Jamie Mackay: The Country host on the South Island recovering from last week's weather

Fresh attention on rural areas reeling from last week's severe weather.

Southland, Clutha and Kaikoura are still under States of Emergency  - and more than 8,000 properties in Southland and Otago are still without power.

The Country's Jamie Mackay explains further.

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:01):
The Rural Report on Hither Duper see Alandro Jaane.

Speaker 2 (00:05):
The COAI Host of the Countries with us Alo Jamie
good a Hea. Right, how's it going down south with
the dairy farms.

Speaker 1 (00:11):
Oh, it's a bit of a battle, to be perfectly honest.
It's not only the dairy farmers. The late lambing sheep
farmers are getting a bit of a wee bit of
a pasting now with the out of seasoned snow. You
don't expect snow to be hanging around at the end
of October. But yeah, look, dairy farmers are the biggest
problem because at this time of the year, normally, unless
they're on a once a day milking regime, cows are

(00:33):
milk twice a day their creatures of habit. When the
power goes off and they can't be milked, they get
very uncomfortable. Indeed, we have seen some cow deaths, certainly
animal welfare issues around the likes of mastitis and that
because a lot of these cows have gone on to
once a day while they're being milked with the generators.
There's still like over two hundred dairy farms. In fact,

(00:56):
it's probably more than that without power, including the one
I'm down on western Southland, so this morning's numbers are
on the power and power need are doing a great
job down there, they're probably they've probably alleviated these a
weeb but six two hundred and fifty customers in Southland,
two and a half thousand in Otago, mainly southwest Otago

(01:17):
still without power. So it's a real issue. And I
know that the Rural Support Trust are now moving their
concerns from animal welfare to human welfare. A lot of
these farmers are fatigue. They've been going flat out for
four or five days now. They may not have had showers,
proper meals, or even looking after themselves properly. So look,

(01:40):
it's as I said to you, I think on Thursday
when this was just a brand new problem, it's a
problem that's going to take weeks and months to fix
other than day some of those some of the power
won't be on on some of those farms until the
end of the week at earliest.

Speaker 2 (01:54):
Listen, Jennie, I didn't get enough time with Chippy to
ask them absolutely everything. Do you know the farmers excluded
from the capital gains tax? But do you know whether
that includes things like orchards and horticulturalists and stuff.

Speaker 1 (02:06):
Well, yes, i'd assume so, I mean, but let's be
honest with this. This is a chippy's cap. I had
a good debate with Tami and O'Connor on this one today.
It kind of is a wee bit of taking from
the rich and giving to the rich. Really when you
think about it, because people like you and I know
you're rich, and I'm battling away my hardest as I
can here, but we don't need a free doctors or

(02:31):
three free doctor's appointments in a year. So what are
they actually achieving by this tax. It's a very it's
a very narrow tax. As you pointed out to one
of your texts, did it's not going to gather much money.
This is just an exercise, in my humble opinion, and
I've been wrong on numerous occasions before. It's dipping your
toe in the water, flying a kite. This is the

(02:52):
tip of the icebergy. This is politically palatable. I'll try
and get this one past the goalie, but watch out
in New Zealand of Chippy to party Maori and the
Greens get elected come twenty twenty six, it's game on
for a really good capital gains tax, or maybe even
if the Greens or the Party Murray get their way,

(03:12):
or wealth tax. Yep, that'd be good for the economy.

Speaker 2 (03:14):
Totally agree with you. It's just the start of something. Hey,
thank you very much. Jammie has always appreciate it. Jammy
Mackay hosts of the Country.

Speaker 1 (03:21):
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