off and get resource consents
in the next set to twelve months for quite regular
actually on farm activity that they've already been doing. So
you know, as I've said to you before, you know,
and I hope that you can see it. And farmer

(04:53):
confidence numbers at the moment. They understand they've got a
government that's backing them. And when we see barnacles that
are slow in the boats, and obviously red tape's getting
in the way of getting on into farming, we're working
really hard to try and get rid of all that stuff.
So I thought it was a good indivention.

Speaker 3 (05:07):
You need someone in the PR department to come up
with a new analogy. I think you're overdoing the barnacles
one really.

Speaker 4 (05:14):
Well, you're a creative chat maybe you can come up
with it.

Speaker 3 (05:17):
Well, I don't know. My wife says I'm full of
cliches as well, so perhaps I can't talk. Let's move on.
We've talked about Winston and the high Vers, so the
next one and Winston said on the show, yes that
I buger the poles. Are you going to channel a
bit of a Jim bolger yourself and say bugger the Poles,
because you, Prime Minister are now the most unpopular prime

(05:39):
minister since Jim Bolger in the mid nineteen nineties.

Speaker 4 (05:43):
Well look, I mean I've just got a different approach
to it all, which is, look, the country put us
into power right and we have an MMP system. You
may like it, you may love it, it doesn't matter.
The bottom line of that's what New Zealanders want to
have with their electoral system. They have an election. We
had an election in twenty twenty three. We formed a
Polish government to govern New Zealand. They wanted us to
get on and crack on and get stuff done. And

(06:05):
they'll have an opportunity at the in twenty twenty six
to make a decision as would have done a good
job or otherwise they want someone else. And so you know,
as you saw this week, there's you know, lots of
Poles running around any given week, they say lots of
different things. The key message is unambiguously clear from me,
and it has been from day one is you know,
this is a really tough time for New Zealand and
they want me to get on and fix the economy.

(06:26):
And so I have to be honest, Alan, I don't
get too perturbed about poles. I mean, ultimately the only
one that matters will be next year and an intervening period.
It's like head down, tail up. Keep working on improving
the economy, and the economy is really difficult. We've been
in the toughest recession we've had since thirty five years,
back to the early nineties, back to the Bulgary years.
We've actually had you know, as you saw last week,

(06:47):
a COVID hangover that was worse than any other country,
that contributed to cost of living crisis because Labour spent
sixty six billion dollars on a COVID response that was
found to be causing more grief. And then you know,
we've had good growth at the end of last year,
we had good growth at the beginning of this year,
and then you hit April with Liberation Day and all
hell breaks loose around the world and as a consequence,

(07:08):
there's been a massive loss of confidence and sentiments so
in the world and the New Zealand as well. So
you know, our job is, you know, you're seeing a
two speed recovery at the moment. If you're in primary industry,
South Island, you know, even Hawks Bay we're hard cultures
going great. You know, people are experiencing some growth and
luring unemployment. I think Southland's down to two point nine
percent or something. But if you're in Auckland and Wellington, yep,

(07:31):
in the cities it's tougher. That's why we've got investment
boost help manufacturings. Why we've got six billion dollars worth
of projects of infrastructure with shovels on the ground before
Christmas happening. So yeah, but it's tough, you know, it's tough.

Speaker 3 (07:43):
Now. The election next year is going to be won
and lost on the economy unless Winston goes a while
in between times. And I think that's where the coalition
government well won't it because my take on it is
that the economy will be better in twelve months time
than it is today. But how big of a battle
ground will be a capital gains wealth tax? Because Chris

(08:04):
Hipkins is going to come out with that, we'll ask
him about it on tomorrow show.

