March 2, 2026 • 7 mins
Jason Herrick wants an inquiry held into the response regarding the October southern wind events.
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Speaker 1 (00:05):
Welcome back to the Master. Jason Herrick as president of
South Confederative Farmers joining us next. Good afternoon, Jason.
Speaker 2 (00:16):
Good afternoon, Andy. Cool start this morning, wasn't it.
Speaker 1 (00:20):
There's a bit of a shock to the system.
Speaker 2 (00:22):
Yeah, yeah, considered some are supposed to be here upon
us and it just keep keeps delivering.
Speaker 1 (00:27):
Now, fine, whether it was anything but back in October
of the wind event that had curried down here in
the South. But you were quoted in the paper the
other day regarding emergency managements South and the response you
don't believe it was adequate? Why is that?
Speaker 2 (00:42):
Absolutely not? Andy? I do think we need a full
inquiry into and how it was managed. And at the
response at the time, you know, too many box ticking
exercises instead of getting action on the ground and getting
things happening. And I wanted to see generators going in
from up north and they had organized all of that,
(01:03):
but it needed the green tick from from MS and
NeiMa to the minister, and they never gave that green
tip because they hadn't heard from anybody. And you know
you're not going to hear from anybody when the coms
is out AA and we were building up names for
the great one about the man of people that needed
generators out there and at the Fed's office, we had
a list there and basically we weren't listening to and
(01:25):
didn't really get take us seriously. And I've been through
that situation before in the cross at truthquakes where we
couldn't milk our house for seven days and it was
catastrophic and for the rest of our season we lost
a lot of money. That yes, so I didn't want
to see any farmers go through that. So I had
everything organized to make sure that we had the hercules
available to fly these in and it was he just
(01:46):
needed the green tick from those two agencies, which they
never gave until later on and we got our first
flights and on Sunday, But that was for comms, not
not generators for farmers or businesses logic woods.
Speaker 1 (02:00):
So prior to the events occurring, that everybody in the
know with EU mess as such or just talking to
the leaders the MPs and the lakes, it will be
on the same wavelengths and just be talking in dialogue
more often than not for when these events would have happened.
Or am I reading this wrong? Yeah?
Speaker 2 (02:17):
No, I mean there need to be better dialogue in
an updated list on who needs to be involved in
these things right from the word go. You know, initially
in the first management meeting on the Friday morning, there
was nobody from Power NEET, there was nobody from COMMS,
The MPs weren't invited, the local mayors weren't invited and
(02:39):
so on. So I rallied and sent all those invites
to all of those people who I've been in connection
with and made sure they were a part of the
first meetings. And I was doing all of this from
Australia because I was over there for my son's wedding.
So you know, the response was, in my opinion, very poor,
and we haven't learned from from the past and the
(03:01):
extreme weather events we've had in the past, i e.
The Cyclone Gabriel and the cross of earthquakes and the flooding,
you know, events that work had throughout in New Zealand.
So we've got to get better at this. There's got
to be a better way and a better way of
managing the situation.
Speaker 1 (03:18):
So what do you hope that an inquiry would.
Speaker 2 (03:20):
Do uncover and unlock these processes, because I mean, by
the looks of it, it was looking like they're just
box ticking, right, they're just following a script. And if
that's the case, the script is wrong and we need
to we need to do better on that. So, you know,
getting a big deep dive into the nitty gritty and
making sure that we have our processes in place that
(03:42):
we get a better response you know when these when
these events happen. So, yeah, that's what I want to
get out of it. And I want to make sure
you know that everybody is thought of and looked after
it at the time, and you get the right people
in the room according to the event that's at foot right,
you know, you've got the wind storm. It took out
all the colms and the power of the first people
(04:02):
I would have in the room is the power networks
and the comm networks, right, because you need to need
to know exactly what needs to be done there in
a flooding event where you're going to have all of
the emergency services involved and all of the strategic partners
to make sure that everybody in the line of a
flooding event is safe.
Speaker 1 (04:23):
Well, the calms one for me is the big one, Jason.
I mean, I've been bagging on for a while now
about retaining three G services. But these are slowly but
surely leaving all the areas. So when we do get
another catastrophic whether event is a matter of when not,
at least be perfectly rested now and realistic about this.
Then how are we going to use the outside well
communication wise?
Speaker 2 (04:43):
Oh? Correct? And it really showed a weakness there, right.
COLMS is out and nobody could get a hold of
one another, you know, even from Australia. The people I
could get a hold of we're outside the district or
living up in Queenstown with Joseph Mooney and so on.
And the only other person I could get a hold
of on the ground sorry, two people from my executive
was mister Chris Dyllon and he was in hardware at
(05:06):
the time so I could get a hold of him.
And cass Ralberh who's a member of Landsache and Rescue
who had a sat phun. You know, those are the
only two that I could really get a hold of.
And it just goes to show that when COMMS goes out,
it's very hard to liaise. And I've really felt sorry
for all of our electricians and so forth trying to
get around to help as many people as they could
(05:27):
without any comps, you know, and it's definitely something that
needs to be looked that hard into the future and
make sure that we've got some good Robusque backup systems
for our comms.
