September 28, 2024 • 13 mins
Alliance Group is proposing a closure to its Timaru meat processing plant.
Consultations are ongoing and will likely lead to the loss of 600 jobs.
Minister for Regional Development Shane Jones joins Tim Beveridge on The Weekend Collective to discuss further.
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Speaker 1 (00:05):
You're listening to the Weekend Collective podcast from News Talks.
Speaker 2 (00:09):
They'd be big news on Friday, and it wasn't good news.
The Alliance Group proposing its closure to its Timoru processing plant,
with consultation around closure likely to lead to the loss
of six hundred jobs. A real body blow for that
community and another bad headline in terms of outside of
the main centers with job losses. And Minister for Regional
(00:29):
Development Shane Jones is with me now, good afternoon, How
on a second?
Speaker 3 (00:35):
Gooday?
Speaker 2 (00:36):
Gotcha here? Hi? What was your reaction to the news
of the closure of the meatworks and tomorrow?
Speaker 3 (00:45):
Oh, obviously it's a sad day for the people of Timorrow.
Not entirely sure how much of the workforce are migrant labor,
but it's supposed that a lot of New Zealanders for
many generations, like where I can't from them, the tay Torcido,
we've got the f cous works. Many families have worked
(01:07):
in the freezing works generation after generation.
Speaker 2 (01:11):
They al of course, it's always about consultation, which seems
to give the glimmer of hope of saving one or
two jobs. What is your take on it? What do
you know is there any hope of saving some of
those jobs.
Speaker 3 (01:23):
Well, I think it's fairly well known that there's been
a long period of time of over capacity in the
meat sector, that there's been a general decline in the
amount of sheep beef. I think down there it's also
venison and the sectors having to rationalize. But I think
(01:44):
at a deeper level, New Zealand's going through an adjustment
if you think through the energy prices that's been driving
certain manufacturing industrial groups to close down and landing use changes.
There's been a growth in that Canterbury area South Canterbury
area of dairy. That's meant various sheep farms in the
(02:07):
past have now turned into dairy. I don't think there's
been an inordinately large degree of forestry conversion and that
part of New Zealand. But once you have land use changes,
it leads to reduction in the number of animals being
processed and freezing works. Over time, you need the same
(02:29):
number of freezing works.
Speaker 2 (02:30):
Yeah. I had a bit of a conversation about this
on talk from the farming community as well. There were
a lot of them, and it said that it's just
become too hard to farm and that there has been
incentive for people to get out of it. Obviously, we
know there being conversions to dairy as well. But are
we making it too hard to be farmers in New
Zealand as well with the conversions to basically planting pine trees?
Speaker 3 (02:54):
Well, I think the problems different than that we're making
it too hard to produce food in general and New Zealand,
we've pursued a host of clean green economic transitions where
successive governments have not taken account of how difficult it
is to make these transitions that tended that they're a
costless transition, and we've done it under the the vanity
(03:19):
signaling ideology of saving the planet. Before New Zealand saves
the planet is but to save it. And as I've
said on numerous occasions, the party I belong to is
New Zealand first, not Climate first.
Speaker 2 (03:33):
Because the Paris Agreement, even the Paras Agreement on Climate,
even that said none of what they agree should impact
on food production. How have we missed that? How does
that get sort of missed? That's that's pretty fundamental to
well to everyone's well, bang, isn't it? No?
Speaker 3 (03:50):
I couldn't a more New Zealand can create enormous amounts
of wealth from growing food. In fact, I'm off to
Singapore two or three weeks and I'm hoping to bring
and encourage a delegation to come back from Singapore. They're
desperate for food security. We have the ability to increase
our food production to offer security to countries such as Singapore,
(04:13):
and through that we can enhance our own economic security.
I mean, the government is unraveling some of the excesses,
not the least of which is the SNAs. It's a
significant natural areas a case of ideological overreach. You can't
save every clump of neat of bush in the country.
And by the way, our's the forest Minister of the
billion tree, but as soon we've planted thousands, it's not
(04:36):
millions of native trees. And there has been an unrealistic expectation.
And in terms of the implementation of water standards, of
course we want our water ecosystems to be improved and enhanced,
but it's got to be over a reasonable period of time.
You can't just undo the last fifty or sixty years
(04:59):
in one decade, or you'll wipe out industry.
