July 8, 2025 • 38 mins
Jamie Mackay talks to David Seymour, Wayne Langford, Hunter McGregor, Campbell Parker, and Shane McManaway.
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
Catch you all the latest from the land. It's The
Country Podcast with Jamie McKay. Thanks to Brent. You're specialist
in John Deer construction equipment.
Speaker 2 (00:31):
Gooday, New Zealand, Welcome to the Country. I'm Jamie McKay.
The show is brought to you by Brent. A bit
of fat Boy Slim right here right now for a
right winger who's in the studio co hosting for the
hour or the best part of it act Party Leader,
but more importantly for today Acting Prime Minister David Seymour
David Gooday, welcome to the studio again.
Speaker 3 (00:52):
Good Ay, it's always good to be here. And fat
Boy Slim. That's the direction I'll be trying to go
if I drink this delicious machaisa you've given.
Speaker 2 (01:00):
Me, well, you came bearing gifts and you need to
put that. What is it the pecuniary register or something
for the stuff you get for free when you're a politician.
A Register of Pecuniary and other specified interest. But the
limit is five hundred dollars and I know you're going
to actually option one of these. I'm going to it.
It's the Riversdale Farmer's Tournament tomorrow and I reckon I
might get five hundred bucks, So we'll see how we
(01:21):
go on that one. Look, you are the acting PM,
and normally you would just sort of wandering here and
would be pretty easy. Osi you realize that you caused
me some distress yesterday afternoon when the diplomatic protection squad
wandered in here. They did a sweep of the place,
all because Luxeon's on holiday. Yeah.
Speaker 3 (01:38):
Well, when you called me to say that the diplomatic
protection squad were here, I actually assumed you joking, But
then I was kind of relieved.
Speaker 2 (01:47):
Have you had any grief today in Dunedin because this
is a bit of a labour.
Speaker 3 (01:51):
Town, the complete opposite. We just saw a gran on
school holiday duty and she was saying, you must you
must love the cold because it's what it's like in
Wellington and this is the coldest day we've ever had.
I said, why do people tell me that every time
I come to the need?
Speaker 2 (02:08):
Well? Did you try and steal her off? Winston? If
she's a grand and she's wandering around here, she's probably
in New Zealand.
Speaker 3 (02:14):
First voter, Well, people like to stereotype, but the thing
that marks out the act voters is that they tend
to be the smart ones, and she looked like she
might be an act voder.
Speaker 2 (02:25):
Okay, so what we're going to do today on the show.
We're going to chat to Wayne Langford, shortly president of
Federated Farmers. More trouble for the top of the South
Island Weatherwise, Hunter McGregor our guy in Shanghai apart, well,
except for today he's in Rocksburgh, of all places, Shane
mcmanaway wire a rapper, farmer, former chief executive of All Flex, philanthropist.
(02:49):
Now here's a bloke, David. Because the government's not having
much luck building a hospital and the need and it
would be fair to say this guy built a hospital
along with his wife Lynnette, and the wire rapper just
got on with it, did it. We need to get
him down here.
Speaker 3 (03:03):
Look, I'll tell you it's interesting. Some people say it's
sort of sad or a failing when someone builds a
hospital or provides something charitably. I don't see it as
a failing. I think it's a triumph of people's success
and generosity. So good on them. I can't wait to
talk to the guy.
Speaker 2 (03:19):
Okay, let's have a look at some of the subjects
that we want to traverse today if you want. You
are the acting prime minister. Christopher Luxeon's taken a well
earned break that. I know it's true because I discussed
it with him off air last week. He literally has
one week in the middle of the year, five days,
I think, to be more precise, and then he has
a break between Christmas and New Year. He's back at
(03:41):
his desk very early in January. There's something and I'm
not singling out him, but I think people like Margaret
Thatcher John Key was the same. They're surviving on hardly
any sleep and they work all the time. Is that
a good or a bad thing?
Speaker 3 (03:57):
I think it's kind of a necessary thing if you
want to get a job like that and be the
prime minister of a country, for example. There's a whole
lot of people that want to do it. And then
you say, okay, well, they have all kind of good
in different ways. What makes the difference. Often it's just
that metabolism and stamina and energy, so kind of not
a surprise I personally. I think you do also need
(04:18):
to have a bit of thoughtfulness and know where you're going,
but that doesn't necessarily relate to how much sleep. I
think probably the gutsiest politician who had real conviction was
Margaret Thatcher. There's other people who are energize the buddies
that maybe don't have so much conviction, but hey, that's life.
Speaker 2 (04:35):
What about the political parties that are asleep at the wheel.
Could we name some of those?
Speaker 3 (04:40):
Well, I mean, I'm very happy for their party Maori,
to be asleep. And if the Greens go to sleep,
they might forget to persecute farmers and text them when
they try and pass on the farm to the next generation.
Speaker 2 (04:52):
So looking at those people Farmer's book, isn't.
Speaker 3 (04:56):
It Well, Look, I think we're at a point in
New Zealand where we've got to decide. We've had a
tough six years, no question. I think basically since March fifteen.
That's when stuff started getting hard. And then we had COVID,
then we had inflation, had interest rates. Now we've got
a recession. Now we've got a really tough geopolitical world,
and so you know, stuff's pretty tough. So we've got
(05:19):
to decay. Are we going to continue this idea that
our solutions lie in tackling some other group of New
Zealanders like those guys have got money we're going to
tax it off them. Those supermarkets, you know, we're going
to beat up on them, just like the previous one
did to landlords and farmers. I mean, or we're going
to say, look, you know, we've got a few problems.
We need to stick together and solve them. I think
(05:39):
that basic question of are we zero some and try
and take from each other, or are we positive some
try and grow the whole thing. That's I think that
the key question coming out of this tough six years.
Speaker 2 (05:51):
The OCR announcement is going to be this afternoon. It
appears that they might stay where they are at three
point twenty five percent. They're going to do a David
LONGI have a cup of tea. Surely the economy is
screaming out for another drop in the oci.
Speaker 3 (06:09):
Well, I tell you what I find. It really depends
who you talk to. I was just talking to some
shopkeepers in the Octagon. They said, actually, things are going
pretty well. Before that has had a plastic company that
does you know, infrastructure three waters type stuff, and they said, look,
you know, since the financial years about to tick over
(06:32):
or it has just ticked over, where we're seeing the
orders were actually flat out. Then there's other people say, look,
I'm a retailer, I'm having zero days. Things are tough,
so we're on a sort of a bit of a wedge.
And what you've got to remember is that we don't
want inflation to come back. So that's all the stuff
they got to consider. I think what is important is
that whatever they do at two o'clock today, everybody that's
(06:56):
got a mortgage is now coming up to reflex on
lower rates than they're currently on. I was talking to
Vittoria Short who runs ASP, she's the boss there and
the other day and she said, look, we have passed
the peak. Every mortgage is now fixing lower. That means
we're freeing up cash. That means that people can start
employing again. That's actually got to be good. And thank
(07:18):
god for milkte nearly ten bucks and you know sheep
and beef prices where they are, because otherwise we'd have
a very different story.
Speaker 2 (07:24):
Acting Prime Minister David Seymour in the studio here in
Dunedin on Saturday night. You were in the cargo for
the FMG Young Farmer of the Year Grand Final. Hugh Jackson.
What an impressive young man he is.
Speaker 3 (07:37):
Yeah, and I was kind of thinking about how to
talk about this, because everything I want to say just
sounds so cliche. But I want to say it's the
best of New Zealand, and it really is this time.
Speaker 2 (07:48):
I mean, these are.
Speaker 3 (07:50):
A whole lot of people, all under thirty, coming together, competing,
competing hard, with high stakes, great prizes, huge support from
the tables in the crowd, and yet the level of
friendliness in the competition is uniquely rural. So I just
love being there. And it really reminded me that the
(08:11):
rural community in New Zealand may be the most free
market community in the world. There are a group of
people that are totally fixated on the market and innovating
to meet the market, and I just think it's a
really really great crowd to be part of.
Speaker 2 (08:27):
I love the night. Yeah, wonderful collegiality. Is that a word.
Speaker 3 (08:31):
It's a great word. I mean, not not common where
I work, but it isn't Well, I was.
