The Country 30/04/25: Jim Hopkins talks to Jamie Mackay

A rural raconteur who finds the Paris Climate Accord no joke.

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
I haven't caught up with this bloke for a while,

(00:01):
so I thought i'd brush the cobwebs off. Jim Hopkins
Rural Rack on tour, Whititaki District Councilor and Jim, I
don't know whether you heard the Christopher Luxeen interview, but
we were talking about the age of eligibility for national
supermerving it from sixty five to sixty seven. That won't
affect you because that ship has long since sailed. How
are you keeping.

Speaker 2 (00:22):
Living your route plunker? For the record, I want to
make it clear that there are no there are no
cobwebs or flies on me, and I'm keeping fat fine.
Thank you very much, and your good self. I take
it to your well. You sound to me as they've
been getting around in a sort of executive world. You're
the kind of media, the rural media equipment of Kim Kardashian,

(00:43):
living in the sort of elevate, rarefied environment of golf
and visits and whizzing here and whizzing in there.

Speaker 1 (00:51):
And golf's not a pleasure, it's a punishment for me.
I dropped your text the other day, so I said,
how about coming on because we don't know how much
longer you've got left? Course, chimp, No, I'm just joking.
But come on the show, and I said to you,
throw me a couple of topics. You come up with
the Paris Accord debate. I know that you mightn't heard luxon,
but you definitely heard Bryce McKenzie the other day. A

(01:14):
lot of what he said was good old fashioned down
on the West Otago farm, common sense.

Speaker 2 (01:20):
Absolutely. I mean, if you look at it, no one
has challenged the proposition that our contribution to global warming
is nought point one seven percent of the total, nor
point one seven percent.

Speaker 1 (01:34):
Jacinda would say to you, we've got to do our
bit on the world stage.

Speaker 2 (01:38):
Well, let's respect, we've got to play our part. We've
got to be leaders. You know, Look, there's no point
being a leader if the real polluters aren't leading anyone
anywhere except up the garden part. And that's exactly what
they're doing, because they're either pulling out of Power's Accord,
or have pulled out of it, or are paying lip
service to it but actually doing nothing. The world is

(02:00):
essentially turning away from the Paris Accord, and we're saying,
oh no, no, we have to stay in it. My
thought is this, let's have a comparison. Suppose you're worried
about crime. Now, if you have a police force and
you're worried about crime, what's your priority. You want them
to hunt that mercilessly hump down everyone with an unpaid
parking ticket? Or do you want them to focus first

(02:22):
on assault, violence and murder? And if you look at
that in a climate change context, why chase the lower
point one point seven percent of the measer when you
can be and should be chasing the heavy hitterers or
heavy emissas the ones who are as I say considering,
have already pulled out of the Paris Accord. The only

(02:44):
reason I can see for staying in that accord is
the fear that certain WOTE parties overseas might make us
a sacrificial lamp and make a high profile announcement that
if we pulled out, certain products or certain contracts would

(03:05):
be null and voided.

Speaker 1 (03:06):
Yes, the likes and the known, but.

Speaker 2 (03:08):
I'm not sure that's the case because they've recently done
deals on a cost basis rather than a climate change basis.
So I mean, in the end, we would probably just
keep watching brief on that. But my guess is that
the bottom line is that those companies are going to

(03:29):
be driven in the end by a waning public commitment
and enthusiasm and the focus on costs as people become
much more cost cost sensitive. Look what's happening in New
Zealand now, and looking to yourself yesterday, Ye, we're interviewing
Shane Jones and talking about all these dairy conversions that
I know the Prime Minister mentioned as well. And you said,

(03:51):
oh the New Zealand verson you Winston, Shane and Winston
do you support dairy conversions? And Shane say, hell, yes,
of course we do. And Amy Mackay, friend of the farmer,
immediately dropped out the media's favorite trope. Ah, but what
about the environment? Is this? And dairy alone is the
one thing that's probably matter?

Speaker 1 (04:12):
I hang on, Jim, Devil's Advocate. I was playing Devil's advocate. Look,
I'm out of time. I just want a final comment,
like twenty seconds from you. And I know you don't
do twenty seconds very well, but seriously, and Zach Day,
it's our national day.

Speaker 2 (04:26):
I was at the dawn service here. One estimate had
it that we were at more than a thousand people
in attendance, and I also spoke at down in Hamden,
which is halfway between on Maru and Palmerston, and I
actually acknowledged Sir Keith Park, who I think is actually

(04:47):
one of my great New Zealanders in the twentieth century.
In fact, i'd put him up on the top top
ten or top five. He literally masterminded or helped to
mastermind the first defeat of the Germans in World War Two.
That's the of Britain. Then that the defeat made all
the other victories later possible.

Speaker 1 (05:06):
This is the longest twenty seconds of my life. By
the way, he's well, he's undersung, absolutely hero. I'm sorry
to cut you short, but I am out of time.
It's a pleasure to catch up. I'm with Shane Jones
and Winston when it comes to the dairy conversions as
long as they're environmentally sustainable.

Speaker 2 (05:24):
Hell yes,