December 4, 2025 • 6 mins
Minister of Agriculture (and Forestry) on Ikea planting trees in Hawke’s Bay, and his next trade trip to India.
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
Well, he's certainly been a busy man. In twenty twenty five,
(00:02):
Minister of Agriculture Todd McClay joins us and on the
run today. So we're not going to mark around Todd
this Ikea. It's been everywhere this week, the whole opening
of the new business. But what about these forests they've
got in the Central Hawks Bay that have been land
converted into pine forestry. Apparently they're pretty big owners by
(00:22):
all accounts.
Speaker 2 (00:23):
Yeah, there is look personally, thanks having me on this show.
You're right, it's been a busy year. It's not quite over.
I've got one more trip to India this year. We're
trying to get that deal cracked. The it's all some
work to do, but so you know, a little bit
of tiredness before Santa Claus arrives. The investment on the
part of Ikea is very good for New Zealand. They
didn't have to come here to create a jobs. If
(00:44):
the thousands of New Zealanders they don't realize they're going
to pay quite a lot of money for hig quality
furniture they have to put together themselves. But they've also
had a look and decide that they want to invest
in forestry in New Zealand, not necessarily, you know, for
any purpose other than they use a lot of wood
and it's their way of making sure that wood is available.
(01:04):
They won't be taking the wood of building furniture out
of it. They have the same obligations on them though
as everyone else that owns forest in New Zealand, they
have to be good neighbors. There are a lot of
rules around a lot they need to do to prepare
a fire as that sort of thing, and I would
expect that they will be exemplary exceptional when it comes
to owners of a forest because they have a very
(01:24):
big reputation around the world they need to hold up.
But at the same time, you know, every single person,
whether they work on a farm, live in a city,
a town, or have a forest, has to think about
how they can make sure that they're not going to
harm others and they are following best practice.
Speaker 1 (01:40):
So no concerns from a government perspective around the locals
are concerned about the risk of fire and not only
the loss of good farmland.
Speaker 2 (01:47):
Yeah, well, in as far as farmland's concern, this land
with purchas before we put through the law to restrict
and ban or stop full farm to forest conversion. So
we pass that into law this year a few months ago.
It's now active, but this was done beforehand. So the
point that is from the moment that law was announced,
which is last year, people know that buy farmers to
(02:08):
do full farm to forest conversion. And when it came
into law, I think it was August of this year,
it was back David, which is a tough thing to do,
but it was important because we are concerned about very
productive farmland going into forest. We want to be producing food.
But then in as far as you know, concerned risk
and so on. Interestingly, the majority of fires that are
(02:30):
in forest don't start in the forest. They start somewhere else,
I'm told And that's not about blame. It's just that,
you know, it's a little bit more complex. But what
I am doing with a couple of my colleagues is
having a look across the board that rights and obligations
and make sure we've got the rules right. There are
some people who own farests in New Zealand from years ago,
(02:50):
a long time ago. Some of it was purchased or
planted under the last labor government. The non resident they're
not here and I do hear anecdotally concerns, particular from
councils and rural farming communities that they may not be
looking out of the forest and the way that they
should and there could be additional risk there. So we
have rules in place already they have to, along with
(03:12):
everyone else, be responsible. But I have arked officials to
start taking a look at whether there are more we
need to do. Interestingly, the forestry industry itself is joining
me to talk about this because they want to get
the rules right too. They want clear rules to know
what they need to do. And you know, they also
don't want silly rules that will cost them too much
and not achieve it. Bexactly the same as farmers.
Speaker 1 (03:34):
Right, Okay, good, we'll keep an eye on this going forward. Now.
Jim Wore, the most excellent former manager of Molesworth Station,
put forward this idea of it becoming a not for
profit organization. What are we hearing on this?
Speaker 2 (03:47):
It sounds like you want a land corp to take
it because they've been not making a profit for years
and new years of farming. Look at it, sits with it,
sits with the Department of Conservation. They're responsible for it.
They are having a little look at you know, it's
the least who is running that at the moment. I
don't want to jump in the way of that because
I'm not responsible for that. That's that's my colleague come
(04:07):
of potuct. But have been pretty clear to them. It
is iconic. It is very very important. I can tell
you there will not be pine trees planted on that.
