Jamie Mackay: The Country host on farmers' response to the Opportunity Party

Despite being at 4.7 percent in the latest Reid Research-RNZ poll, the Opportunity Party hasn't managed to attract many farmers.

The party is promising a 'Citizen's Income', compulsory KiwiSaver and a land value tax - and these haven't been received well by rural communities. 

The Country's Jamie Mackay explained further.

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Jamie McKay, host of the Country. So that's hello, Jamie.
Good iha that we've done the sums on daring, have you. Yeah, well,
in light of yesterday's announcement from Fonterra, and I'm sure
you covered it off on yesterday's show about the fifty
cent drop and the forecast farm gate milk price down
to nine to twenty five from their opening shot of

(00:20):
nine seventy five now, and this is obviously off the
back of last week's four point nine percent drop in
GDT eleven percent since late May, so we've seen quite
a drop. But I did the sums on the break
even price from dairy en Z, which is eight dollars
seventy nine per kilogram of milk solids. So I figured

(00:44):
out or chat GPT told me that your average farm
does about one hundred and eighty five thousand milk solids.
That's four hundred and forty eight cows at four hundred
and fourteen milk solids per cow. Under that scenario, you
would make a surplus of just eighty five one thousand
over and above all your farm working expenses. And there

(01:05):
is an allowance and there I understand from dairy and
z for management and wages or whatever. But that's not
that great if you've got say six to eight million,
which you could easily have invested in a property that
would run like four hundred and fifty cows. So it
is a bit of an issue. Look at payout starting
with the Nine's okay, it's just the cost of production

(01:26):
starting with an eight, isn't that flash? And the other
thing that we need to factor in Hector Hector. Let
me try. I don't know where I got Hector from Amnil. Sorry,
it's a hundred of the Wilder People thing, isn't it.
I'm going to put it down to that. I love
that film, probably my favorite Samnil film, to be perfectly honest.
We'll try Heather. The other thing we need to factor

(01:47):
and is the potential our Nino weather pattern impacting global supply.
Now this is a good and bad news story. The
bad news is it will probably drop production and may
his price is a week bit, but I think the
production drop would outweigh the price increase. So we're all
waiting with baited breath. But a bit of a dull

(02:07):
start to the dairy season, really. But you know, there
was a time last year when we were looking at
a payout of eight bucks and this season is going
to finish at about nine to seventy, so you know
it's early days, early doors. We've been talking about the
Opportunity Party because they've obviously come through in the latest
poll doing quite well. What do farmers make of them? Well,
I don't reckon they're exactly flocking to them. Interestingly, I

(02:28):
had Daniel Ebb on my show today, who's the deputy leader.
Now I've known Daniel for a number of years because
he's done a lot of PR in the ag space.
This is the guy who used to run the open
farms all around New Zealand and he's done PR for
the likes of Agmarth and all that. So I've had
quite a bit to do with them over the years.
He's a good bloke and he's if he's the PR

(02:50):
guy for the Opportunity Party, he's not doing a bad
job because they've gone from nowhere. Remembering this is a
party that had to advertise for a leader for God's sake,
and they're on the five threshold. I don't think they
will be welcome with open arms by farmers, simply because
I don't think farmers would agree on the universal basic income.
You know, farmers get out of bed early, work hard,

(03:12):
you know, make their own way in life. And the
other thing is which would obviously be a big distancent
to farming and to land owners or property owners, is
the zero point five percent tax on rural land. You know,
if you've got a ten million dollar farm, and that's
not out of the question at all these days, with
the dairy farm or a kiwi fruit orchard that's fifty

(03:33):
grand a year, you've got a fine to pay the
land tax. Well, you might be getting the universal income back.
In fact, you won't get the universal income because you
won't need it, but the maths don't work out for
you that well. The other thing, interestingly, I stumbled across
with the Opportunity Party. They're going to simplify the income
tax brackets to three brackets ranging from twenty eight to

(03:55):
thirty nine percent. We're at thirty nine for our top
marginal tax rate at the moment. You've got to remember
if you're earning, if you're earning zero to fifteen thousand,
six hundred dollars head, they're only playing ten point five percent,
only seventeen point five percent on income from fifteen to
fifty three grand. So there could be a lot of
New Zealanders with if the top party have their way,

(04:16):
who could be paying quite a bit more tax. Oh yeah, no,
and more tax. Absolutely know it's not going to happen listen,
but there'll be about five percent who love the idea. Jamie,
thanks very much. Look after yourself mate, we'll talk to
you in a couple of days. Jamie McKay hosts of
the Country. For more from Heather Duplessy Allen Drive, Listen
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