The Country 13/11/25: Nicola Grigg talks to Jamie Mackay

The Associate Minister of Agriculture (Horticulture) looks forward to the next couple of days catching up with farmers at the show.

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Coming to you from the Emerson's Tiny Pub at the
Canterby A and P Show. Indeed, it's a royal show.
We've got political royalty here with us. Nicola Greg Can
I call you that, Nikola? No, that's very gad to
see you against you're, of course the Minister of Horticulture,
amongst others.

Speaker 2 (00:14):
I am, I am.

Speaker 1 (00:15):
So what are you doing today?

Speaker 2 (00:16):
Well, we've been at the National Party stand all day.
I've actually just come from the Ravens Down to lunch,
which I can recommend to any Ravens Down customers. They
need to get there quite quickly because it's a very
good lamb on today. No, but here at the show
for the next couple of days because it's obviously your
home patch. It is my home page, one of the
biggest events in Canterbury and it's a really exciting year
to be here.

Speaker 1 (00:36):
So what is the next couple of days involved for you?

Speaker 2 (00:39):
A lot of political chat?

Speaker 1 (00:40):
Yeah, but you're walking amongst the converted here. Let's be honest.
This is where the Canterbury blue bloods. They'll all be
National voters.

Speaker 2 (00:49):
They're not backwards in coming forwards the Canterbury folk. And
look there's you know, We've done a hell of a
lot of work for agriculture and for rural communities, but
you know that story doesn't always get out there. So
actually our job is to go out there, talk about
what we're doing, what else we need to do, get
the feedback from on the ground, because that is the
most important part of it. We can't shake good policy
unless it's been directly fed into by actual farmers.

Speaker 1 (01:10):
Well, well, not everybody likes this government, let's be honest
about it, especially if we look at the polls now,
but farmers would be moners if they moaned about the
Coalition government, because I don't know if you could be
much more farmer friendly than you have been.

Speaker 2 (01:23):
Look I think so, I mean, it's not just about
being political and being farmer friendly quote unquote, but actually
we know that agriculture is the biggest driver of our
economic recovery, and so you know, it stands to reason,
where is a government have to do what we can
to enable farming to be as productive and as profitable
as it possibly can be, not just for the good

(01:46):
of those farming businesses in their rural communities, but for
their country.

Speaker 1 (01:50):
Didn't I see you on Telly or somewhere on social media.
Weren't you overseas somewhere?

Speaker 2 (01:55):
I was in Malaysia with the Prime Minister a week
or so ago.

Speaker 1 (01:58):
I saw you nodding in the back grun. Do you
have to just lux and say toy, You've got to
stand in the background and nod. I mean, I give
you know, Grant McCullum, he's a very much a National backbencher,
of course, of not much significance, great friend of mine,
but he just stands in the background of nods.

Speaker 2 (02:14):
Well, I know, but we're sort of about I don't know,
thirty five degrees and about it felt like ninety nine
percent humidity, so I was trying not to sneeze because
I had sweat rivulets dribbling down my face and into
my nose. So I'm not sure I was nodding in
all the right places, but hopefully I did a good
job at nodding.

Speaker 1 (02:28):
Good. Well, I thought you were an excellent nodder. Hey,
what do you make of the like as the Taxpayer's
Union Career pole that just came out recently, which has
Labor ahead clearly by two or three points ahead of National.
But Labour's got a major major issue they're called to
party Mari.

Speaker 2 (02:45):
It does, and we're still waiting on Chris Hipkins to
rule them in or rule them out. At the stage
it appears he's ruling them in, and I think that
any sensible New Zealander will be quite frightened by that prospect,
because it, to me, would look like a coalition of
absolute chaos. The polls of the poles they jump around.
We're very cognizant of the fact that we've come a
long way from where we were when we took over

(03:07):
government in terms of recovering the economy, but there's still
a long way to go. There's still a lot of
pain out there. There's still a lot of pressure on families,
and that translates into how they're feeling about the government
in its direction of travel. But look, we think we've
got a program in place, we think we're doing all
the right things. But as I said earlier, we've got
to make sure that we are talking to New Zealanders
all the time to make sure we're doing.

Speaker 1 (03:26):
That, which is what you're doing at the show here, Nicola,
greg Are you worried about Winston flexing his muscles.

Speaker 2 (03:32):
No, I've got nothing but respect for Winston Peter's No.

Speaker 1 (03:34):
That wasn't the question. I mean in terms of Look,
he's done the eye we thing. He's digging his toes
in on asset sales obviously superannuations another one that he
won't budge on.

Speaker 2 (03:46):
Look, there's a coalition deal in place that I think
our Prime Minister did an incredible job at pulling together.
Every party has got a little bit of what they wanted.
Every party knows they're not going to get everything that
they want. And look, those relationships I think are real
testament to the Prime Minister's skill at managing people and
personalities and political parties. And it's a very very strong coalition.

(04:07):
We always know that they're going to be issues that
we don't necessarily agree on. We knew that going into it.
And I think, you know, things are translating into an
incredible effort, incredible work program, and I think we're achieving
a lot.

Speaker 1 (04:18):
Can I tempt you to just have away sip of that?

Speaker 2 (04:20):
What is it?

Speaker 1 (04:21):
It's the twenty twenty five Makaiser. This is our bear.
We brew it with emissons for the country and a
person Nichola Not really.

Speaker 2 (04:31):
I mean I can pretend to be, but you can
pretend to be well, you've got to. I'm allowed to
try it.

Speaker 1 (04:35):
Yes, you're allowed to try and have a we sip
and just say nice things about it, even if you
hate it. It's very crisp, very chris very crisp. That's
nice and cold.

Speaker 2 (04:43):
You need a bear than it.

Speaker 1 (04:45):
Crisp and cold. There we go. Hey, Nikola Grig, Minister
of Horticulture and Associate agg thank you very much for
your time for wandering along here.