The Country 11/03/25: Jo Luxton talks to Jamie Mackay

Could Labour’s agriculture spokeswoman be the next Minister of Agriculture if Chris Hipkins sleepwalks to victory in 2026? Why is she speaking out about the Gene Tech Bill? And why has she moved to Gisborne?

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Joe Luxton as Labour's agriculture spokesperson. Joe, I better be
nice to you because the way the Poles are going,
Chippy might sleep walk to victory and you might be
the next Minister of Agriculture.

Speaker 2 (00:11):
Damie, you're always nice to me. I don't think there's
a time when you haven't been nice to me. But
the Poles yere. They are at the stage looking good
for us, but you know, there's still a heck of
a lot of work to do in I think it's
just a signal from the country that they're not actually
happy with what the current government is doing. They've said
that they will have a labor sharp focus on the

(00:33):
cost of living for people, and I just don't think
that people are feeling they're in their back pocket yet.
So it's just a signal that people aren't happy with
what they're doing.

Speaker 1 (00:41):
Yeah, I think they've got eighteen months to turn the
economy around and that will ultimately be the decider. Look,
if you are going to be hypothetically the next Minister
of agriculture, Joe, where's your egg egg policy? I've seen
nothing from you.

Speaker 2 (00:55):
No, you remind me of a child that sits in
the back seat saying Mom, Dad, are we there yet?
And the reason I say that is I said all
the time, I'm not sure that you were there.

Speaker 1 (01:05):
Well, you could come up with some egg policy, Joe,
you could come up with some egg policy and shut
me out.

Speaker 2 (01:11):
I don't think that you were at hard call with
the Nets when they were in his opposition. But if
you had happen to listen to Chris's State of the
Nation's speech, I'm sure you were glued to that on Friday,
saying that you will hear some policy announcements from us
in the second half of this year, and so you're

(01:33):
just going to have to be patient and wait and see. Jamie.

Speaker 1 (01:37):
Maybe the best policy for the Labor parties just to
shut up and do nothing.

Speaker 2 (01:41):
No, absolutely not, you know, definitely.

Speaker 1 (01:44):
Not okay, Joe Chippy's a bit of a centrist and well,
you know there's a few people on the Labor Party
I like, I could I had a pinch, I could
live with the Labor government, I think, But really, do
I want to be governed by Tapathi Maori and the
Greens minus James Shaw?

Speaker 2 (02:00):
Well, the thing with the elections is it's not just
going to be act to you Jamie.

Speaker 1 (02:04):
No, but on one vote, I'm just saying you and
I probably reflect a lot of people in rural New Zealand.

Speaker 2 (02:10):
Yeah. I think there's a couple of things, you know.
I think the Say of the Nation speech that Chris
gave on Friday, they have a really clear indication and
I hope that some listeners you know, will take camp
for it from it when he said that when we
are next to in government, we will look at the
policies and things that are in place, and just because

(02:31):
they were put in place by a previous government doesn't
mean we'll throw them. If they are working for the electorate,
then why would we. So I hope that you know,
your listeners take some comfort in it that we wouldn't
just come in and scrap everything and throw it out,
certainly for the sake of it. And I would just
encourage people if they have concerns around who might form coalition,
well then just vote for labor.

Speaker 1 (02:53):
All right. Let's move on the gene tech bill. You've
been speaking out against that, Joe Luxton. Then this is
quite a tough one because a lot of people are
sitting on the fence on this one. There's definite benefits
and it's buyer beware.

Speaker 2 (03:05):
On the other side, Yeah, I'm not actually against the
bill per se. I mean, I definitely think it's time,
you know, we hear the conversation as a country around it.
The concerns that I've been hearing from an agricultural sect
has been mostly around the lack of financial scrutiny. You know,
who's going to be the cost of what are people

(03:27):
going to have to pay to prove that they are
not using ge you know when they want to sell
their product, is it going to have trade implications? And
there's just a really huge consume that there just hasn't
been enough analysis or consultation done prior. And I know
that some of the larger stakeholder reps into the organizations

(03:49):
they asked for it to just be extended a little
bit longer, so there was an opportunity for some more consultation.
And the chair of the Select committee declined that.

Speaker 1 (04:00):
Finally you've moved. You've moved from mid Canterbury effectively where
you were the local MP up until twenty twenty three,
to Gisbone. You've gone home.

Speaker 2 (04:11):
Yeah, I've gone home. I grew up in Guzie and
such a beautiful place and we don't have any children
living at home anymore, so we just made the decision that,
you know, we'll go home and spend a bit of
time there and a change of scenery and it's just
a beautiful place and why wouldn't you want to be there?

Speaker 1 (04:29):
Are you going to stand in the East Coast electorate
against National's Dana Dana? I think that's how she says it, Kirkpatrick.
She's a strong local candidate. Yeah.

Speaker 2 (04:38):
Well, our party goes through a process to choose candidates.
You know, when the time comes in you and I
will certainly be putting my hat in the ring to
hopefully be chosen there's a successful candidate to go into
the twenty twenty sixth selection there, well.

Speaker 1 (04:52):
Wait with bated breath for that one, all right, Joe Luxton.
Always good to catch up. We don't always agree, but
thanks for fronting up and I do enjoy it. You
come me on the country, can I think you?

Speaker 2 (05:02):
Jami