Speaker 2 (05:03):
Have you just one that you mentioned your mist of
the tree planting. What did you think of that billion
trees target.
Speaker 3 (05:09):
Right tree, right place. Obviously, after I was given the
unwonted sabbatical in twenty twenty, the Labor Party changed, they
changed the policy and we are now agreeing upon a
new forestry policy to ensure that where a forestation takes place,
(05:29):
it doesn't unreasonably compromise good farming or food growing land.
Speaker 2 (05:36):
Do you ever get wind of closures? And I guess
the reason for that question is we've had the pulp
and paper windstone closure. There's a devastating announcement for those
workings in communities. We've seen this announcement coming up. Are
you worried? Do you have this sort of sense this
is not the last of it.
Speaker 3 (05:54):
Yeah, As I've said, when I came back to politics
this time, I had a sense that New Zealand is
going through a transition. And where the transition has been
driven partially through the power industry. It's been getting We've
lost a historic advantage of reliable, secure and cheap power,
(06:16):
and that has been driven by an ideology of closing
down gas, closing down pole and believing that somehow we
can rely purely on sun, wind and rain. That's never
been the history of New Zealand. So we've got to
slow that transition down so we don't compromise industry. And
at another level, we've got to ensure that regulations that
(06:40):
we're introducing aren't so onerous that we kill the golden
goose that's creating a clutch of golden eggs, and that's
called the farming sector.
Speaker 2 (06:51):
Have you had any close consultation in the last day
or two with the community in tomorrow.
Speaker 3 (06:58):
No, I personally haven't, but I done. My colleague Mark Patterson,
who is a South Islander, does hold a portfolio pertaining
to rural affairs, has been in contact with key stakeholders
in that neck of the woods.
Speaker 2 (07:12):
Any hope for any of those jobs, Oh.
Speaker 3 (07:15):
Look mate, it'll depend on how the final shape and
form is in relation to how Alliance want to restructure
their businesses. But I just want people to remember, you know,
I'm old enough to remember working in the Westfield freezing works.
We had massive freezing works back in the sixties and
(07:35):
the seventies. I worked in them in nineteen seventy eight,
ninety seventy nine. There was south Down, there was Westfield,
and once those props that were in place during the
Mouldoon time were strict away. It was a large hollowing
out of the freezing works industry back there. And I
think what we're seeing is a rationalization and it's partly
(07:59):
driven by land use change, but it's also driven by
ilk regulations which is making it too difficult for cockies
not only to expand, but to intensify their farming activities.
Speaker 2 (08:14):
Just asking to put on a slightly different hat the
Minister for Oursians and Fisheries. Now, I see you've announced
some changes to the cat's limits. Can you just give
us a quick heads up on what's happening in there.
Speaker 3 (08:25):
Yeah. We have a huge resource off the west coast
of the North Island called the Snapper eight Fisheries Resource.
It kind of goes from Katee Ranger right down to Taranaki,
and we're significantly increasing the amount of snapper in that area.
That'll have the effect of vastly expanding the amount of
(08:47):
snapper onto the market and should have the effect of
decreasing the cost of fish to us the fish lovers.
Orange ruffy takes a long time for that type of
fish to mature. We're substantially reducing the amount of orange
ruffy to ensure that we don't fatally damage its sustainability.
(09:09):
Every year the legal amount of fish that the commercial
industry can take is adjusted. It's suggusted on the basis
of the most up to date scientific information. These decisions
are not without certain controversies. They relate to types of
fish that all key Wes know, right down to something
(09:29):
that various key wes don't eat but I enjoy, such
as kinna.
Speaker 2 (09:33):
Oh that's in a quiet taste. Hey, I did see
to see that the last paragraph of your press release
around this just acknowledging feedback that you get. I'm just
curious to know. So you've have submissions from tangarafenaware, recreational,
commercial fishes, et cetera, environmental groups. How does that advise
I'd be curious to know. Is there a marked difference
(09:54):
between the advice you get from feedback from public groups
versus what your officials say to you.
Speaker 3 (10:02):
Well, the officials assemble everything, and obviously there's scientific data,
and the scientific data is based on okay, after various
quantitative assessments through marine biological studies, and NIWA does a
whole host of deep scientific dives. Fguratively speaking. Then you
(10:26):
might have the industry saying, oh, well, if you cut
too deeply, you're going to compromise the viability. Then you'll
have the recreationists say, oh, don't give too much to industry.