Speaker 4 (08:09):
He has to front on this. I mean, this is
a guy that actually created the mess that we're in, right,
I mean, honestly, it's quite unbelievable. You know, you saw
the Treasury report last week that said sixty six billion
dollars was spent on you know, in the COVID period
cause a massive hangover inflation. Our det has tripled from
sixty to one hundred and eighty billion dollars. I'm writing
an interest bill each year of nine to ten billion dollars,

(08:30):
which is nine to ten billion dollars, and it gets
been on schools, hospitals or roads, thank you, Chris Hipkins.
So you know. And then he wants a wealth tax,
a capital gains tax. He's not clear about it now.
He's saying about you know, I'm not sure it's ruled
in or out on houses, God knows, I mean. And
they're not talking about it, and they wonder they don't
want to talk about it because the last thing you
do on needs right now coming out of the difficulty

(08:51):
exon moment times is more taxes. And so you know,
and he's not fronting on it at at all. But
you know, you've got Chloe Swarbrick saying she wants to
be the finance minister. Well, she wants eighty eight billion
dollars of new taxes, wealth inheritance, capital gains tax, the
whole Monty and she wants to go borrow another forty
four billion dollars on top of the one hundred and
twenty billion that you know Hipkins are added to it

(09:12):
last time. So you know we know what the deal is,
right they are. It's a simple spend more, tax more,
borrow more, just go loaded up and just create the
mess that we make.

Speaker 3 (09:21):
Maybe Jerry Brownly needs to ban Chloe permanently from the House. Look,
a capital gains tax is going to bring in precious
little to start with, so it's not going to solve
our woes. I think the endgame here is not a
capital gains tax from Chippy. It's a wealth tax that
brings in money on day one.

Speaker 4 (09:40):
But I can curry your wealth tax is terrible for
New Zealand because the people with money who actually create
the jobs, who take a risk to start a business,
to build a business, to say, and you've seen it,
you know the Scandinavian one of the Norway, I think
did it. They had a massive number of their people
leave the country. You've just seen the UK make changes
to some of their tax rules that have actually led
to a whole bunch of successful people leaving and going

(10:02):
into the Middle East and setting a capital up there.
So you know, that's what you get is you know,
the wealth creators, the risk takers, the wealth generators, the employers.
You end up taking their capital investing it somewhere else.
And I can tell you that will happen. And so
you know, a capital aids tax on a farm or
property or on your superannuation, you know that is just

(10:22):
not what New Zealanders need, you know, So they are
big thing. We have to grow the economy. If we
can get the economy growing, we's projected to grow just
under three percent of the next over the next year.
Each year for the next four years, we've projected to
create those two hundred and forty thousand new jobs over
four year period. You know, we've got to grow the
economy and lift the living standards of New Zealanders. And
that's Jamie, why I keep coming back to this agenda

(10:45):
that we keep talking about, which is, you know, we've
got to get a world class education. There's some more
technology innovation. You've seen it in dairy and other sector,
you know, in horticulture being applied to your industries to
get higher margins. We've got to do more trade and
investment get rid of the red tape and build out
proper infrastructure. So that's the way you improve people's incomes
of wealth as a result.

Speaker 3 (11:04):
And you forgot to mention getting the barnacles off the boat. Look,
I've run out of time, Prime Minister, and no time
to even discuss the PDA with elbow in Queenstown. I'll
catch you again next week. Thanks for your time.

Speaker 4 (11:15):
Thanks Jamie, you have a great week.

Speaker 5 (11:16):
See you mate.

Speaker 3 (11:18):
Thank you, Prime Minister. Eighteen after twelve. Some of your
feedback on the female sailor, the diversity and inclusion for
the America's Cup, I'll get in trouble, but I don't
really care anymore. Michelle Muzz. He's sometimes not very funny
at all, but this isn't bad from Muzz. A female
sailor didn't work very well for our navy, did it?

(11:40):
Jamie just saying? And I think Muzz is of course
referring to the manau Nui sinking off Samoa Wheen was it?
End of last year? Judith wasn't too pleased about that one.
That was a bit of a disaster. So what's next
you're a female athlete. I feel this is an argument
I can't when what's next to do? We have to do?

(12:01):
We have to have a female in the All Blacks.

Speaker 2 (12:04):
My personal opinion, Jamie is there, this is quietly field.
I was saying that to you off here. I think
it's a left field decision.

Speaker 3 (12:10):
I want an argument, Michelle.

Speaker 2 (12:13):
Play rugby with boys past the age of thirteen.

Speaker 3 (12:16):
I bet you Georgia Miller could outplay most of them.

Speaker 2 (12:19):
He probably could. And I know when my brother was
in the reps and the under was under fifty eights,
there was quite a few girls that held their own
in that.

