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July 16, 2024 5 mins

The Country's Jamie Mackay is among thousands of fans and admirers paying tribute to the late Norm Hewitt.

Hewitt died aged 55 after a battle with motor neurone disease, having played 23 games for New Zealand between 1993 and 1998.

Jamie Mackay recalled past interviews and catch-ups with the deceased rugby great.

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Speaker 1 (00:00):
Host of the Country, Jamie McKay with us this evening.
Hey Jamie, Oh hang on this acain, Hey Jamie.

Speaker 2 (00:07):
Good a Jack Take.

Speaker 1 (00:09):
Two, Take two.

Speaker 2 (00:10):
Hey.

Speaker 1 (00:12):
I know you are a man of many talents, but
I didn't know that I'd be putting you in the
same group as Frank Bunce and Olo Brown. But you
are remembering your old mate Norm Hewitt tonight. And like
those two gentlemen, once upon a time, you called your
self Norm Hewitt's minder.

Speaker 2 (00:28):
Well, I was asked to be his minder, to be
perfectly honest. I failed miserably in that job. Jack. Look
my connection with Norm Hewitt and I was so taken
aback to her. He died today, just fifty five years
of age of motor neuron disease. But my connection with
Norm came when an outfit called Team Southland decided in

(00:50):
the mid nineteen nineties that we would beef up the
Southland rugby side and had a crack at First Division
by importing a few players. We took the likes Marty
Robin's brother who was an All Black at the time,
and Norm Hewitt, and he was paid for or funded
by the Matara Licensing Trust. I was involved with him
at the time, and the chief e then chief executive,

(01:11):
asked me to be Norm's minder while he was down
in South and for two or three years. And as
I say, I probably failed a bit, especially when he
was drinking. He was a week at heart control. But
there were two sides to Norm Hewitt, A sober Norm
Hewitt or Norm Hewitt of latter years, as an absolute
gentleman and had a certain sort of air of grace

(01:31):
about him, almost Maori Royalty. I don't know what it was,
but he had that. He had that mana and air
of grace about him. So yeah, I failed probably looking
after Norm. But I loved him as a bloke and
in recent years, like you, i'd appear on the MC
circuit on occasions and i'd see him when he was
a keynote speaker at conferences. In my last memory, the

(01:53):
last time I ran into Norm was a field days
not too many years ago, when he wandered up and
he did a week slot on our show and it
was great to connect again and we went and had
a coffee and that's the last time I saw Norm.
Just one one where statistical comment and I heard Lorry
Maine's tribute to him, which was lovely as well. Norm
norm I played for the All Blacks for six seasons

(02:14):
and only got nine tests. The Blok who was in
front of him fits he played ninety two tests. If
norm was a was an All Black today, he would
have played seventy or eighty tests. So he was a
patient man because he rode the pine for a lot
of years.

Speaker 1 (02:30):
Yeah, yeah, how well said the GDT auction tonight, Jamie,
what are you expecting?

Speaker 2 (02:36):
Well, mine's far greater than mine, Jack. I always there's
a couple I go to Mike McIntyre at Jardin and
Emma Higgins at Rabobank. Look, it looks like we're heading
for three down in a row, which is a bit
depressing considering the last auction on July, the second fortnight
ago was down six point nine percent. Now the futures

(02:56):
market is picking at powder's skim powered a hole at
it could be down by as much as five percent.
Mike McIntyre's saying the GDT index cross the basket of
goods down three percent. Emma Higgins is slightly more positive
out a Ravo Bank. She's saying powders could be down
to two and a bit percent due to increased Northern

(03:17):
Hemisphere volumes on the GT platform. There is a rider
to this, though, Jack, if you're going to get a
drop in the GDT auction results, now, it's not a
bad time at the year. It's effectively our off season.
Our payment is locked and loaded for the season just gone,
and we've got a long way to go till September
twenty twenty five before we announce the payout for the

(03:39):
season we're currently in.

Speaker 1 (03:41):
And Jamie, are we living through the beginning of the
end for free trade?

Speaker 2 (03:45):
I don't know. I should ask you. I know you
spent a lot of time in the States following the
likes of Shrump and Biden. Look, I was just reading
an interesting article Jack and Farmers Weekly, and I do
need to credit them for putting this together. They're basically
saying both candidates Biden and Trump look like they're going
to have presidential election policies imposing tariffs on imported products

(04:09):
that could provoke global retaliation. Obviously, China's their primary target.
China's one of the world's biggest traders, if not the
world's biggest trader, so that's going to have an effect
on us. Jnald Trump is going threatening to impose a
sixty percent tariff on all imports from China and add
a ten percent tariff on imports from the rest of

(04:29):
the world. That would sting, while Joe Biden's already moved
on the Chinese. For instance, if you want to buy
a Chinese electric vehicle, you'll pay one hundred percent tariff.

Speaker 1 (04:39):
Yeah, that's massive a thank you so much, Jamie. That's
Jamie mckaye, host of the Country. It's a very good point. Actually,
after Trump's first term, a lot of people thought that
Joe Biden would wind back a lot of those trade
policies with China, but actually, if anything, he's kind of
doubled down on them. So it'd be interesting to see
if we do have a second term of a Trump

(04:59):
presidency just how much he increases those again, it's like
an arms race at the moment.

Speaker 2 (05:06):
For more from Hither Duplessy Allen Drive, listen live to
news talks.

Speaker 1 (05:09):
It'd be from four pm weekdays, or follow the podcast
on iHeartRadio.
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