And then you might have the tongue of defender of
saying I don't give anyone to anything, give anything to anyone.
And then you may have some of the green groups saying, look,
you're probably not cutting deep enough. So there's always a
(10:50):
mishmash of use, and the officials pay them out in
a rational way. They come out with a bunch of options.
They've been doing it for many, many years. Some people do.
Some characters have had this. They've been sued Stee Nash
he got it wrong with the Takehi fisheries and it
led to litigation.
Speaker 2 (11:11):
I guess if everyone's unhappy, you've probably got it right. Anyway.
There'll be one be one person happy though. Of course
I see in the catch limit increases Kenna are in there,
so the put your bib on and get stuck in.
Thanks very much, Jane, Thanks very much. There we go that.
Shane Jones, Minister for Regional Development and also Oceans and Fisheries,
(11:32):
just sort of we get a little bit more information
about that recent announcement of catch limit changes. Yeah, and
interesting years. He said, if you get it wrong, then
you us the minister, you can get sued for these things.
Not personally, obviously, I would imagine it was probably the
minister as minister. So there we go. We're going to
do a little bit of talk back after this. A
couple of things that Shane touched on there, and I
(11:53):
think the general gist is, have we look climate Yes,
Powis Agreement address all that stuff, but regardless of the arguments,
and we're not going to argue about, you know, as
climate change real and all that sort of stuff. But
if we are signing up to things like the Paris Agreement,
then how have we got things so wrong when actually
those agreements say that food security is paramount and so
(12:18):
instead of it seems that we haven't followed that rule.
We can bang on about certain agreements in virtue signaling,
but they do say food security is paramount, and yet
we've seen a change in the way people are farming.
We've seen conversions obviously from sheep to dairy, and there's
probably a multitude of reasons for that, but there are
also farmers who basically have either got out or they've
(12:41):
converted their farms to trees because it's just easier. And
then we have these as a result of the down
swing in the supply of animals for processing at these meatworks,
we see six hundred jobs lost.
Speaker 1 (12:58):
For more from the Weekend Collective, listen live to news
Talks the'd be weekends from three pm, or follow the
podcast on hard Radio.
You're listening to the Weekend Collective podcast from News Talks.
Speaker 2 (00:09):
They'd be big news on Friday, and it wasn't good news.
The Alliance Group proposing its closure to its Timoru processing plant,
with consultation around closure likely to lead to the loss
of six hundred jobs. A real body blow for that
community and another bad headline in terms of outside of
the main centers with job losses. And Minister for Regional
(00:29):
Development Shane Jones is with me now, good afternoon, How
on a second?
Speaker 3 (00:35):
Gooday?
Speaker 2 (00:36):
Gotcha here? Hi? What was your reaction to the news
of the closure of the meatworks and tomorrow?
Speaker 3 (00:45):
Oh, obviously it's a sad day for the people of Timorrow.
Not entirely sure how much of the workforce are migrant labor,
but it's supposed that a lot of New Zealanders for
many generations, like where I can't from them, the tay Torcido,
we've got the f cous works. Many families have worked
(01:07):
in the freezing works generation after generation.
Speaker 2 (01:11):
They al of course, it's always about consultation, which seems
to give the glimmer of hope of saving one or
two jobs. What is your take on it? What do
you know is there any hope of saving some of
those jobs.
Speaker 3 (01:23):
Well, I think it's fairly well known that there's been
a long period of time of over capacity in the
meat sector, that there's been a general decline in the
amount of sheep beef. I think down there it's also
venison and the sectors having to rationalize. But I think
(01:44):
at a deeper level, New Zealand's going through an adjustment
if you think through the energy prices that's been driving
certain manufacturing industrial groups to close down and landing use changes.
There's been a growth in that Canterbury area South Canterbury
area of dairy. That's meant various sheep farms in the
(02:07):
past have now turned into dairy. I don't think there's
been an inordinately large degree of forestry conversion and that
part of New Zealand. But once you have land use changes,
it leads to reduction in the number of animals being
processed and freezing works. Over time, you need the same
(02:29):
number of freezing works.