Speaker 3 (12:25):
Well, they're allowed to play footy up till primary school.

Speaker 2 (12:27):
But yeah, I'm not I'm not a fan of token gestures.

Speaker 3 (12:30):
Well is it? Well? The thing is that I was
watching the news last night Dalton Dalton looked like he'd
swallowed a dead rat. So he's only got five crew
on there now, one of which won't be Peter Berling.
He's not pleased about that one either. So they've replaced
the cyclause. And look at all the great athletes we
had being cyclaus for us, like Hamish Bond, Simon van Velthoven.

(12:55):
Who else did we have like.

Speaker 2 (12:57):
Mary's vander Pohl who trans from grinding to cycling for it,
he was none.

Speaker 3 (13:02):
You should change it. You choose a different word than transitioning,
Michelle cam Webster.

Speaker 2 (13:08):
He was a New Zealand rower.

Speaker 3 (13:10):
So we have Stephen Ferguson. We'll see a cycling I think.

Speaker 2 (13:13):
So he was and so was Dougal Allen, who was
obviously not for winning coast.

Speaker 3 (13:16):
Yeah. Yeah, And we've taken the athletic challenge out of it,
so we've replaced the cyclaus with some batteries. How sustainable
as that? I guess it cuts to wage bell And
there's only five people on the boat apparently, but there's
a sixth seat. And it's not for a sailor or
an athlete. It's for an influencer, some tosspot on social

(13:41):
media who has more, as Dalton says, has more followers
than they have people watching the broadcast. We'll sit in there,
get a free ride and influence people.

Speaker 2 (13:52):
Yeah, it's grasping its straws. Also, I'd just like to say,
how many men of crash boats, Jamie?

Speaker 3 (13:56):
How many men to not interested in that statue?

Speaker 2 (14:00):
I mean, woman of crashed probably just want to point
that out.

Speaker 3 (14:02):
Probably a lot more. But is it? You tell me
text stores about the Cyclaus. Tell me if you think
it's tokenism that we have a woman on the America's cupboat,
we have female sailors. You realize this, Michelle, Do we
have female soul GB whatever, TPPPP sailors out there. Surely

(14:23):
if you're good enough as a sailor, you might get
on the boat on merit.

Speaker 2 (14:27):
They should do. I mean, you'd hope that they pack
them on merit.

Speaker 3 (14:29):
Anyway, you're missing the point. Anyhow, Maybe I'm missing the point.
I just think of grumpy boomerism.

Speaker 2 (14:36):
He even did really work out for you?

Speaker 3 (14:38):
Did it well? He didn't fight hard enough. Don't forget
Rob Woodell, Thank you very much? Oh yes, Rob, Yes,
bloody hell Jamie. No wealth tax? What are why Mark?
I can't read your text. Why are we talking about one?
I'll tell you why I'm talking about one, Mark, because
that is Chippy and his Matees get in and Chippy's

(14:59):
on the show tomorrow. That'll be the first thing they introduced.
I don't think it'll be a capital gains tax because
it doesn't introduce or give you hardly any money in
the initial stages. It comes in over time. Wealth tax
captures money on day one, so watch out farmers with
your five or ten million dollar farms, even if you
owe half of them to the bank. Chippy's coming after you. Ever,

(15:34):
So let's go to the cold face and find out
what a farmer thinks of the proposed sale of sixty
five percent of the Alliance Group to Irish company Dawn Meats.
Pete Turner is a Southland farmer, large sculle operator, twenty
thousand stock in its large Alliance shareholder and Pete, there's
a bit of family history in this because your father,

(15:54):
John is a former chair of the Alliance Group. I
was going to ask what he thought of it, but
then I might have to push the dump button on him.
What about you, how do you feel the next generation down?

Speaker 6 (16:07):
Well, I was certainly not happy about it, Jamie, that
the company's got in the situation they've got to and
you know, there's got to be some questions, you know,
asked about that. But look, it looks as though that
the proposal that I've got with Dorn Meats seems to
align fairly good with with Alliance, you know, with a
lion's philosophy and business, and I think, you know, at
least it's worth something at the end of the day,

(16:28):
they value at about five hundred and two million if
you get banks involved, and you know two years ago
the company probably was worth nowhere near that. So yeah,
look not happy, but seems to be a reasonable fit.
And I think, you know, there's shareholders have got to
get to the road shows starting on the twentieth or September,
you know, to get some more information about Dawn Meats.