There won't be. There's been a lot of scuttle back
around up but there's not We've ruled that out. But
we do want to make sure that one is well.
You that's farms properly, and by going through that now
to see exactly what that will look like. The government
(04:29):
owns and land. I don't think we should not be
making a profit because if we can make a good
profit of the as farmers are elsewhere, then we might
be able to get taxes down because we can use
that profit to I don't know, pay fors some more
teachers and doctors and nurses and all these sorts of things.
But it should not be run in the way you know,
some things are when governments are involved. So we're working
(04:50):
through that at the moment, Tod.
Speaker 1 (04:51):
And I you're busy man, just quickly I had been
asked to ask you, did you try the ike and meatballs?
Speaker 2 (04:58):
I haven't. I haven't been able to get along there.
But I can tell you I lived in Europe for
a long long time and I've eaten my fair share
of ike meatballs. I can tell anybody it's going along there.
There's nothing wrong with eating your body weight. And I
go meet boss, give it a try.
Speaker 1 (05:13):
Yeah, one last thing, India, one more trip before Christmas.
You're going to bring us back some Christmas presents. Well,
we're going to.
Speaker 2 (05:19):
Yeah. So look, we're working away that we're making progress,
and there's been a lot of momentum growing. You know,
we've committed to getting that deal done during this term
of parliament, which will happen, but we're not going to
make sure it's a good deal too. So we're getting
to the twenty end of some of the really tough discussions. Now.
I have a very good relationship with my Indian counterpart
I've met with them. I couldn't tell you the number
(05:39):
of times. This will be on my seventh or eighth
trip there since the election. The negotiators are going hard.
We're going to do everything we can to get the
best deal of New Zealand. It might be perfect, but
here's a market I reckon we can get a better
one than Australia got and they sell a lot of
lamb in that market. We don't. I want to replace
the Australian lamb in India with New Zealand landtastick.
Speaker 1 (06:00):
Tom mcay, thank you very much for your time.
Speaker 2 (06:02):
You're welcome
Well, he's certainly been a busy man. In twenty twenty five,
(00:02):
Minister of Agriculture Todd McClay joins us and on the
run today. So we're not going to mark around Todd
this Ikea. It's been everywhere this week, the whole opening
of the new business. But what about these forests they've
got in the Central Hawks Bay that have been land
converted into pine forestry. Apparently they're pretty big owners by
(00:22):
all accounts.
Speaker 2 (00:23):
Yeah, there is look personally, thanks having me on this show.
You're right, it's been a busy year. It's not quite over.
I've got one more trip to India this year. We're
trying to get that deal cracked. The it's all some
work to do, but so you know, a little bit
of tiredness before Santa Claus arrives. The investment on the
part of Ikea is very good for New Zealand. They
didn't have to come here to create a jobs. If
(00:44):
the thousands of New Zealanders they don't realize they're going
to pay quite a lot of money for hig quality
furniture they have to put together themselves. But they've also
had a look and decide that they want to invest
in forestry in New Zealand, not necessarily, you know, for
any purpose other than they use a lot of wood
and it's their way of making sure that wood is available.
(01:04):
They won't be taking the wood of building furniture out
of it. They have the same obligations on them though
as everyone else that owns forest in New Zealand, they
have to be good neighbors. There are a lot of
rules around a lot they need to do to prepare
a fire as that sort of thing, and I would
expect that they will be exemplary exceptional when it comes
to owners of a forest because they have a very
(01:24):
big reputation around the world they need to hold up.
But at the same time, you know, every single person,
whether they work on a farm, live in a city,
a town, or have a forest, has to think about
how they can make sure that they're not going to
harm others and they are following best practice.
Speaker 1 (01:40):
So no concerns from a government perspective around the locals
are concerned about the risk of fire and not only
the loss of good farmland.
Speaker 2 (01:47):
Yeah, well, in as far as farmland's concern, this land
with purchas before we put through the law to restrict
and ban or stop full farm to forest conversion. So
we pass that into law this year a few months ago.