Speaker 2 (08:35):
Going to say talking about friendships or the lack thereof
how are you in Winston getting on? Is there a
wee bit of acting PM envy there?
Speaker 3 (08:44):
No? Oh, I certainly haven't had that from him. I
know that he's overseas I think, and I should know,
but I think he's in Malaysia, so you know, he's
doing his job, and he loves going overseas, he loves
meeting people, and by all accounts, they love him. So
I think that's actually a win win.
Speaker 2 (09:03):
Will ACT in New Zealand first jointly cannibalize National's rural
vote because you're both after it.
Speaker 3 (09:11):
Well, I actually turned that around and ask where will
rural voters choose to trust people with their vote? So,
rather than making it about the parties cannibalizing each other,
let's just start with the people. And what I know
is that people want to see resource management reform done
so that they don't spend more time getting permission than
(09:32):
actually doing stuff. They want to see health and safety
getting sorted so that rather than having to pay a
consultant a fortune because work safe just scares the but
Jesus out of people but doesn't actually help them, they
want to see that sorted. And they want to see
fiscal and economic conditions that are responsible so they're not
paying high interest rates getting crowded out by goupment spending. Now,
(09:55):
you know, I think ACT can tell a very good story.
Simon court On the RABA and Valden on health and
safety and labor law, the work that I'm doing on
regulation and government spending. I think we've got a good
story to tell about all those things.
Speaker 2 (10:07):
I'll tell you one guy who I'm impressed by in
the ACT Caucus, and that is your AG spokesperson Mark Cameron.
And he's got a real battle on his hands. He's
got serious, serious kidney disease. But there's a bloke sort
of straight off the farm, but he says it as
it is.
Speaker 3 (10:24):
Thing about Mark Cameron. His kidneys might only be giving
five percent, but that guy gives two hundred. He's been
going through a lot of difficult time laid up in
hospital and getting catheters inserted and training himself to use
the dialysis machine, and yet he's still on the ball
and he's still participating day to day even from his
hospital bed. And if there's one thing I'm proud of
(10:46):
with ACT, it's that we've brought people who probably never
thought they'd get elected, but we've brought probably the most
authentic group of people. Because he was number eight on
the list when we had one MP. Now he's there
and he's made a go of it and I'm really
proud of mine, that's for sure.
Speaker 2 (11:01):
David Seymour in the studio. It is eighteen after twelve.
You're with the country brought to you by Brand songs
with Wright in them today or get David Seamould to
pick some more right songs. He might go way to
the right with his right songs, who knows. But we're
going to come back on the other side of the
break with Wayne Langford, the President of Federated Farmers. He
(11:23):
is also a Tasman dairy farmer. Trouble at mill up
there weather's not too flash at all, so Wayne Langford
is calling on Keiwis to get in behind flood affected
farming families at the top of the South Island and
he might even have a question or two for our
co host today, Acting Prime Minister David Seymour. Welcome back
(11:58):
to the country. Deputy Dave's in the studio co hosting today.
Let's head to the top of the South Island where
the weather's not too flash to catch up with President
of Federated Farmers Wayne Langford and Wayne You and David
Seymour were both at the Grand Final or the FMG.
The Grand Final of the FMG young farmer of the
(12:18):
Hugh Jackson an impressive young man.
Speaker 4 (12:20):
Good a Wayne, Yeah, how are you in a heck
of an effort like you to pull that one off
and what must have been near on a record margin
as well. So yeah, I'm really proud of you and
obviously a huge sect for the sector.
Speaker 2 (12:35):
Now you're calling on Keywis to get in behind flood
affected farming families at the top of the South Island
as a recovery if it's ramp up, and you're saying
the destruction in some parts of Nelson and Tasman is extensive,
with some farms totally unrecognizable. And one thing we're good
at doing in this country and especially the media, as
(12:56):
we fuss over the flood or the storm or whatever
when it happened, and then a week or two later
it's off the top of the news cycle and we
forget about it. We can't afford to forget about you folk.
Speaker 4 (13:07):
Yeah, that's that's about Jamie. I I was in a
bit of the same boat. We had the flood come
through ten days ago, and you know, the humble farmers
as they were kind of just just sucked it up
and got on and did what they were doing. However,
I was coming back up from Crosses and so I
stopped in to see a few of them and well,
you know where that flood went and what it did.
(13:31):
You know, it was extraordinary in a number of cases.
So really calling on those around the country or anyone
that can contribute, to probably reach into their pocket or
to give what they can to help these guys out.
It is only a small number of farmers. It's not
like Cyclone Gabriel that you know, touched on half the country.
It is only a small number of farmers down down
just a couple of valleys there. But the river you know,
(13:54):
went into areas where it hasn't been in a hundred
years and it's done some done some people to damage there.
Speaker 2 (14:00):
We've got a bloke sitting in the studio who might
be able to contribute. David Seymour, acting PM.
Speaker 3 (14:06):
Well, first of all, I just want to give a
bit of a plug to the Nelson Taesman Emergency Group.
Their meror Relief Fund has been set up and they've
got an account number you can easily google it. That's
actually tax deductible. The fund des iRED approved if you
want to get your tax back, So it's actually on
that spirit of people pulling together and helping after the
(14:29):
news coverage moves on. That is a way to do it.
And of course the government will always have its emergency
management groups in the region active up to the point
that we're able to help. And then of course you
also got to remember we run now. I want to
say EQC, I still keep saying it, but it's now NATEC.
(14:53):
And obviously insurance is always not something you want to
start describing or defining on the radio, but depending on
your exact circumstances, they may be able to help.
Speaker 2 (15:04):
It's not the government's job, obviously to pay for every
climate disaster that happens, and we're probably what we are
going to get more and more of them. Is it
about mitigation? Should we just accept the fact that the
climate is changing, It's going to get warmer, We're going
to get more weather extremes, and we need to build
more flood banks or build houses or farm farms on
(15:26):
higher ground.
Speaker 3 (15:27):
Well, there's a lot going on. I mean, I just
pushed back a little bit against this idea that it's
all climate change because it can actually blind us to
the reality. And when you look at these terrible events happening
in Texas right now, and no doubt the usual suspects
will be out blaming that on climate change. What they
forget to say is that they had two hundred and
(15:47):
fifteen lives lost a near identical incident in nineteen twenty one,
and that's when there were far fewer people living in
Texas in the first place. Same thing with our events
and Hawk's Bay a couple of years ago. A near
identical event occurred in nineteen thirty eight.
Speaker 2 (16:06):
So the fact not to mention cyclone Bowler and eighty eight.
Speaker 3 (16:10):
Yeah, that's absolutely right. So you know, yes, climate is
a real problem. Yes, weather is a real problem. Yes
we need to invest more. I believe in adaptation, and
that means, for example, in Hawk's Bay, if the levies
were stronger, we might not have lost a few apple
orchards that we did lose when the land on the
other side of the river directly across was okay. So
(16:32):
if you look at what the government's doing, first of all,
easier to get a consent to build adaptation in key
areas like Wyroll, we're actually put in cash in. And
then when it comes to the longer term question of
how do we get infrastructure built. You'll see those partnerships
between central and local government rolling out, so we don't
have central and local blaming each other but instead planning together.
Speaker 2 (16:54):
Just quickly whine because we've got to keep moving on.
You've got a couple of questions for the acting Prime Minister.
Speaker 4 (17:00):
I do, and I'll just quickly add to that one
as well, because we're busy calling calling every member that
we've got in the area there, and every member is saying,
get the gravel out of the rivers. What's going on?
The rivers are just chocolate block full of gravel. We've
got to clean it out and what's holding that up?
So I'll just bug that point in there because it's
(17:20):
huge for our members and has been a massive concern.
If we want to talk about climate adaptation, that's one
of the biggest ones, all the first ones that should
be on the list. But in terms of questions for
the Deputy PM, one is a bit tongue in cheek,
but you know you've got to the second in charge
now when you're going to step up to the big
honors and take on the roll as Feeds President, because.
Speaker 2 (17:44):
Of course we're looking for one at the moment because
the fed's president is the acting chief executive of FEEDS.