Speaker 3 (16:48):
You haven't got that long to think about it. And
when you think about a lot of the Alliance shareholders,
they're sheep farmers. They're kind of busy over the next
couple of months.

Speaker 6 (16:58):
Yeah, no, true, but it's really important they get belong
to the road shows because I mean, this massive decision,
not just not for Alliance, for the industry as well
of wear heads because it's the last co operative. It's
basically going to be gone now. But you know, shareholders
have still got some equity thirty five percent on the
news proposal, and they've got to say so, and they've

(17:20):
still got a boat to decide, you know, does it
go ahead or not. But there's no other not too
many other options out at Jamie.

Speaker 3 (17:28):
Mark Quinn told me on yesterday's show that theoretically your shares,
your one dollar shares, your par value shares are going
to be worth a dollar twenty six, and then you
can trade those on the secondary market. I suggest to you, Pete,
and I don't want to be doomsday on this one.
They won't be worth a dollar twenty six once farmers
start trading. Will there be a run on the bank.

(17:48):
Will some farmers be disgruntled that there is no longer
one hundred percent co op option.

Speaker 6 (17:55):
Look, I think you've got to realize that the shear
market has got to be a willing buyer and a
willing seller. So I mean, if they can't sell this years,
nobody wants to buy them. I don't know if they'll
be able to sell them, So I think that comes
into mind. But I do agree with you. I mean,
the dollar twenty six, I thinks it's just a paper figure.
I think in a twelve months time that'll be the
You know, they've put proof of the pudding of where

(18:15):
the company actually is regarding shares. Because people can trade
in and trade out, some people will take them up.
But you know, Alliance have made it clear they've lost
a massive amount of market share over the last twelve
months to other companies or eighteen months, and that's going
to be the key of whether they can get those
farmers back or is the further run on market share
for them.

Speaker 3 (18:36):
I look back to the time and I think it
was near the end of his tenure when your father,
John Turner was the chair of the Alliance Group and
there was this proposed mega merger, mega merger. As I said,
I was doing some homework for an old friend's eulogy
and there was John Key in a Patkin, Riversdale, my
hometown with my old mate Rowan Horrel. They were there

(18:58):
for the purposes of a but they were also discussing
the mega merger. So this is two thousand and nine.
It's easy to be wise in hindsight. But we got
it wrong then, didn't we.

Speaker 6 (19:10):
Yeah, No, I think we did get it wrong. And
I think, you know, there's hindsight, as you said, Jamie,
is a great thing, and I think some of the
current directors and past directors of Alliance will be in
the same position of why the company's got in the
same position. But I mean, you've got to look forward,
you know, you can't look backwards. That's why our eyes
are on the front of our head. So we look
forward and you know, and this is what's in front

(19:31):
of us. It doesn't look as say, we've got too
many options moving forward, and it's a completely different model.
You know, we're potentially back then it was a mega
merger of sixty percent and here we are now probably
going to lose the cooperative, but least you know, there's
still some equity in the company for shareholders.

Speaker 3 (19:50):
Okay, well, let's look forward and some of the potential
positives out of this, the synergies around having a Northern
Hemisphere partner.

Speaker 6 (20:00):
Yeah, well, I think you know, over on the other
side of the world, they're close to the market. They
seem to have a family business. The CEO of Dawn
Meats has said out a letter to all the shareholders
and explain what they're about, and you know it reads resume. Well,
when you know, it seems to be a better better
fit than just getting money in the marketplace. You know,

(20:21):
they're a processor as well, process process a lot of cattle.
Alliance will fill in the sheep side of things, more
sheep for them, So there seems to be a reasonable
fit you'd think around that moving forward. So yeah, look,
I mean it's the only option they've got at this stage, Jamie,

(20:41):
So I think you know, Shihold is going to seriously consider,
you know, where they want the you know, they want
the company, and getting rid of Alliance isn't the fix
for the industry. You know, that's going to be made clear.
You know, people think that, you know, the Alliance falls over,
it's the fix of the industry. It's clearly not.

