Jamie Mackay: The Country Host on rural male suicide rates

University of Otago research revealed last year that twice the number of under 30-year-olds living in rural areas die compared to those in cities. 

It’s the strongest evidence yet that the health of rural Kiwis is worse than those who live in the city.  

The Country Host Jamie Mckay told Jack Tame “The rural male suicide rate is 64% higher than in cities.” 

Mckay said “Māori living rurally are twice as likely to die of preventable causes than their urban counterparts.” 

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Jamie McKay is the host of the Country, and Jamie,
I think it's just you and I while all of
our colleagues are living it up at the Radio Awards,
you and I grafting away as per.

Speaker 2 (00:11):
Well. Jack, that might be because I don't know about you,
but I didn't make the finals, and I'm just thinking
to myself, what's the host got, or Heather for that matter,
because you're filling into her. What have they got that
we haven't got? It doesn't appear obvious to me, Jack.

Speaker 1 (00:25):
I think we can just slip it round, Jamie. I
mean you ask yourself for this, what's the host going
to have that you don't have in about six months
when you've got a few letters after your name, Because
I mean, hey, congratulations.

Speaker 2 (00:37):
Oh well, thank you, thank you very much for that.
Mind you. Jack. Just on the subject of radio awards
and knowing I was speaking to you today, I was
trying to I think I've made in thirty years of
radio two finals, so not a great strike great to
be honest, Jack, but I must I'm in the same
category as the Hoskin Heather. But one year I did
make it. The finalists were myself, yourself and Larry Williams,

(01:02):
the blok who used to run the show. Neither and
you and I were also rams Jack and I'm not
quite sure who got second and who got third. They
didn't announce that, but I'm going age before beauty and
claiming second place.

Speaker 1 (01:14):
You know what, I'm very happy to accept that result
as well. I think that sounds about for you. Speaking
of awards, the Rural King's Birthday honors recipients and the
highest accolade went to Vincent Ashworth.

Speaker 2 (01:26):
Yeah, this is a good story. I was going to
tell this one to Heather on Tuesday, but she was
too busy giving me stick about my gong. So look,
this is the guy who was the well, as you said,
had the highest accolades. Great story. He got a Companion
of the New Zealand Order of Merit for services to
Agriculture for services in New Zealand and internationally. His work

(01:48):
dates back to nineteen seventy. He was a senior agriculturist
with the World Bank. He led missions to help farmers
with food production and more than thirty developing countries. Notably,
he spent time in really harsh farming environments such as Afghanistan, Yemen, Ethiopia.
There's a place that needs some farming advice helping them out.

(02:10):
He launched the New Zealand Society of Farm Management in
nineteen sixty nine, serving as the inaugural president. Thousands of
farmers over the years have benefited from his findings or
their findings for their practices. He was a member of
To Save the Children's New Zealand Overseas Projects Committee for
a decade back in the seventies and eighties. And he's

(02:32):
a life member. If that's not enough, a life member
of the New Zealand Institute of Primary Industry Management and
the New Zealand Institute of Agricultural Science. What a legend.
Well done, Vincent Ashra.

Speaker 1 (02:43):
Oh yeah, that's amazing. That's really special. Did some really
interesting data today, Ken, We living rurally have significantly high
mortality rates from preventable causes and alarmingly high rates of suicide.

Speaker 2 (02:57):
Yeah, and just look at that suicide rate. Jack and
I have done quite a bit of work on this
one with the likes of Farmstrong or help facilitate what
they're doing through my radio show Suicide rates for males
aged fifteen to forty four. I apologize if I'm repeating
these numbers, but they are sobering sixty four percent higher

(03:18):
in rural areas than in cities. Look, the stats don't
The stats don't stack up. For Mari younger than thirty
living remotely there twice is likely to die of preventable
causes than their urban counterparts. Non Maori thirty to forty
living rurally one point eight times more likely to die
from a preventable cause. And the kicker here is that

(03:40):
saying that you know tally health and a lot of
us are getting into health via technology isn't a solution.
Because he has some more shocking numbers for you, Jack,
Only seventy four point two percent of rural households had
access to the Internet. That's a shocking shocking And only
sixty four point six percent of some communities had access

(04:01):
to a mobile phone. I know that reception is an
issue around some of the more remote parts of the country,
but we are Jack, unfortunately when it comes to these
sort of numbers, a country of haves and have nots.

Speaker 1 (04:12):
Yeah, yeah, Hey, thank you so much for your time,
Jamie on that sobering note. Appreciate it. Hope, even though
you're not there tonight, you will be celebrating in some
other way, and congratulations once again Jamie mckaye. They're the
host of the Country. Up for more from Hither Duplessy
Allen Drive, listen live to news talks it'd be from
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