Speaker 3 (17:49):
Well, I tell you what, there's some great people and
act we've talked about Buck Cameron on the show. Andrew
Hoggud's already been Feed's president, and Cameron Exton's also had
a few years behind the teacher as it were. So
there's if you want an act in Peter do it.
We've got three current or former dairy farmers. I'm not
(18:09):
sure you'd put the boy from epsomm.
Speaker 4 (18:12):
And then and then secondly Jamie obviously, Yeah, we were
at the young farmer of the air on the weekend.
You know, the big question when when they're going back
on primetime TV. That's where it needs to get to.
You know, it's been on some of these other reality
shows like Dancing with the Stars and that sort of thing.
Speaker 3 (18:30):
Surely, Well, it's funny because you know when I did
Dancing with the Stars, four hundred thousand people watched that
opening night.
Speaker 2 (18:39):
And that was the beginning of the renaissance for the act.
Speaker 3 (18:42):
Party you're twerking, Well, I think the twerking was where
we put it all at risk.
Speaker 2 (18:46):
But your Pa Rachel's shaking.
Speaker 5 (18:49):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (18:49):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (18:50):
But the thing is, you know you look at TV
and Z strategy, and their goal is to have more
people watching it streaming online than watching it on linear TV.
So I understand people say that there's a prestige au
being on TV, but even TV is moving away from
(19:11):
that medium. So look, I could promise that, but honestly,
I reckon in three or four years time, you won't want.
Speaker 2 (19:18):
It to slide stream it yolo. Wayne Langthor thinks for
your time. Got to go, mate, There we go. President
of Federated Farmer's doing a great job. He's the acting
chief executive too. We're going to take a break on
the other side of it. We're going to catch up
with Hunter McGregor because I caught up with them earlier
this morning, to be honest, because he's doing something and
(19:41):
he couldn't chat to me at lunchtime. And David Seams
got to finish his piece of cake that's like a
big slab of chocolate cake there, David, how do you
remain so slim? Like? Parliament's not an ideal place to be.
Speaker 5 (19:53):
Have you?
Speaker 2 (19:53):
Have you knocked off the booze completely?
Speaker 4 (19:56):
Yeah?
Speaker 3 (19:56):
Except for this.
Speaker 2 (19:58):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (19:59):
Look, I was anxious to get here and co host
the show with you. Was the only thing I could
get that was going to work and the.
Speaker 2 (20:04):
Time I had Okay, there we go. David seem back
on the other side of it with something we prepared
a wee bit earlier this morning, so David can finish
this piece of chocolate cake cake. Hunter McGregor and Rocksburgh.
He's our guy in Shanghai where it used to be
(20:25):
until he moved to Roxburgh only temporarily because that's where
he's from in Central Otago, Hunter McGregor. Hunter, it would
be oppressively hot at this time of the year in Shanghai.
Is that why you migrate to the southern Hemisphere to
get away from the heat?
Speaker 6 (20:40):
Yeah, good afternoon, Jamie. Yet definitely now when I left
Shanghai were sort of overnight lows of thirty and we're
getting up around highs of forty, just above forty during
the daytime. So it was quite nice to land in
Queenstown the other day to three degrees. When I left Shanghai,
it was forty three of a change, and I like
(21:01):
getting back for a bit of Central Targo winter. You
can't go wrong and looking at a few new opportunities around.
So if anyone wants to have a bit of a
chat reach out. Yes, I'm hit down here for a
few weeks and then I'll be back into the heat.
Speaker 2 (21:16):
Now, you did to start selling Jimmy's Pies in Shanghai,
I reckon they'd go down a treat, wouldn't they With
the expats.
Speaker 6 (21:24):
I've been seriously considering it. Also the cust squares. I
think the castle squares will probably go better than the
Jimmy's Pies because the Chinese like a bit of a
good sweet tooth. So it's a lot of good bakeries around,
but they don't offer any castle squares. So straight off
the airplane into Jimmy's Pies, had a hot pie to
warm me up, and then a cheeky little custard square
(21:45):
just to dessert on the way home, so I couldn't complain.
Speaker 2 (21:48):
That's to die for, isn't it. Radio Before you left,
did you catch up with Prime Minister Luxon while he
was over.
Speaker 6 (21:54):
There, No, I did not. He had a very short
visit three days, and I know it's good. It was
good to see him up there. I think it was
a little bit short, but he managed to kick some
big goals and catching up with the senior minute President
Shei in Beijing is very important and I hope to
(22:14):
see him back in the next word, while again maybe
a bit a little bit longer with a few other
different companies will be good. But it's good to see
him there and would have been a success, which is good,
and you know it's important that he does with it.
Speaker 2 (22:29):
Every time I check to you, I ask about the
recovery of the Chinese economy. You're always a bit grim
on that one, but we are hearing that the Chinese
economy is recovering.
Speaker 6 (22:38):
Yeah, well, it's heading in the right direction, I would say,
but you know, at this time of the year, it's
very hot, so we get a seasonal dip and people
buying stuff and going out because if people don't really
want to go out when it's forty odd degrees, you know,
for our business, July and August for restaurants and stuff
(23:01):
is absolutely dead. You know, it's too hot, people don't
want to go out. But then what we find the
last four months from September through to December, we would
sell more than the first eight months. So it's a
busy time of the year. So it was sort of
gearing up for that and just yeah, getting getting ready
and having a bit of a break and actually coming
down and enjoying bit of.
Speaker 2 (23:21):
New Zalan Hey Hunter McGregor, enjoy you stay in Roxburgh,
enjoy the cool climbs and we might see you in Dunedin.
Speaker 6 (23:28):
Sare thanks you, Amy.
Speaker 2 (23:30):
Twenty five away from one year with the country. David
seymore Acting PM in the studio. He'll be back after
the break with the latest and rural news and sports news.
Who remembers Sophie B. Hawkins. It's twenty two away from one.
(23:52):
David Seymour, Acting Prime Minister. Deputy Dave in the studio.
He's going to do rural news and sports news. He's
kicked poor old mache well to touch areas with sports news.
We've got to be liner to play first. David.
Speaker 1 (24:04):
The Country's world news with Coup Cadet, New Zealand's leading
right on lawnlower brand. Visit Steelford dot cot On inz
for your local doggist.
Speaker 3 (24:14):
Australian mining company Santana Minerals has spent twenty five million
dollars on land in central Otago in preparation for its Bendigo,
Ohia gold project. The Ottaga Daily Times is reporting its
sports almost three thousand hectares at Ardcore station near Taris.
The company is estimating it could extract gold worth four
(24:34):
point four billion dollars from an open pit and an
underground gold mine. Meanwhile, golfer Daniel no, no, no, no, no, no.
Speaker 2 (24:41):
No no no, We've got another liner. This is commercial radio. Sorry,
so look, I'll get the Tally Brothers will get me
from ALFCA if I don't do this.
Speaker 1 (24:53):
Sport with an AFCO Kiwi to the bone since nineteen oh.
Speaker 3 (24:57):
Four and now in the Second Times News, golfer Daniel
Hilly is looking to stay in the moment as the
prospect of securing a maiden PGA Tour card looms large.
The Wellingtonians tenth overall on the European Tour season standings.
The leading ten players not otherwise exempt receive invites to
compete on the top circuit in the US. Hillier says
(25:20):
countryman Ryan Fox is applying some pressure. However, while that
is all very interesting, the Riversdale Golf Tournament taking place
to the.
Speaker 2 (25:28):
Farmer's Tournament, Armers Tournament, that's the biggest golf tournament, that's
the big golf story. The British opens coming up European
to Riversdale and Daniel Hillier. You've played with them?
Speaker 3 (25:37):
I did, I did. I was in the Ryan Fox
charity event that Chasing the Fox that happens every year.
They keep getting me back, mainly to make the other
players look and feel better about their golf. And he
was a hell of a nice guy that we played with.
Speaker 2 (25:53):
Okay, David Seymour in the studio, we are going to
take a break on the other side of a Campbell
Parker from Derry and Z to wrap. But Shane mcmanaway,
a bloke who's building a hospital. Should he have to
do that? Should he he have had to have done that?
We'll chat to him before the end of the hour.