Speaker 3 (20:58):
I talked to Mark one yesterday about some of the perceived,
anyhow bad practice with an Alliance which was selling itself
as a co op but behaving in an uncooperative manner. Really,
when it comes to sweetheart deals for larger suppliers and
third party traders, do you think they're going to knock
that on the head or have they largely done that?

Speaker 6 (21:19):
Oh? No, I think they've got to change this massive.
This is why most people, you know, I've lost market
shares because of this third party trading and you know,
losing connection with the shareholders. I mean, it's just putting
another level in the middle. I mean, but it's just
you know, it's just not that as well. You know,
the schedule isn't competitive. I mean if you look at
it last week or this week, you know, there's a

(21:40):
massive difference between the light's schedule and some of the opposition,
and that's going to be closed up and that's why
people are leaving it, why she's in the same thing.
And the big thing we've got to realize that sheep
Meets is that sheep Meets is a niche product. And
I mean, end of story, it's a niche product and
that's how it's going to be marketing. And the closes
can get to the market for that and get the

(22:01):
feedback for what the consumer wants. That's that's how niche
product marketing works. And it's got none to do with commodity.
It's at the other end of the scale. So especially
for sheep meats, you know, it makes up two percent
of the world protein I think, and we've just you know,
there's got to be some change within Alliance of how
they do their business because if they carry on the

(22:22):
way they are, you know, in three or four years time,
so there won't be a company that'll be gone in
the industry will be completely different.

Speaker 3 (22:29):
And let's not forget lamb as a wonderful product. Pete Turner,
thanks for some of your time, good luck and good
luck for a good spring in South on this year.
I think you're owed one after last year.

Speaker 6 (22:40):
Well, we're certainly going to need one because you know
we've had a couple on a road down south that
have been philly testing. And yes, all farmers are looking
forward to a good spring. We've had a mild winter
so far, so let's just hope it doesn't bring it
in the spring. But thanks very much, Jamie.

Speaker 3 (22:56):
Well, thank you, Pete. He's gone rather quickly, Pete Turner
there out of South and some of your feedback, John
obviously from Northland said I've just passed another three thousand
acres of freshly sprayed out farmland on State Highway fourteen.
Fongerra to Dargable will be continuous forest in two years.

(23:20):
He's talking about Fongeray to Dargable will be continuous forest
in two years. Watch silver fern farms. Dargable plant closed down.
Says John. Here's another one and we'll get Kate Ackland
to address this very shortly on the show. Your guest
yesterday and that's Dennis Nelson is out of touch. A

(23:40):
lot of people say that about Dennis. By the way,
Texters out of touch when he said he didn't know
of any farms planted just for carbon. The Enzied Carbon
Farming Company have just bought and planted a lot of
farmland that will never be harvested, especially in the why
Totra Valley just north north of Wanganui, writes John. And

(24:02):
one more, Trevor, I'm personally offended by this text. Trevor
texts in and says, aren't women bad luck on boats?
And these boats don't even have a galley, Trevor, Trevor,
shame on you. Up next, we're equal opportunity here on
this show. Will let Michelle? What do the rural news.

Speaker 1 (24:23):
So?

Speaker 6 (24:23):
I like to know?

Speaker 3 (24:25):
It is twenty five away from one. He's the latest
on Rural.

Speaker 1 (24:28):
News, The Country's Rural News with cub Cadet, New Zealand's
leading right on lawn Bower brand. Visit steel Ford dot
co dot nzid for your local stockist.

Speaker 2 (24:39):
And new survey reveals Kiwis expect farmers and food producers
to lead the charge and cushing greenhouse gaes emissions, and
they're already giving them credit for the progress conducted by
Primary Purpose. The poll show seventy percent of New Zealanders
believe it's important for the sector to reduce emissions, with
urban support especially strong. Nearly Halsea farmers are doing well
and thirty one percent believe they're up before among other industries.

(25:01):
Responsibility for emissions reduction is shared equally between farmers, government
and the food industry primary purposes. Mark Elliott says the
findings highlight a key opportunity for collaboration and continued leadership
and climate action. And that's where all news. You can
find more at the country dot co dot nz. Do
you got your sports news zre.

Speaker 1 (25:17):
Jamie Sport were then AFCO Kiwi to the bone since
nineteen oh four.