Speaker 2 (02:30):
Yeah. I had a bit of a conversation about this
on talk from the farming community as well. There were
a lot of them, and it said that it's just
become too hard to farm and that there has been
incentive for people to get out of it. Obviously, we
know there being conversions to dairy as well. But are
we making it too hard to be farmers in New
Zealand as well with the conversions to basically planting pine trees?
Speaker 3 (02:54):
Well, I think the problems different than that we're making
it too hard to produce food in general and New Zealand,
we've pursued a host of clean green economic transitions where
successive governments have not taken account of how difficult it
is to make these transitions that tended that they're a
costless transition, and we've done it under the the vanity
(03:19):
signaling ideology of saving the planet. Before New Zealand saves
the planet is but to save it. And as I've
said on numerous occasions, the party I belong to is
New Zealand first, not Climate first.
Speaker 2 (03:33):
Because the Paris Agreement, even the Paras Agreement on Climate,
even that said none of what they agree should impact
on food production. How have we missed that? How does
that get sort of missed? That's that's pretty fundamental to
well to everyone's well, bang, isn't it? No?
Speaker 3 (03:50):
I couldn't a more New Zealand can create enormous amounts
of wealth from growing food. In fact, I'm off to
Singapore two or three weeks and I'm hoping to bring
and encourage a delegation to come back from Singapore. They're
desperate for food security. We have the ability to increase
our food production to offer security to countries such as Singapore,
(04:13):
and through that we can enhance our own economic security.
I mean, the government is unraveling some of the excesses,
not the least of which is the SNAs. It's a
significant natural areas a case of ideological overreach. You can't
save every clump of neat of bush in the country.
And by the way, our's the forest Minister of the
billion tree, but as soon we've planted thousands, it's not
(04:36):
millions of native trees. And there has been an unrealistic expectation.
And in terms of the implementation of water standards, of
course we want our water ecosystems to be improved and enhanced,
but it's got to be over a reasonable period of time.
You can't just undo the last fifty or sixty years
(04:59):
in one decade, or you'll wipe out industry.
Speaker 2 (05:03):
Have you just one that you mentioned your mist of
the tree planting. What did you think of that billion
trees target.
Speaker 3 (05:09):
Right tree, right place. Obviously, after I was given the
unwonted sabbatical in twenty twenty, the Labor Party changed, they
changed the policy and we are now agreeing upon a
new forestry policy to ensure that where a forestation takes place,
(05:29):
it doesn't unreasonably compromise good farming or food growing land.
Speaker 2 (05:36):
Do you ever get wind of closures? And I guess
the reason for that question is we've had the pulp
and paper windstone closure. There's a devastating announcement for those
workings in communities. We've seen this announcement coming up. Are
you worried? Do you have this sort of sense this
is not the last of it.
Speaker 3 (05:54):
Yeah, As I've said, when I came back to politics
this time, I had a sense that New Zealand is
going through a transition. And where the transition has been
driven partially through the power industry. It's been getting We've
lost a historic advantage of reliable, secure and cheap power,
(06:16):
and that has been driven by an ideology of closing
down gas, closing down pole and believing that somehow we
can rely purely on sun, wind and rain. That's never
been the history of New Zealand. So we've got to
slow that transition down so we don't compromise industry. And
at another level, we've got to ensure that regulations that
(06:40):
we're introducing aren't so onerous that we kill the golden
goose that's creating a clutch of golden eggs, and that's
called the farming sector.
Speaker 2 (06:51):
Have you had any close consultation in the last day
or two with the community in tomorrow.
Speaker 3 (06:58):
No, I personally haven't, but I done. My colleague Mark Patterson,
who is a South Islander, does hold a portfolio pertaining
to rural affairs, has been in contact with key stakeholders
in that neck of the woods.
Speaker 2 (07:12):
Any hope for any of those jobs, Oh.
Speaker 3 (07:15):
Look mate, it'll depend on how the final shape and
form is in relation to how Alliance want to restructure
their businesses. But I just want people to remember, you know,
I'm old enough to remember working in the Westfield freezing works.
We had massive freezing works back in the sixties and
(07:35):
the seventies. I worked in them in nineteen seventy eight,
ninety seventy nine. There was south Down, there was Westfield,
and once those props that were in place during the
Mouldoon time were strict away. It was a large hollowing
out of the freezing works industry back there. And I
think what we're seeing is a rationalization and it's partly
(07:59):
driven by land use change, but it's also driven by
ilk regulations which is making it too difficult for cockies
not only to expand, but to intensify their farming activities.
