Jamie Mackay: The Country host on Huinga dairy farmer Brendan Attrill winning Gordon Stephenson Trophy

Brendan Attrill, of Caiseal Trust in Taranaki, has been announced as the 2025 National Ambassador for Sustainable Farming and Growing.

Attrill received the Gordon Stephenson Trophy at the National Sustainability Showcase at Tākina in Wellington.

The Country's Jamie Mackay explains further. 

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
With me now as Jamie Mackay, host of the Country.
Hello Jamie, Hello Heather.

Speaker 2 (00:04):
Did we get to the bottom of the after shaved headaches? Yes?

Speaker 1 (00:08):
Do you know what we did? I found a hold
on what was it? There were two ingredients in your perfume.
It was one was eleavender smell and one there's eleven
to smell. It's like lennelu it's called or something like that.
And then there's a citrus note which is like lemuel
or something like that. And those of your little migraine

(00:29):
triggers right there. So it's not your fault. Jamie.

Speaker 2 (00:33):
Oh, thank you. You've just I've just wasted a bottle
of Amani Stronger with you after.

Speaker 1 (00:41):
Yeah, if your wife likes it, that's more important. If
she doesn't get a headache from that, but just from
your general carping, then you're okay.

Speaker 2 (00:47):
Hey, listen, I think it is the latest.

Speaker 1 (00:50):
I want to know what's going on here with this
this ute tax. I think the thing is. I think
the problem here may be Simon Watt's actually who who it's?
This is not the time that he's actually got on
the tits of the farmers, is it.

Speaker 2 (01:03):
No, he's a bit accident prone him and the other
bloke what's the other guy's name, the mental health minister Doocy.
He seems to do sy. The pair of them seemed
to be a wee bit accident prone and to be
fair enough, And I'd say this often repeating myself, but
you know, the current government is about as farmer friendly
as you get, and Federated Farmers, who were doing a
really good job being attack dogs at the moment, picked

(01:26):
up on this really quickly. Earlier in the week, I
think it was Tuesday when they kind of had the
ute tax two point zero and instead of red, they
had it and blue and they were dead right. Some
hair brain scheme somewhere suggesting that farmers should pay some
a ridiculous amount of FBT on their utes, and farmers
are no different than anyone else. If you're using your

(01:48):
ute for a lot of private motoring, well you've got
to stick to the rules and pay your FBT. But
the reality for most farmers when they're driving the high
Lucks or the Ranger around and nearly all but or
a good proportion of it as a business use, so
the FBT component should be very, very small. And someone
has obviously realized that in the Simon Watts department. Yeah,

(02:11):
fair enough.

Speaker 1 (02:12):
Tell me tell me really quickly about this chap, Gordon Stevenson.

Speaker 2 (02:15):
What's he want? Well, well he's I spoke to him today.
He was the big winner at the Balance Farm Environment Towards.
He took out the South Taranaki Farmer just east of Stratford.
There he took out what is the title? Let me
get this right. He's the twenty twenty five National Ambassador
for Sustainable Farming and Growing. But I never knew the blowcare.

(02:36):
He's a mate of a mate and everyone knows everyone
in Taranaki. But I chatted to him on the show today.
Most impressive fifty five years of age, which is quite
old to get that prize, but as he said, he's
well down the sustainability trip. This guy has got fingers
in so many pies and he's such a good all rounder,
great communicator, great with the community'd been involved in everything.

(02:57):
But wait for this, Heather. I chatted to him just
before we jumped on the plane to go to Mongolia
to drive a dirt bike, ride a dirt bike across
the Gobi Desert. So he's a bit of a go getter.
Keep your eye out for her.

Speaker 1 (03:10):
Yeah, thanks, Jamie, appreciate it. Jamie mckaie, host of the Country.

Speaker 2 (03:13):
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