Speaker 3 (25:23):
Yes, I have Michelle. The decision to guarantee a female sailor.
That's what we've been talking about on each boat. At
the thirty eighth America's Cup has been saluted by Yachting
New Zealand. Not everyone's got their head in the sand
like me. Michelle, acting CEO Raina Hag says it opens

(25:43):
more doors, just like it does for the influencer on
the boat and England footballer Jack Grealish has joined Everton
on a one season long or on a season long
loan from Manchester City in a bid to reignite his
international career. That's your sports news for you. Some of
your feedback coming in. Help's get rid of that. It's

(26:04):
a twenty six per share for Alliance shares is nothing
but insulting, writes this text. Or just like a CYC law.
If you'd invested ten thousand dollars in the New Zealand
share market thirty years ago, that investment would be worth
approximately one hundred and thirty six thousand on today's on
today's market with growth alone, without dividends, writes the texture.

(26:27):
And yet the same amount invested in Alliance thirty years
ago today is now worth twelve six hundred what it
is if you can sell it, It'll be interesting to
see what happens to the shares when they do, or
if they do trade on that secondary market. Up next,
we're going to address some of the feedback from Dennis Neilsen,
the self anointed oracle of forestry. On yesterday's show, it's

(26:48):
Kate Ackland, Chair of Beef and Lamb New Zealand. It
is the day for chair women today on the country.
Very shortly Tracy Brown in Mada matter for Dairy and

(27:09):
z but it's Kate Ackland, Mid Canterbury for beef and
lamb New Zealand, all the industry good bodies on the
show today, and Kate, even though you are a woman,
you've got the man flu.

Speaker 1 (27:21):
Ah.

Speaker 5 (27:21):
Yeah, I'm a little bit under the weather, Jamie. I've
been on the road for the last week doing farmer
road shows, so just enjoying a quiet day at home today.

Speaker 3 (27:30):
Did the interview on yesterday's show with the self anointed
oracle of forestry, Dennis Neilson make you feel any better?

Speaker 5 (27:38):
Well, look, I wasn't quite sure where he was coming
from actually, to be honest, but he was very complimentary
of the job that the farmer lobby had done, so
that was one thing. But you know, look, it's never
actually been a forestry versus sheep and beef. You know,
we're quite supportive of forestry. It's carbon farming that we've

(27:58):
got the issue with.

Speaker 3 (28:00):
One of the sticking points I had with Dennis, and
he wasn't able to tell me the answer. I'm not
sure anyone knows the answer at this point in time.
But how many of these supposed and inverted commas carbon
forests will ever be harvested? He said, no one plants
a tree without the idea of harvesting it. I don't
buy that.

Speaker 5 (28:19):
No, Look, we know that's not true and anecdotally, and
we've got some research to back it up. There is
quite a number of forests that have been planted for
offsetting that won't be harvested.

Speaker 4 (28:28):
So you know that the.

Speaker 5 (28:30):
Changes the government's proposed are a good start. We're really
concerned they're not going to go far enough. But there
is absolutely trees being planted across good quality farmland in
New Zealand that will never be harvested.

Speaker 3 (28:41):
So Dennis was saying and paying tribute to the PR
departments at Beef and Lamb New Zealand and also Federated Farmers.
He said, you were laying it on a bit thick,
but he conceded you'd done a better job of lobbying
than the forestry industry. And the other thing that he
said is that basically your lobbying and the PR machine
shut down the forestry industry. According to him, no one

(29:03):
is buying pine seedlings.

Speaker 5 (29:06):
Look, time will tell whether that's true or not. You know,
I think it's taken a little bit of wind out
of the sales the government's announcements, so that is a
good thing. But look, absolutely trees within farms can and
should continue. So it's all about getting that right tree
in the right place. As you said yesterday, forestry is
a really important part of our export portfolio.

Speaker 3 (29:27):
Yeah, and it's struggling a bit at the moment in
terms of economic returns. Our farmers and foresters can be friends.
You've got lots of trees on your farm. Are you
going to harvest those? Some of the ones way out
the back.

Speaker 6 (29:40):
Oh.