Speaker 2 (08:14):
Just asking to put on a slightly different hat the
Minister for Oursians and Fisheries. Now, I see you've announced
some changes to the cat's limits. Can you just give
us a quick heads up on what's happening in there.
Speaker 3 (08:25):
Yeah. We have a huge resource off the west coast
of the North Island called the Snapper eight Fisheries Resource.
It kind of goes from Katee Ranger right down to Taranaki,
and we're significantly increasing the amount of snapper in that area.
That'll have the effect of vastly expanding the amount of
(08:47):
snapper onto the market and should have the effect of
decreasing the cost of fish to us the fish lovers.
Orange ruffy takes a long time for that type of
fish to mature. We're substantially reducing the amount of orange
ruffy to ensure that we don't fatally damage its sustainability.
(09:09):
Every year the legal amount of fish that the commercial
industry can take is adjusted. It's suggusted on the basis
of the most up to date scientific information. These decisions
are not without certain controversies. They relate to types of
fish that all key Wes know, right down to something
(09:29):
that various key wes don't eat but I enjoy, such
as kinna.
Speaker 2 (09:33):
Oh that's in a quiet taste. Hey, I did see
to see that the last paragraph of your press release
around this just acknowledging feedback that you get. I'm just
curious to know. So you've have submissions from tangarafenaware, recreational,
commercial fishes, et cetera, environmental groups. How does that advise
I'd be curious to know. Is there a marked difference
(09:54):
between the advice you get from feedback from public groups
versus what your officials say to you.
Speaker 3 (10:02):
Well, the officials assemble everything, and obviously there's scientific data,
and the scientific data is based on okay, after various
quantitative assessments through marine biological studies, and NIWA does a
whole host of deep scientific dives. Fguratively speaking. Then you
(10:26):
might have the industry saying, oh, well, if you cut
too deeply, you're going to compromise the viability. Then you'll
have the recreationists say, oh, don't give too much to industry.
And then you might have the tongue of defender of
saying I don't give anyone to anything, give anything to anyone.
And then you may have some of the green groups saying, look,
you're probably not cutting deep enough. So there's always a
(10:50):
mishmash of use, and the officials pay them out in
a rational way. They come out with a bunch of options.
They've been doing it for many, many years. Some people do.
Some characters have had this. They've been sued Stee Nash
he got it wrong with the Takehi fisheries and it
led to litigation.
Speaker 2 (11:11):
I guess if everyone's unhappy, you've probably got it right. Anyway.
There'll be one be one person happy though. Of course
I see in the catch limit increases Kenna are in there,
so the put your bib on and get stuck in.
Thanks very much, Jane, Thanks very much. There we go that.
Shane Jones, Minister for Regional Development and also Oceans and Fisheries,
(11:32):
just sort of we get a little bit more information
about that recent announcement of catch limit changes. Yeah, and
interesting years. He said, if you get it wrong, then
you us the minister, you can get sued for these things.
Not personally, obviously, I would imagine it was probably the
minister as minister. So there we go. We're going to
do a little bit of talk back after this. A
couple of things that Shane touched on there, and I
(11:53):
think the general gist is, have we look climate Yes,
Powis Agreement address all that stuff, but regardless of the arguments,
and we're not going to argue about, you know, as
climate change real and all that sort of stuff. But
if we are signing up to things like the Paris Agreement,
then how have we got things so wrong when actually
those agreements say that food security is paramount and so
(12:18):
instead of it seems that we haven't followed that rule.
We can bang on about certain agreements in virtue signaling,
but they do say food security is paramount, and yet
we've seen a change in the way people are farming.
We've seen conversions obviously from sheep to dairy, and there's
probably a multitude of reasons for that, but there are
also farmers who basically have either got out or they've
(12:41):
converted their farms to trees because it's just easier. And
then we have these as a result of the down
swing in the supply of animals for processing at these meatworks,
we see six hundred jobs lost.
Speaker 1 (12:58):
For more from the Weekend Collective, listen live to news
Talks the'd be weekends from three pm, or follow the
podcast on hard Radio.
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