(26:14):
Here's an industry in a good space at the moment,
the dairy industry. The bloke who is the chief executive
of Dairy and Z, Campbell Parker. Good to get him
back on the show. Campbell, it was good to catch
up with you, by the way at Field Days. But
at Field Days we had that foot and mouth operational
agreement between all the industry good bodies. We're going to
keep it out.
Speaker 5 (26:32):
Yeah, Look, Jamie, we did. We announce the operational agreement
and that's been a decade kind of in the making
all the livestock sectors processes and government agreeing how we
will have an operational agreement, how we would deal with
both a response should it ever get here touch wood,
it never does. But really importantly that we have a
clear plan around readiness.
Speaker 2 (26:54):
I remember when I was at Riversdale Primary School and
that was a long long time ago. Now, our wonderful
Headmaster Misty Young, the late Allan Young, said to us
it's a matter of when not a foot and mouth
comes to New Zealand. So that was more than fifty
years ago. I think we've done very well and we
actually have obviously some natural advantages over for instance, closely
(27:14):
grouped European countries. But it's just you can't overstress the
importance of keeping it.
Speaker 5 (27:19):
Out absolutely, and I mean we are actually so fortunate
to have a border, you know, in terms of an
island nation at the bottom of the world. But there
are instances. Germany had outbreak this last year for the
first time in thirty five years, so it's still a
risk and the impact on New Zealand would be significant.
So really clear that we work together with government to
(27:42):
have a clear plan around a how I said earlier,
would respond, but more importantly, what activities do we need
to have in place? Still, get a clear playbook and you're.
Speaker 2 (27:50):
The inaugural chair of the FMD Council. Well done, Campbell
Parker Winter or wintering survey results. It's not that long
ago that the word dirty dairying was being bandied about
and we were constantly being shown terrible scenes of wintering practices,
especially of dairy cows. There's a way to go, I'll
(28:10):
admit that, but gee, we've improved a.
Speaker 5 (28:12):
Lot well that we have come a long way, and
hats off to the farmers for all their effort. If
you look around the efforts over the last five years
and the survey we did, you know that later server
eighty six percent have implemented you know, what we would
call good farming practices for wintering cows over the last period.
That was seventy four percent in twenty twenty three. So
(28:33):
it keeps going up and there's a lot of tools
available to farmers. Now we've learned a lot around apportable
troughs and other things grazing. How we do that and
do that well? So you know, got to keep doing
that well we do grayz our animals outdoor hairs and
here in New Zealand, and we're going to make sure
we do that well and winter throw some challenges at
us from an environmental perspective. So, you know, good on
(28:54):
farmers for being a lot more productive about wintering practices.
Speaker 2 (28:58):
I'll put a conditional rider on that. I still see
bad examples though Campbell, especially in South London.
Speaker 5 (29:04):
Well you do, and you know you get and I
think last year the South in case in point the
council put up single wind plane and drone to have
a lock pulled up five or six cases. What we're
able to do though is get up those driveways quickly
now and address what the issues are. So I think
that's been a big move forward and we're just got
to keep vigilant around it because there's a lot of
(29:26):
really good work being done by the majority of farmers.
Speaker 2 (29:30):
Darien Zider's finished the last of its three Farmer Forum events.
You had great turnouts at all of them, as I
understand what was covered. What was the feedback?
Speaker 5 (29:40):
Yeah, look it was and it was around you integrate,
collaborate and innovates, so you know, people thinking about getting
off farm, thinking about the bigger, broader perspectives. So we
had a futurest involved, which stretch a bit of thinking
around where the future is going and how can we
adapt as farmers. We had the talests from trade around
(30:00):
what's happening in the trade space, and then brought it
back to economics around the importance of New Zealand's competitive
and advantage and some of the analysis our economics and
science teams have been doing. And then really kind of
went into where the opportunities for the sector around productive
performance but also the science where we're doing to help
(30:21):
farmers with that as well as the opportunity to continue
to balance environmental standards and productivity and profitability. So, yeah,
a really good day. We're probably had over five hundred
farmers and professionals across those three events. And you know,
good ranger speakers, Good.
Speaker 2 (30:36):
On you, Deari's in a good space coming off a
ten dollars season. Hopefully the next one will equal that
or do better. Campbell Parker from darien Z, chief executive
and the inaugural chair of the FMD Council. Put that
one on your CV. Campbell good the chat mate.
Speaker 5 (30:52):
Yeah, good to chat Tommy, thank you.
Speaker 2 (30:54):
Well away from one, we're going to Wrap the Country
with Deputy Dave Seymour, the Acting Minister in the studio
Shane mcmanaway building a hospital. Should he? Should he have
had to have done that. We'll discuss that and some
other really cool things that are happening in his neck
of the woods, the wire Rapper. If you've got any
questions for David Seymour, five double O nine, there's our
(31:16):
text number. I've got one quickly for you, David. Just
this is just a yes or no? Really? Should Jacinda
r Dern be asked to appear before the Royal Commission
inquir into COVID? Yes or no? Now hang on?
Speaker 3 (31:28):
Will turn your mic on you try in all seriousness.
The Commission of Inquiries independent so I can't tell them
what to do. But I mean, look, I would have
thought she'd want to because she cares about COVID and
she should want to come and share her perspective, you
would think.
Speaker 2 (31:43):
David Seymour back with Shane mcmanaway, Rapping the Country today.
Thanks to David Seymour, Acting Prime Minister, for joining us
(32:03):
in the studio. It's been good. Here's a question or
here's a text. Hi, Jamie. It's great to hear some
straightforward conversation on your program with David Seymour one hundred
percent better than listening to Parker and Co. I'm assuming
that's David Parker smashing farmers and tying the industry up
in red tape. Graham. I agree with you. Here's a
bloke who is doing wonderful work not only in his
(32:28):
own region but all around New Zealand. Shane mcmanaway, good o, Shane.
Good afternoon.
Speaker 7 (32:33):
Good afternoon, Jane, Good afternoon, David.
Speaker 2 (32:35):
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 Dunedin and finish the job here?
Speaker 7 (32:44):
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 underneed and make it
work the better.
Speaker 2 (33:01):
I saw you on the National News the other day,
Shane saving the Is it the Pookaha National Wildlife Reserve?
Speaker 7 (33:11):
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 Rappa Wildlife Center, which opened in about nineteen
sixty two by a guy called Elwin 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
(33:35):
a 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
(33:57):
able to save the place was it was might's 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 have become fabulous partners with us up
there at poo Kaha. So Jamie, something that we couldn't
see clothes has about twenty nine thousand visitors and as
(34:18):
I say, it's a massive resource here for a tourist resource,
and the locals, all the kids, just about every kid
in the Wairappa I think would have been through Pookaha
and many throughout New Zealand. So I'm pleased that we've
been able to get in there.
Speaker 2 (34:30):
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 7 (34:42):
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 surround itself within the food and fiber sector and
the opportunities that is creating is absolutely enormous. The problem
(35:07):
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 Cordett 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
(35:28):
career of it, and boy, do we need more young people.
Speaker 3 (35:31):
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.
(35:53):
I 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
(36:15):
trying to clean up the tep hooking a mess and
the broke politechs. But I think you'll see in Penny Simmons'
vocational Education minister, 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 2 (36:34):
Yeah, and Penny Simmons 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 mcmanay for the acting Prime Minister.
Speaker 4 (36:44):
Yeah.
Speaker 7 (36:45):
Well, I guess it's still around that educational stuff in
the aggre sector.
Speaker 2 (36:50):
David.
Speaker 7 (36:50):
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, 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 across the agri sector of New Zealand has come
together with a body that can get things done. There's
(37:11):
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, you.
Speaker 2 (37:19):
Better be quick with us, Shane, you better be quick
with us. We've got thirty seconds.
Speaker 7 (37:22):
Yeah, and David, we need to get cracking and get
some action around this topic.
Speaker 3 (37:28):
Yeah, look, I think again, Penny's restructuring of Tippu King
will have a replacement for the work 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
(37:49):
here who 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 2 (37:56):
David Seymour and Shane mcmanaway. That's us down and dustin
for today, I'm off to a farmer's golf tournament tomorrow
and a dairy farm AGM. I'll catch your back on Monday.
Hamish mackay in the seat tomorrow.
