The Country 09/07/25: Shane McManaway talks to Jamie Mackay

A Wairarapa farmer and philanthropist talks about saving the Pūkaha National Wildlife Centre.

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Here's the bloke who is doing wonderful work not only
in his own region but all around New Zealand. Shane mcmanaway,
Good o, Shane. Good afternoon, Good afternoon, Jamie. Good afternoon, David. Yeah, no,
we were jesting that you'd built a hospital. It's a
health center in the south Wire Rapper. Can you whip
down to Duned and then finish the job here?

Speaker 2 (00:20):
Yeah, Jamie. I wish I could, And let's hope that
that continues to get finished. And we certainly need some
work done in our health area of across New Zealand,
that's for sure. So anything that can happen that people
can get in behind that one under need and make
it work the quicker the better.

Speaker 1 (00:37):
I saw you on the National News the other day, Shane,
saving the Is it the Pookaha National Wildlife Reserve?

Speaker 2 (00:47):
Yeah, Jamie, this is a bit of a new challenge
for us. I guess I hadn't didn't know much about
Pooka only other than the fact that it's a bit
of a jewel in the crown for us. Here in
the wider Rappaal Wildlife Center, which in about nineteen sixty
two by a guy called Elwyn Welsh who back then
raised some taka he checks with his bantams, and that's
how it got underway, and today it's up. Until a

(01:12):
week or two back, it was taking along quite well,
except for the fact that it ran into some really
serious financial problems. So myself and Bob Francis were asked
if we could step in and see if we could
help the book the current board that was set up
back then, and we got in there about the start
of June, and I can say that we've been able

(01:34):
to save the place. It was lights out pretty much
at the end of May. We're back up and running.
We're still not out of the woods completely, but we
had a lifeline thrown to us by Rangatani tou Maira,
which would become fabulous partners with us up there at Poukaha.
So Jamie, something that we couldn't see clothes has about
twenty nine thousand visitors, and as I say, it's a

(01:56):
massive resource here for a tourist resource, and the locals,
all the kids, just about every kid in the wire
Apper I think would have been through Poukaha and many
throughout New Zealand. So I'm pleased that we've been able
to get in that.

Speaker 1 (02:06):
I know you're very passionate about getting our youngest and
smartest and brightest into agriculture, and I think you've got
a question for Acting Prime Minister David Seymour along those lines.

Speaker 2 (02:19):
Yeah, I have, and David, I'm super passionate about getting
young people into agriculture. And it's certainly the opportunities are
enormous that these days for anybody getting into the food
and fiber sector and it's gone are the days, I
guess where you just pull on a piric umboots and
be out there in the mud. I mean, the technology
that surrounds itself within the food and fiber sector and
the opportunities that is creating is absolutely enormous. The problem

(02:44):
I think that we've got at the moment is we
don't have enough teachers in the agri sector. I'm working
closely with Cardett Low and Tim Dangen to see if
we can't rally the troops in government to see if
we can fix that problem. I'm not sure we're making
a lot of headway, but there's a lot of young
kids that who could get into agriculture and make a

(03:04):
career of it, and boy, do we need more young people.

Speaker 3 (03:08):
Well, it's a huge topic. I just make a general comment.
For thirty years, successive politicians have sold middle class parents
the cap and gown dream. In other words, we'll get
a picture in a cap and gown outside of clocktail
at some university. But over time more people have done it,
and the value of those degrees has gone down. I

(03:30):
think the opportunity for more vocational education doing practical things
that actually end up making a much bigger return than
some of the degrees for everyone out there is actually
a really big opportunity that we've got to take if
you want to get into the practicalities of how we
deliver that. The government has been totally preoccupied with trying

(03:52):
to clean up the tepooking a mess and the broke politics.
But I think you'll see in Penny Simmons' vocational education,
now that she's got that mess almost under control, starting
to focus on how do we get better value for
money out of more practical qualifications, and that's got to
include agriculture.

Speaker 1 (04:10):
Yeah, and Penny Simmon's a good riverstyle primary school made
of mine. There you go, I did wonder Lee you
did one day. You've got time for one more question
from you, Shane mcmana for the acting Prime Minister.

Speaker 2 (04:21):
Yeah, well, I guess it's still around that educational stuff
in the agri sector. David, I think we we've got
a very fragmented approach to it, as we have to
a lot of things in New Zealand. I think we
have a lot of people trying to do their very
best and good people trying to make a difference, but
none of us are sort of connected. And I think
one of the things that we need to do right

(04:42):
across the agri sector of New Zealand has come together
with a body that can get things done. There's a
hell of a lot of talk and not a lot
of action in some cases, and I think one of
the things that drives me to get these young people
into school, David.

Speaker 1 (04:56):
You better be quick with us, Shane, you better be
quick with us. We've got thirty seconds.

Speaker 2 (04:59):
Yeah, we need to get cracking and get some action
around this topic. Yeah.

Speaker 3 (05:05):
Look, I think again Penny's restructuring of TEPU King will
have a replacement for the workforce Development councils that will
really bring together the industry and make sure the education
is delivering for them. And can I just say good
on you. And when people say they want to tax
successful people, just remember it's people like Shane here who

(05:26):
are actually putting into conservation, putting into education, putting into
help and they don't need to be beaten down, they
need to be pushed up.

Speaker 1 (05:32):
David Seymour and Shane mcmanaway