It's now active, but this was done beforehand. So the
point that is from the moment that law was announced,
which is last year, people know that buy farmers to
(02:08):
do full farm to forest conversion. And when it came
into law, I think it was August of this year,
it was back David, which is a tough thing to do,
but it was important because we are concerned about very
productive farmland going into forest. We want to be producing food.
But then in as far as you know, concerned risk
and so on. Interestingly, the majority of fires that are
(02:30):
in forest don't start in the forest. They start somewhere else,
I'm told And that's not about blame. It's just that,
you know, it's a little bit more complex. But what
I am doing with a couple of my colleagues is
having a look across the board that rights and obligations
and make sure we've got the rules right. There are
some people who own farests in New Zealand from years ago,
(02:50):
a long time ago. Some of it was purchased or
planted under the last labor government. The non resident they're
not here and I do hear anecdotally concerns, particular from
councils and rural farming communities that they may not be
looking out of the forest and the way that they
should and there could be additional risk there. So we
have rules in place already they have to, along with
(03:12):
everyone else, be responsible. But I have arked officials to
start taking a look at whether there are more we
need to do. Interestingly, the forestry industry itself is joining
me to talk about this because they want to get
the rules right too. They want clear rules to know
what they need to do. And you know, they also
don't want silly rules that will cost them too much
and not achieve it. Bexactly the same as farmers.
Speaker 1 (03:34):
Right, Okay, good, we'll keep an eye on this going forward. Now.
Jim Wore, the most excellent former manager of Molesworth Station,
put forward this idea of it becoming a not for
profit organization. What are we hearing on this?
Speaker 2 (03:47):
It sounds like you want a land corp to take
it because they've been not making a profit for years
and new years of farming. Look at it, sits with it,
sits with the Department of Conservation. They're responsible for it.
They are having a little look at you know, it's
the least who is running that at the moment. I
don't want to jump in the way of that because
I'm not responsible for that. That's that's my colleague come
(04:07):
of potuct. But have been pretty clear to them. It
is iconic. It is very very important. I can tell
you there will not be pine trees planted on that.
There won't be. There's been a lot of scuttle back
around up but there's not We've ruled that out. But
we do want to make sure that one is well.
You that's farms properly, and by going through that now
to see exactly what that will look like. The government
(04:29):
owns and land. I don't think we should not be
making a profit because if we can make a good
profit of the as farmers are elsewhere, then we might
be able to get taxes down because we can use
that profit to I don't know, pay fors some more
teachers and doctors and nurses and all these sorts of things.
But it should not be run in the way you know,
some things are when governments are involved. So we're working
(04:50):
through that at the moment, Tod.
Speaker 1 (04:51):
And I you're busy man, just quickly I had been
asked to ask you, did you try the ike and meatballs?
Speaker 2 (04:58):
I haven't. I haven't been able to get along there.
But I can tell you I lived in Europe for
a long long time and I've eaten my fair share
of ike meatballs. I can tell anybody it's going along there.
There's nothing wrong with eating your body weight. And I
go meet boss, give it a try.
Speaker 1 (05:13):
Yeah, one last thing, India, one more trip before Christmas.
You're going to bring us back some Christmas presents. Well,
we're going to.
Speaker 2 (05:19):
Yeah. So look, we're working away that we're making progress,
and there's been a lot of momentum growing. You know,
we've committed to getting that deal done during this term
of parliament, which will happen, but we're not going to
make sure it's a good deal too. So we're getting
to the twenty end of some of the really tough discussions. Now.
I have a very good relationship with my Indian counterpart
I've met with them. I couldn't tell you the number
(05:39):
of times. This will be on my seventh or eighth
trip there since the election. The negotiators are going hard.
We're going to do everything we can to get the
best deal of New Zealand. It might be perfect, but
here's a market I reckon we can get a better
one than Australia got and they sell a lot of
lamb in that market. We don't. I want to replace
the Australian lamb in India with New Zealand landtastick.
Speaker 1 (06:00):
Tom mcay, thank you very much for your time.
Speaker 2 (06:02):
You're welcome
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