Speaker 1 (38:11):
Catch you're the latest from the land. It's the Country
Podcast with Jamie mckue. Thanks to Brent, your specialist in
John Deere machinery.
Catch you all the latest from the land. It's The
Country Podcast with Jamie McKay. Thanks to Brent. You're specialist
in John Deer construction equipment.
Speaker 2 (00:31):
Gooday, New Zealand, Welcome to the Country. I'm Jamie McKay.
The show is brought to you by Brent. A bit
of fat Boy Slim right here right now for a
right winger who's in the studio co hosting for the
hour or the best part of it act Party Leader,
but more importantly for today Acting Prime Minister David Seymour
David Gooday, welcome to the studio again.
Speaker 3 (00:52):
Good Ay, it's always good to be here. And fat
Boy Slim. That's the direction I'll be trying to go
if I drink this delicious machaisa you've given.
Speaker 2 (01:00):
Me, well, you came bearing gifts and you need to
put that. What is it the pecuniary register or something
for the stuff you get for free when you're a politician.
A Register of Pecuniary and other specified interest. But the
limit is five hundred dollars and I know you're going
to actually option one of these. I'm going to it.
It's the Riversdale Farmer's Tournament tomorrow and I reckon I
might get five hundred bucks, So we'll see how we
(01:21):
go on that one. Look, you are the acting PM,
and normally you would just sort of wandering here and
would be pretty easy. Osi you realize that you caused
me some distress yesterday afternoon when the diplomatic protection squad
wandered in here. They did a sweep of the place,
all because Luxeon's on holiday. Yeah.
Speaker 3 (01:38):
Well, when you called me to say that the diplomatic
protection squad were here, I actually assumed you joking, But
then I was kind of relieved.
Speaker 2 (01:47):
Have you had any grief today in Dunedin because this
is a bit of a labour.
Speaker 3 (01:51):
Town, the complete opposite. We just saw a gran on
school holiday duty and she was saying, you must you
must love the cold because it's what it's like in
Wellington and this is the coldest day we've ever had.
I said, why do people tell me that every time
I come to the need?
Speaker 2 (02:08):
Well? Did you try and steal her off? Winston? If
she's a grand and she's wandering around here, she's probably
in New Zealand.
Speaker 3 (02:14):
First voter, Well, people like to stereotype, but the thing
that marks out the act voters is that they tend
to be the smart ones, and she looked like she
might be an act voder.
Speaker 2 (02:25):
Okay, so what we're going to do today on the show.
We're going to chat to Wayne Langford, shortly president of
Federated Farmers. More trouble for the top of the South
Island Weatherwise, Hunter McGregor our guy in Shanghai apart, well,
except for today he's in Rocksburgh, of all places, Shane
mcmanaway wire a rapper, farmer, former chief executive of All Flex, philanthropist.
(02:49):
Now here's a bloke, David. Because the government's not having
much luck building a hospital and the need and it
would be fair to say this guy built a hospital
along with his wife Lynnette, and the wire rapper just
got on with it, did it. We need to get
him down here.
Speaker 3 (03:03):
Look, I'll tell you it's interesting. Some people say it's
sort of sad or a failing when someone builds a
hospital or provides something charitably. I don't see it as
a failing. I think it's a triumph of people's success
and generosity. So good on them. I can't wait to
talk to the guy.
Speaker 2 (03:19):
Okay, let's have a look at some of the subjects
that we want to traverse today if you want. You
are the acting prime minister. Christopher Luxeon's taken a well
earned break that. I know it's true because I discussed
it with him off air last week. He literally has
one week in the middle of the year, five days,
I think, to be more precise, and then he has
a break between Christmas and New Year. He's back at
(03:41):
his desk very early in January. There's something and I'm
not singling out him, but I think people like Margaret
Thatcher John Key was the same. They're surviving on hardly
any sleep and they work all the time. Is that
a good or a bad thing?
Speaker 3 (03:57):
I think it's kind of a necessary thing if you
want to get a job like that and be the
prime minister of a country, for example. There's a whole
lot of people that want to do it. And then
you say, okay, well, they have all kind of good
in different ways. What makes the difference. Often it's just
that metabolism and stamina and energy, so kind of not
a surprise I personally. I think you do also need
(04:18):
to have a bit of thoughtfulness and know where you're going,
but that doesn't necessarily relate to how much sleep. I
think probably the gutsiest politician who had real conviction was
Margaret Thatcher. There's other people who are energize the buddies
that maybe don't have so much conviction, but hey, that's life.
Speaker 2 (04:35):
What about the political parties that are asleep at the wheel.
Could we name some of those?
Speaker 3 (04:40):
Well, I mean, I'm very happy for their party Maori,
to be asleep. And if the Greens go to sleep,
they might forget to persecute farmers and text them when
they try and pass on the farm to the next generation.
Speaker 2 (04:52):
So looking at those people Farmer's book, isn't.
Speaker 3 (04:56):
It Well, Look, I think we're at a point in
New Zealand where we've got to decide. We've had a
tough six years, no question. I think basically since March fifteen.
That's when stuff started getting hard. And then we had COVID,
then we had inflation, had interest rates. Now we've got
a recession. Now we've got a really tough geopolitical world,
and so you know, stuff's pretty tough. So we've got
(05:19):
to decay. Are we going to continue this idea that
our solutions lie in tackling some other group of New
Zealanders like those guys have got money we're going to
tax it off them. Those supermarkets, you know, we're going
to beat up on them, just like the previous one
did to landlords and farmers. I mean, or we're going
to say, look, you know, we've got a few problems.
We need to stick together and solve them. I think
(05:39):
that basic question of are we zero some and try
and take from each other, or are we positive some
try and grow the whole thing. That's I think that
the key question coming out of this tough six years.
Speaker 2 (05:51):
The OCR announcement is going to be this afternoon. It
appears that they might stay where they are at three
point twenty five percent. They're going to do a David
LONGI have a cup of tea. Surely the economy is
screaming out for another drop in the oci.
Speaker 3 (06:09):
Well, I tell you what I find. It really depends
who you talk to. I was just talking to some
shopkeepers in the Octagon. They said, actually, things are going
pretty well. Before that has had a plastic company that
does you know, infrastructure three waters type stuff, and they said, look,
you know, since the financial years about to tick over
(06:32):
or it has just ticked over, where we're seeing the
orders were actually flat out. Then there's other people say, look,
I'm a retailer, I'm having zero days. Things are tough,
so we're on a sort of a bit of a wedge.
And what you've got to remember is that we don't
want inflation to come back. So that's all the stuff
they got to consider. I think what is important is
that whatever they do at two o'clock today, everybody that's
(06:56):
got a mortgage is now coming up to reflex on
lower rates than they're currently on. I was talking to
Vittoria Short who runs ASP, she's the boss there and
the other day and she said, look, we have passed
the peak. Every mortgage is now fixing lower. That means
we're freeing up cash. That means that people can start
employing again. That's actually got to be good. And thank
(07:18):
god for milkte nearly ten bucks and you know sheep
and beef prices where they are, because otherwise we'd have
a very different story.
Speaker 2 (07:24):
Acting Prime Minister David Seymour in the studio here in
Dunedin on Saturday night. You were in the cargo for
the FMG Young Farmer of the Year Grand Final. Hugh Jackson.
What an impressive young man he is.
Speaker 3 (07:37):
Yeah, and I was kind of thinking about how to
talk about this, because everything I want to say just
sounds so cliche. But I want to say it's the
best of New Zealand, and it really is this time.
Speaker 2 (07:48):
I mean, these are.
Speaker 3 (07:50):
A whole lot of people, all under thirty, coming together, competing,
competing hard, with high stakes, great prizes, huge support from
the tables in the crowd, and yet the level of
friendliness in the competition is uniquely rural. So I just
love being there. And it really reminded me that the
(08:11):
rural community in New Zealand may be the most free
market community in the world. There are a group of
people that are totally fixated on the market and innovating
to meet the market, and I just think it's a
really really great crowd to be part of.
Speaker 2 (08:27):
I love the night. Yeah, wonderful collegiality. Is that a word.
Speaker 3 (08:31):
It's a great word. I mean, not not common where
I work, but it isn't Well, I was.
Speaker 2 (08:35):
Going to say talking about friendships or the lack thereof
how are you in Winston getting on? Is there a
wee bit of acting PM envy there?