Speaker 5 (29:40):
Look, we've planted every tree on our farm with the
intention of harvesting it. So we've got about ten percent
of our property in trees and sort of those south
facing gullies and areas that aren't really productive. So we've
managed to do that and hold our stocking rates at
what it was before. So for us, it's a really
great divestification to the business taking the good quality land up.

Speaker 3 (30:02):
See Dennis says, you guys about flank them. You guys
at Beef and Lamb are saying the government hasn't gone
far enough. No one seems to be happy all.

Speaker 5 (30:12):
We do have concerns that this won't go far enough.
We think it'll still see up to a million hectares
of farmland planted in trees by twenty fifty. But look,
time will tell, and I think we're going to have
to watch this bond very closely and continue to watch
it very closely. But fundamentally, it's not the forestry. It's
the ets settings and the off setting that is driving this.

(30:33):
It's creating that false market and that sort of incentive
or subsidy for tree planting.

Speaker 3 (30:37):
But Kate, how do we meet our emissions reduction targets
without planting pine trees? As brutal as that truth is.

Speaker 5 (30:46):
Well, there's a few parts to that. We need to
get those emissions reductions targets right. Pine trees will be
part of the answer that we actually know the technology
exists for reducing fossil fells already for electrification, so while
people are allowed to just plant pine trees, they don't
actually need to make any any changes on things like
fossil fuels. So we are the only country in the

(31:10):
world other than Kazakhstan that allows one hundred percent offsetting.

Speaker 3 (31:14):
Kate Ackland, Chair of Beef and LAMB New Zealand with us.
The other topic djure at the moment out there is
the proposed sale of sixty five percent of the Alliance
Group to Irish meat company Dawn Meats, does Beef and
Lamb New Zealand have an official position on this one.

Speaker 5 (31:32):
Well, look, Jamie, obviously I can't comment on the specifics,
but this is a really big decision for Farmer shareholders
but for all of New Zealand. So I guess i'd
be strongly urging all of those Alliance shareholders just to
make sure that you fully read the documentation, that you
understand the implications, and just make sure that you vote
because apathy is a real issue in a lot of

(31:53):
our filing elections, So this is one that's really critical
that people get involved in and sort of understand what's
going on and have you say.

Speaker 3 (32:01):
The problem that you have, i e. The red meat
industry has is your industry model is fatally flawed as
it stands at the moment.

Speaker 5 (32:09):
Well I'm not sure if i'd call it fatally flawed,
but look, absolutely there are some structural and over capacity
issues that will need to be dealt with, and this
will be one step that I think we'll continue to
see some changes coming.

Speaker 3 (32:21):
Yeah, but you're fighting each other at the farm gate
to get the stock and then you're fighting one another.
I'm talking about the meat companies here on the other
side of the world trying to market it.

Speaker 5 (32:30):
Yeah. Look, and obviously there are more plants then we
have lives doctor fill them and that's really not helping issues.
So there are a lot of things that need to
be dealt with absolutely.

Speaker 3 (32:41):
Yeah. Well, if Dennis Neilson has his way, he'll plant
a whole lot more pine trees. We won't have to
worry about the red meat industry. Kate Ackland, thanks for
some of your time today, and good luck battling the
man flu. Women aren't meant to get the man flu,
by the way, you're meant to battle on with it.

Speaker 5 (32:58):
Well, I'm trying gout on you.

Speaker 3 (32:59):
Thanks your time, Thanks, thank you, Kate. It is bang
on thirteen away from one. We're going to stick with
the female chairs. They're not only allowed on boats, Michelle,
they're running all of our industry good bodies up next
to Tracy Brown and Mada Matter from dairy in zed

(33:24):
bit of a change attack now on the country we
go from the meat industry to the dairy industry. Tracy
Brown is a Mada Matter dairy farmer farms just near Hobbiton.
She's also the chair for her sins of Dairy and Zed,
Tracy putting on your farmer's hat at the coal face.
How's carving going in the white caddow.

Speaker 7 (33:44):
Well, we're well over halfway through now, Janie. Today's a
nice sunny day, so that's always good. We've had some
sort of wheat patches, but all in all it's been
pretty good. So yeah, yeah, yeah, go compare to some
other years, and.