Speaker 3 (08:44):
No? Oh, I certainly haven't had that from him. I
know that he's overseas I think, and I should know,
but I think he's in Malaysia, so you know, he's
doing his job, and he loves going overseas, he loves
meeting people, and by all accounts, they love him. So
I think that's actually a win win.
Speaker 2 (09:03):
Will ACT in New Zealand first jointly cannibalize National's rural
vote because you're both after it.
Speaker 3 (09:11):
Well, I actually turned that around and ask where will
rural voters choose to trust people with their vote? So,
rather than making it about the parties cannibalizing each other,
let's just start with the people. And what I know
is that people want to see resource management reform done
so that they don't spend more time getting permission than
(09:32):
actually doing stuff. They want to see health and safety
getting sorted so that rather than having to pay a
consultant a fortune because work safe just scares the but
Jesus out of people but doesn't actually help them, they
want to see that sorted. And they want to see
fiscal and economic conditions that are responsible so they're not
paying high interest rates getting crowded out by goupment spending. Now,
(09:55):
you know, I think ACT can tell a very good story.
Simon court On the RABA and Valden on health and
safety and labor law, the work that I'm doing on
regulation and government spending. I think we've got a good
story to tell about all those things.
Speaker 2 (10:07):
I'll tell you one guy who I'm impressed by in
the ACT Caucus, and that is your AG spokesperson Mark Cameron.
And he's got a real battle on his hands. He's
got serious, serious kidney disease. But there's a bloke sort
of straight off the farm, but he says it as
it is.
Speaker 3 (10:24):
Thing about Mark Cameron. His kidneys might only be giving
five percent, but that guy gives two hundred. He's been
going through a lot of difficult time laid up in
hospital and getting catheters inserted and training himself to use
the dialysis machine, and yet he's still on the ball
and he's still participating day to day even from his
hospital bed. And if there's one thing I'm proud of
(10:46):
with ACT, it's that we've brought people who probably never
thought they'd get elected, but we've brought probably the most
authentic group of people. Because he was number eight on
the list when we had one MP. Now he's there
and he's made a go of it and I'm really
proud of mine, that's for sure.
Speaker 2 (11:01):
David Seymour in the studio. It is eighteen after twelve.
You're with the country brought to you by Brand songs
with Wright in them today or get David Seamould to
pick some more right songs. He might go way to
the right with his right songs, who knows. But we're
going to come back on the other side of the
break with Wayne Langford, the President of Federated Farmers. He
(11:23):
is also a Tasman dairy farmer. Trouble at mill up
there weather's not too flash at all, so Wayne Langford
is calling on Keiwis to get in behind flood affected
farming families at the top of the South Island and
he might even have a question or two for our
co host today, Acting Prime Minister David Seymour. Welcome back
(11:58):
to the country. Deputy Dave's in the studio co hosting today.
Let's head to the top of the South Island where
the weather's not too flash to catch up with President
of Federated Farmers Wayne Langford and Wayne You and David
Seymour were both at the Grand Final or the FMG.
The Grand Final of the FMG young farmer of the
(12:18):
Hugh Jackson an impressive young man.
Speaker 4 (12:20):
Good a Wayne, Yeah, how are you in a heck
of an effort like you to pull that one off
and what must have been near on a record margin
as well. So yeah, I'm really proud of you and
obviously a huge sect for the sector.
Speaker 2 (12:35):
Now you're calling on Keywis to get in behind flood
affected farming families at the top of the South Island
as a recovery if it's ramp up, and you're saying
the destruction in some parts of Nelson and Tasman is extensive,
with some farms totally unrecognizable. And one thing we're good
at doing in this country and especially the media, as
(12:56):
we fuss over the flood or the storm or whatever
when it happened, and then a week or two later
it's off the top of the news cycle and we
forget about it. We can't afford to forget about you folk.
Speaker 4 (13:07):
Yeah, that's that's about Jamie. I I was in a
bit of the same boat. We had the flood come
through ten days ago, and you know, the humble farmers
as they were kind of just just sucked it up
and got on and did what they were doing. However,
I was coming back up from Crosses and so I
stopped in to see a few of them and well,
you know where that flood went and what it did.
(13:31):
You know, it was extraordinary in a number of cases.
So really calling on those around the country or anyone
that can contribute, to probably reach into their pocket or
to give what they can to help these guys out.
It is only a small number of farmers. It's not
like Cyclone Gabriel that you know, touched on half the country.
It is only a small number of farmers down down
just a couple of valleys there. But the river you know,
(13:54):
went into areas where it hasn't been in a hundred
years and it's done some done some people to damage there.
Speaker 2 (14:00):
We've got a bloke sitting in the studio who might
be able to contribute. David Seymour, acting PM.
Speaker 3 (14:06):
Well, first of all, I just want to give a
bit of a plug to the Nelson Taesman Emergency Group.
Their meror Relief Fund has been set up and they've
got an account number you can easily google it. That's
actually tax deductible. The fund des iRED approved if you
want to get your tax back, So it's actually on
that spirit of people pulling together and helping after the
(14:29):
news coverage moves on. That is a way to do it.
And of course the government will always have its emergency
management groups in the region active up to the point
that we're able to help. And then of course you
also got to remember we run now. I want to
say EQC, I still keep saying it, but it's now NATEC.
(14:53):
And obviously insurance is always not something you want to
start describing or defining on the radio, but depending on
your exact circumstances, they may be able to help.
Speaker 2 (15:04):
It's not the government's job, obviously to pay for every
climate disaster that happens, and we're probably what we are
going to get more and more of them. Is it
about mitigation? Should we just accept the fact that the
climate is changing, It's going to get warmer, We're going
to get more weather extremes, and we need to build
more flood banks or build houses or farm farms on
(15:26):
higher ground.
Speaker 3 (15:27):
Well, there's a lot going on. I mean, I just
pushed back a little bit against this idea that it's
all climate change because it can actually blind us to
the reality. And when you look at these terrible events happening
in Texas right now, and no doubt the usual suspects
will be out blaming that on climate change. What they
forget to say is that they had two hundred and
(15:47):
fifteen lives lost a near identical incident in nineteen twenty one,
and that's when there were far fewer people living in
Texas in the first place. Same thing with our events
and Hawk's Bay a couple of years ago. A near
identical event occurred in nineteen thirty eight.
Speaker 2 (16:06):
So the fact not to mention cyclone Bowler and eighty eight.
Speaker 3 (16:10):
Yeah, that's absolutely right. So you know, yes, climate is
a real problem. Yes, weather is a real problem. Yes
we need to invest more. I believe in adaptation, and
that means, for example, in Hawk's Bay, if the levies
were stronger, we might not have lost a few apple
orchards that we did lose when the land on the
other side of the river directly across was okay. So
(16:32):
if you look at what the government's doing, first of all,
easier to get a consent to build adaptation in key
areas like Wyroll, we're actually put in cash in. And
then when it comes to the longer term question of
how do we get infrastructure built. You'll see those partnerships
between central and local government rolling out, so we don't
have central and local blaming each other but instead planning together.
Speaker 2 (16:54):
Just quickly whine because we've got to keep moving on.
You've got a couple of questions for the acting Prime Minister.
Speaker 4 (17:00):
I do, and I'll just quickly add to that one
as well, because we're busy calling calling every member that
we've got in the area there, and every member is saying,
get the gravel out of the rivers. What's going on?
The rivers are just chocolate block full of gravel. We've
got to clean it out and what's holding that up?
So I'll just bug that point in there because it's
(17:20):
huge for our members and has been a massive concern.
If we want to talk about climate adaptation, that's one
of the biggest ones, all the first ones that should
be on the list. But in terms of questions for
the Deputy PM, one is a bit tongue in cheek,
but you know you've got to the second in charge
now when you're going to step up to the big
honors and take on the roll as Feeds President, because.
Speaker 2 (17:44):
Of course we're looking for one at the moment because
the fed's president is the acting chief executive of FEEDS.
Speaker 3 (17:49):
Well, I tell you what, there's some great people and
act we've talked about Buck Cameron on the show. Andrew
Hoggud's already been Feed's president, and Cameron Exton's also had
a few years behind the teacher as it were. So
there's if you want an act in Peter do it.
We've got three current or former dairy farmers. I'm not
(18:09):
sure you'd put the boy from epsomm.
Speaker 4 (18:12):
And then and then secondly Jamie obviously, Yeah, we were
at the young farmer of the air on the weekend.
You know, the big question when when they're going back
on primetime TV. That's where it needs to get to.
You know, it's been on some of these other reality
shows like Dancing with the Stars and that sort of thing.
Speaker 3 (18:30):
Surely, Well, it's funny because you know when I did
Dancing with the Stars, four hundred thousand people watched that
opening night.
Speaker 2 (18:39):
And that was the beginning of the renaissance for the act.
Speaker 3 (18:42):
Party you're twerking, Well, I think the twerking was where
we put it all at risk.
Speaker 2 (18:46):
But your Pa Rachel's shaking.
Speaker 5 (18:49):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (18:49):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (18:50):
But the thing is, you know you look at TV
and Z strategy, and their goal is to have more
people watching it streaming online than watching it on linear TV.
So I understand people say that there's a prestige au
being on TV, but even TV is moving away from
(19:11):
that medium. So look, I could promise that, but honestly,
I reckon in three or four years time, you won't want.
Speaker 2 (19:18):
It to slide stream it yolo. Wayne Langthor thinks for
your time. Got to go, mate, There we go. President
of Federated Farmer's doing a great job. He's the acting
chief executive too. We're going to take a break on
the other side of it. We're going to catch up
with Hunter McGregor because I caught up with them earlier
this morning, to be honest, because he's doing something and
(19:41):
he couldn't chat to me at lunchtime. And David Seams
got to finish his piece of cake that's like a
big slab of chocolate cake there, David, how do you
remain so slim? Like? Parliament's not an ideal place to be.
Speaker 5 (19:53):
Have you?
Speaker 2 (19:53):
Have you knocked off the booze completely?
Speaker 4 (19:56):
Yeah?
Speaker 3 (19:56):
Except for this.
Speaker 2 (19:58):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (19:59):
Look, I was anxious to get here and co host
the show with you. Was the only thing I could
get that was going to work and the.
Speaker 2 (20:04):
Time I had Okay, there we go. David seem back
on the other side of it with something we prepared
a wee bit earlier this morning, so David can finish
this piece of chocolate cake cake. Hunter McGregor and Rocksburgh.
He's our guy in Shanghai where it used to be
(20:25):
until he moved to Roxburgh only temporarily because that's where
he's from in Central Otago, Hunter McGregor. Hunter, it would
be oppressively hot at this time of the year in Shanghai.
Is that why you migrate to the southern Hemisphere to
get away from the heat?
Speaker 6 (20:40):
Yeah, good afternoon, Jamie. Yet definitely now when I left
Shanghai were sort of overnight lows of thirty and we're
getting up around highs of forty, just above forty during
the daytime. So it was quite nice to land in
Queenstown the other day to three degrees. When I left Shanghai,
it was forty three of a change, and I like
(21:01):
getting back for a bit of Central Targo winter. You
can't go wrong and looking at a few new opportunities around.
So if anyone wants to have a bit of a
chat reach out. Yes, I'm hit down here for a
few weeks and then I'll be back into the heat.
Speaker 2 (21:16):
Now, you did to start selling Jimmy's Pies in Shanghai,
I reckon they'd go down a treat, wouldn't they With
the expats.
Speaker 6 (21:24):
I've been seriously considering it. Also the cust squares. I
think the castle squares will probably go better than the
Jimmy's Pies because the Chinese like a bit of a
good sweet tooth. So it's a lot of good bakeries around,
but they don't offer any castle squares. So straight off
the airplane into Jimmy's Pies, had a hot pie to
warm me up, and then a cheeky little custard square
(21:45):
just to dessert on the way home, so I couldn't complain.
Speaker 2 (21:48):
That's to die for, isn't it. Radio Before you left,
did you catch up with Prime Minister Luxon while he
was over.
Speaker 6 (21:54):
There, No, I did not. He had a very short
visit three days, and I know it's good. It was
good to see him up there. I think it was
a little bit short, but he managed to kick some
big goals and catching up with the senior minute President
Shei in Beijing is very important and I hope to
(22:14):
see him back in the next word, while again maybe
a bit a little bit longer with a few other
different companies will be good. But it's good to see
him there and would have been a success, which is good,
and you know it's important that he does with it.
Speaker 2 (22:29):
Every time I check to you, I ask about the
recovery of the Chinese economy. You're always a bit grim
on that one, but we are hearing that the Chinese
economy is recovering.
Speaker 6 (22:38):
Yeah, well, it's heading in the right direction, I would say,
but you know, at this time of the year, it's
very hot, so we get a seasonal dip and people
buying stuff and going out because if people don't really
want to go out when it's forty odd degrees, you know,
for our business, July and August for restaurants and stuff
(23:01):
is absolutely dead. You know, it's too hot, people don't
want to go out. But then what we find the
last four months from September through to December, we would
sell more than the first eight months. So it's a
busy time of the year. So it was sort of
gearing up for that and just yeah, getting getting ready
and having a bit of a break and actually coming
down and enjoying bit of.
Speaker 2 (23:21):
New Zalan Hey Hunter McGregor, enjoy you stay in Roxburgh,
enjoy the cool climbs and we might see you in Dunedin.
Speaker 6 (23:28):
Sare thanks you, Amy.
Speaker 2 (23:30):
Twenty five away from one year with the country. David
seymore Acting PM in the studio. He'll be back after
the break with the latest and rural news and sports news.
Who remembers Sophie B. Hawkins. It's twenty two away from one.
(23:52):
David Seymour, Acting Prime Minister. Deputy Dave in the studio.
He's going to do rural news and sports news. He's
kicked poor old mache well to touch areas with sports news.
We've got to be liner to play first. David.
Speaker 1 (24:04):
The Country's world news with Coup Cadet, New Zealand's leading
right on lawnlower brand. Visit Steelford dot cot On inz
for your local doggist.
Speaker 3 (24:14):
Australian mining company Santana Minerals has spent twenty five million
dollars on land in central Otago in preparation for its Bendigo,
Ohia gold project. The Ottaga Daily Times is reporting its
sports almost three thousand hectares at Ardcore station near Taris.
The company is estimating it could extract gold worth four
(24:34):
point four billion dollars from an open pit and an
underground gold mine. Meanwhile, golfer Daniel no, no, no, no, no, no.
Speaker 2 (24:41):
No no no, We've got another liner. This is commercial radio. Sorry,
so look, I'll get the Tally Brothers will get me
from ALFCA if I don't do this.
Speaker 1 (24:53):
Sport with an AFCO Kiwi to the bone since nineteen oh.
Speaker 3 (24:57):
Four and now in the Second Times News, golfer Daniel
Hilly is looking to stay in the moment as the
prospect of securing a maiden PGA Tour card looms large.
The Wellingtonians tenth overall on the European Tour season standings.
The leading ten players not otherwise exempt receive invites to
compete on the top circuit in the US. Hillier says
(25:20):
countryman Ryan Fox is applying some pressure. However, while that
is all very interesting, the Riversdale Golf Tournament taking place
to the.
Speaker 2 (25:28):
Farmer's Tournament, Armers Tournament, that's the biggest golf tournament, that's
the big golf story. The British opens coming up European
to Riversdale and Daniel Hillier. You've played with them?
Speaker 3 (25:37):
I did, I did. I was in the Ryan Fox
charity event that Chasing the Fox that happens every year.
They keep getting me back, mainly to make the other
players look and feel better about their golf. And he
was a hell of a nice guy that we played with.
Speaker 2 (25:53):
Okay, David Seymour in the studio, we are going to
take a break on the other side of a Campbell
Parker from Derry and Z to wrap. But Shane mcmanaway,
a bloke who's building a hospital. Should he have to
do that? Should he he have had to have done that?
We'll chat to him before the end of the hour.
(26:14):
Here's an industry in a good space at the moment,
the dairy industry. The bloke who is the chief executive
of Dairy and Z, Campbell Parker. Good to get him
back on the show. Campbell, it was good to catch
up with you, by the way at Field Days. But
at Field Days we had that foot and mouth operational
agreement between all the industry good bodies. We're going to
keep it out.