Speaker 3 (34:02):
No doubt, with the prospect of a ten dollar payout
for the season we've just finished. And I see the
b in Zed earlier this week came out and thereforecasting
ten twenty five for the twenty five twenty sixth season.
Happy days for you dairy farmers.

Speaker 7 (34:17):
Yeah, but let's not forget our margins squazed Jamie as
well with the increase in the break even milk price,
So you know it's you know, while we're optimistic, you know,
we've still got some challenges.

Speaker 3 (34:30):
So yeah, new farmers are never happy. I get that.
I totally get that. But it's a lot easier to
balance the books at ten dollars than seven or eight dollars.
Radio nominations for the Board of Directors for Dairy and
z I Think opened on Monday, what if people are

(34:51):
listening and thinking I'm not good enough to be one
of those what do you say to people who should
put their name forward.

Speaker 7 (34:59):
Yeah, so we've got two vacancies a share, So myself
and Chris Lois are up for reelection, so we're both restanding,
but we're always looking. Darings is always keen for farmers
to have choice, so we're looking. I guess potential candidates
would be those that are willing to really engage the
fellow farmers. They're interested in policy and willing to engage

(35:22):
around that really keen to help us deliver on our
strategy and get you got to research outcomes and good
solutions into farmer's hands. So you know, I think anybody
that's interested in being a director should talk to another
director potentially and just sort of find out what's involved.
There is a bit of time commitments, so you need

(35:43):
to be in a position to be able to sort
of give some time back to the sector. But yeah,
really encourage anyone that's interested to sort of get in
touch and find out more about it.

Speaker 3 (35:53):
Well, as a sitting director who's standing again for an election,
you and Chris won't be encouraging people too much. I think.

Speaker 7 (36:00):
Like I said before, Janie, it's always good for farmers
to have choice, and it's always good for directors to
feel like they've earned the right to be there.

Speaker 3 (36:07):
So, okay, what one more topic to cover off and
this is the RMA fresh water. Be careful, Tracy, be
very very careful. I have a low threshold to boredom.
Make this exciting or old. Bid you farewell?

Speaker 7 (36:22):
Okay, Jomie, I've been told Okay, so I guess. So
there's sort of there's been a process underway for confrontation darians.

Speaker 4 (36:31):
It's been out there.

Speaker 7 (36:32):
Our team's been talking to farmers just to better understand
what are the things are concerned about and what they
want to see in our submission. So we've done that.
We want this, you know, we want the new roles
to be practical, we want them to be science based.
We want a really good focus on environmental and human health.
We want any solutions to be farmer lead driven by catchments,

(36:55):
and we want a policy package that's trusted by farmers
and communities. So we've done a lot of work on this.
The next favorite consultations October. If people want to know
more about what's in the Durancid submission. We've done a
really good Talking Dairy podcast with David Cooper, who's one
of our or who as our principal regional policy advisor.
So on the Durian said website and have a listen

(37:17):
to that if you want more detail. But you know,
I'm confident that we've gone through a good process and
been sort of clear with where we think the sector
needs to head, where New Zealand needs to head with
us to ensure god water quality outcomes.

Speaker 3 (37:32):
Tracy Brown, chair of Dairy and Zed, good luck with
the rest of the carving at Hobbiton or just next
door to Orbiton go.

Speaker 5 (37:38):
Well, thanks Jamie.

Speaker 3 (37:41):
Thanks Tracy. It is farther away from one year with
the Country. The show is brought to you by Brent.
We're going to wrap it after the break with some
of your feedback, Okay, wrapping the Country for a Wednesday.
Ted sent me in a text about the return on
Forest Street. At the moment, I need to decipher this one, Ted,

(38:02):
but thanks for the text. Are the large supplier deals
and third party deals through the Alliance Group started under
Big Bad John Turner's rain. She'll have to ask John
about that one. All of us smaller farmers have jumped ship,
says farmer Joe down in Southland. That's us tomorrow. We

(38:25):
got Chippy on the show tomorrow to talk about a
capital gains tax. You farmers are going to love that.

Speaker 2 (38:30):
And you to help me save room.

Speaker 1 (38:33):
Catch all the latest from the land. It's The Country
Podcast with Jamie McKay. Thanks to Brent, You're specialist in
John Deare construction equipment.