Speaker 5 (26:32):
Yeah, Look, Jamie, we did. We announce the operational agreement
and that's been a decade kind of in the making
all the livestock sectors processes and government agreeing how we
will have an operational agreement, how we would deal with
both a response should it ever get here touch wood,
it never does. But really importantly that we have a
clear plan around readiness.
Speaker 2 (26:54):
I remember when I was at Riversdale Primary School and
that was a long long time ago. Now, our wonderful
Headmaster Misty Young, the late Allan Young, said to us
it's a matter of when not a foot and mouth
comes to New Zealand. So that was more than fifty
years ago. I think we've done very well and we
actually have obviously some natural advantages over for instance, closely
(27:14):
grouped European countries. But it's just you can't overstress the
importance of keeping it.
Speaker 5 (27:19):
Out absolutely, and I mean we are actually so fortunate
to have a border, you know, in terms of an
island nation at the bottom of the world. But there
are instances. Germany had outbreak this last year for the
first time in thirty five years, so it's still a
risk and the impact on New Zealand would be significant.
So really clear that we work together with government to
(27:42):
have a clear plan around a how I said earlier,
would respond, but more importantly, what activities do we need
to have in place? Still, get a clear playbook and you're.
Speaker 2 (27:50):
The inaugural chair of the FMD Council. Well done, Campbell
Parker Winter or wintering survey results. It's not that long
ago that the word dirty dairying was being bandied about
and we were constantly being shown terrible scenes of wintering practices,
especially of dairy cows. There's a way to go, I'll
(28:10):
admit that, but gee, we've improved a.
Speaker 5 (28:12):
Lot well that we have come a long way, and
hats off to the farmers for all their effort. If
you look around the efforts over the last five years
and the survey we did, you know that later server
eighty six percent have implemented you know, what we would
call good farming practices for wintering cows over the last period.
That was seventy four percent in twenty twenty three. So
(28:33):
it keeps going up and there's a lot of tools
available to farmers. Now we've learned a lot around apportable
troughs and other things grazing. How we do that and
do that well? So you know, got to keep doing
that well we do grayz our animals outdoor hairs and
here in New Zealand, and we're going to make sure
we do that well and winter throw some challenges at
us from an environmental perspective. So, you know, good on
(28:54):
farmers for being a lot more productive about wintering practices.
Speaker 2 (28:58):
I'll put a conditional rider on that. I still see
bad examples though Campbell, especially in South London.
Speaker 5 (29:04):
Well you do, and you know you get and I
think last year the South in case in point the
council put up single wind plane and drone to have
a lock pulled up five or six cases. What we're
able to do though is get up those driveways quickly
now and address what the issues are. So I think
that's been a big move forward and we're just got
to keep vigilant around it because there's a lot of
(29:26):
really good work being done by the majority of farmers.
Speaker 2 (29:30):
Darien Zider's finished the last of its three Farmer Forum events.
You had great turnouts at all of them, as I
understand what was covered. What was the feedback?
Speaker 5 (29:40):
Yeah, look it was and it was around you integrate,
collaborate and innovates, so you know, people thinking about getting
off farm, thinking about the bigger, broader perspectives. So we
had a futurest involved, which stretch a bit of thinking
around where the future is going and how can we
adapt as farmers. We had the talests from trade around
(30:00):
what's happening in the trade space, and then brought it
back to economics around the importance of New Zealand's competitive
and advantage and some of the analysis our economics and
science teams have been doing. And then really kind of
went into where the opportunities for the sector around productive
performance but also the science where we're doing to help
(30:21):
farmers with that as well as the opportunity to continue
to balance environmental standards and productivity and profitability. So, yeah,
a really good day. We're probably had over five hundred
farmers and professionals across those three events. And you know,
good ranger speakers, Good.
Speaker 2 (30:36):
On you, Deari's in a good space coming off a
ten dollars season. Hopefully the next one will equal that
or do better. Campbell Parker from darien Z, chief executive
and the inaugural chair of the FMD Council. Put that
one on your CV. Campbell good the chat mate.
Speaker 5 (30:52):
Yeah, good to chat Tommy, thank you.
Speaker 2 (30:54):
Well away from one, we're going to Wrap the Country
with Deputy Dave Seymour, the Acting Minister in the studio
Shane mcmanaway building a hospital. Should he? Should he have
had to have done that. We'll discuss that and some
other really cool things that are happening in his neck
of the woods, the wire Rapper. If you've got any
questions for David Seymour, five double O nine, there's our
(31:16):
text number. I've got one quickly for you, David. Just
this is just a yes or no? Really? Should Jacinda
r Dern be asked to appear before the Royal Commission
inquir into COVID? Yes or no? Now hang on?
Speaker 3 (31:28):
Will turn your mic on you try in all seriousness.
The Commission of Inquiries independent so I can't tell them
what to do. But I mean, look, I would have
thought she'd want to because she cares about COVID and
she should want to come and share her perspective, you
would think.
Speaker 2 (31:43):
David Seymour back with Shane mcmanaway, Rapping the Country today.
Thanks to David Seymour, Acting Prime Minister, for joining us
(32:03):
in the studio. It's been good. Here's a question or
here's a text. Hi, Jamie. It's great to hear some
straightforward conversation on your program with David Seymour one hundred
percent better than listening to Parker and Co. I'm assuming
that's David Parker smashing farmers and tying the industry up
in red tape. Graham. I agree with you. Here's a
bloke who is doing wonderful work not only in his
(32:28):
own region but all around New Zealand. Shane mcmanaway, good o, Shane.
Good afternoon.
Speaker 7 (32:33):
Good afternoon, Jane, Good afternoon, David.
Speaker 2 (32:35):
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 Dunedin and finish the job here?
Speaker 7 (32:44):
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 underneed and make it
work the better.
Speaker 2 (33:01):
I saw you on the National News the other day,
Shane saving the Is it the Pookaha National Wildlife Reserve?
Speaker 7 (33:11):
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 Rappa Wildlife Center, which opened in about nineteen
sixty two by a guy called Elwin 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
(33:35):
a 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
(33:57):
able to save the place was it was might's 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 have become fabulous partners with us up
there at poo Kaha. So Jamie, something that we couldn't
see clothes has about twenty nine thousand visitors and as
(34:18):
I say, it's a massive resource here for a tourist resource,
and the locals, all the kids, just about every kid
in the Wairappa I think would have been through Pookaha
and many throughout New Zealand. So I'm pleased that we've
been able to get in there.
Speaker 2 (34:30):
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 7 (34:42):
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 surround itself within the food and fiber sector and
the opportunities that is creating is absolutely enormous. The problem
(35:07):
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 Cordett 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
(35:28):
career of it, and boy, do we need more young people.
Speaker 3 (35:31):
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.
(35:53):
I 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
(36:15):
trying to clean up the tep hooking a mess and
the broke politechs. But I think you'll see in Penny Simmons'
vocational Education minister, 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 2 (36:34):
Yeah, and Penny Simmons 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 mcmanay for the acting Prime Minister.
Speaker 4 (36:44):
Yeah.
Speaker 7 (36:45):
Well, I guess it's still around that educational stuff in
the aggre sector.
Speaker 2 (36:50):
David.
Speaker 7 (36:50):
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, 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 across the agri sector of New Zealand has come
together with a body that can get things done. There's
(37:11):
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, you.
Speaker 2 (37:19):
Better be quick with us, Shane, you better be quick
with us. We've got thirty seconds.
Speaker 7 (37:22):
Yeah, and David, we need to get cracking and get
some action around this topic.
Speaker 3 (37:28):
Yeah, look, I think again, Penny's restructuring of Tippu King
will have a replacement for the work 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
(37:49):
here who 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 2 (37:56):
David Seymour and Shane mcmanaway. That's us down and dustin
for today, I'm off to a farmer's golf tournament tomorrow
and a dairy farm AGM. I'll catch your back on Monday.
Hamish mackay in the seat tomorrow.
Speaker 1 (38:11):
Catch you're the latest from the land. It's the Country
Podcast with Jamie mckue. Thanks to Brent, your specialist in
John Deere machinery.
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