Speaker 1 (05:38):
Now, counsel amalgamations has been a hot topic for a while. Now,
what's the latest you can tell us there is there
any development at all?
Speaker 2 (05:45):
Yeah, So I've just received an invite from the local
government n Z Commissioner for talks and discussions around around this,
so that it would be interesting. I don't know the
details that they want to go into, but they definitely
have invited us to the table to start having these
discussions and obviously following up the last meetings they had
(06:06):
the two months ago, I think it was that Environment
South and it organized and obviously we had a panel
discussion at the Field Days which was well received. They've
got a lot of positive feedback about that, which is good.
Speaker 1 (06:20):
Now this is a common sense story as well. Good
news caller, what you will, Key we Saver finally is
going to be opened up for farm workers regarding house
purchases and farm ownership.
Speaker 2 (06:31):
Yeah, no, that's that's just brilliant. We've been fighting for
this for a week while and around having key Wesaver
open to farm workers and up and coming studards of
our industry, you know, And it's been been a bit
of a fly in the ointment for that. That has
been a unfair advantage for the royal folk to not
(06:53):
be able to use their KEYV Saver. And I'd like
it to go one step further as well and allow
Key we Saver to be opened up for shea milkers
wanting to buy their first herds and setting up businesses
and stuff as well. I'd like to see that in
the future and we will continue working hard to try
and get that across the line. But this is a
good step in the right direction now allowing our young
(07:15):
ones coming through to be able to get on the
property market and investment market.
Speaker 1 (07:18):
So good on you, Jason. You carry on with your day,
Thanks for your time as.
Speaker 2 (07:22):
Always, and you're welcome and you kepical on yourself.
Speaker 1 (07:26):
Jason here South and Federated Farmers. You're listening to the
muster toy Tremaine of Banamin Crutsing Pride to Lawyers is
up next.
Welcome back to the Master. Jason Herrick as president of
South Confederative Farmers joining us next. Good afternoon, Jason.
Speaker 2 (00:16):
Good afternoon, Andy. Cool start this morning, wasn't it.
Speaker 1 (00:20):
There's a bit of a shock to the system.
Speaker 2 (00:22):
Yeah, yeah, considered some are supposed to be here upon
us and it just keep keeps delivering.
Speaker 1 (00:27):
Now, fine, whether it was anything but back in October
of the wind event that had curried down here in
the South. But you were quoted in the paper the
other day regarding emergency managements South and the response you
don't believe it was adequate? Why is that?
Speaker 2 (00:42):
Absolutely not? Andy? I do think we need a full
inquiry into and how it was managed. And at the
response at the time, you know, too many box ticking
exercises instead of getting action on the ground and getting
things happening. And I wanted to see generators going in
from up north and they had organized all of that,
(01:03):
but it needed the green tick from from MS and
NeiMa to the minister, and they never gave that green
tip because they hadn't heard from anybody. And you know
you're not going to hear from anybody when the coms
is out AA and we were building up names for
the great one about the man of people that needed
generators out there and at the Fed's office, we had
a list there and basically we weren't listening to and
(01:25):
didn't really get take us seriously. And I've been through
that situation before in the cross at truthquakes where we
couldn't milk our house for seven days and it was
catastrophic and for the rest of our season we lost
a lot of money. That yes, so I didn't want
to see any farmers go through that. So I had
everything organized to make sure that we had the hercules
available to fly these in and it was he just
(01:46):
needed the green tick from those two agencies, which they
never gave until later on and we got our first
flights and on Sunday, But that was for comms, not
not generators for farmers or businesses logic woods.
Speaker 1 (02:00):
So prior to the events occurring, that everybody in the
know with EU mess as such or just talking to
the leaders the MPs and the lakes, it will be
on the same wavelengths and just be talking in dialogue
more often than not for when these events would have happened.
Or am I reading this wrong? Yeah?
Speaker 2 (02:17):
No, I mean there need to be better dialogue in
an updated list on who needs to be involved in
these things right from the word go. You know, initially
in the first management meeting on the Friday morning, there
was nobody from Power NEET, there was nobody from COMMS,
The MPs weren't invited, the local mayors weren't invited and
(02:39):
so on. So I rallied and sent all those invites
to all of those people who I've been in connection
with and made sure they were a part of the
first meetings. And I was doing all of this from
Australia because I was over there for my son's wedding.
So you know, the response was, in my opinion, very poor,
and we haven't learned from from the past and the
(03:01):
extreme weather events we've had in the past, i e.
The Cyclone Gabriel and the cross of earthquakes and the flooding,
you know, events that work had throughout in New Zealand.
So we've got to get better at this. There's got
to be a better way and a better way of
managing the situation.
Speaker 1 (03:18):
So what do you hope that an inquiry would.
Speaker 2 (03:20):
Do uncover and unlock these processes, because I mean, by
the looks of it, it was looking like they're just
box ticking, right, they're just following a script. And if
that's the case, the script is wrong and we need
to we need to do better on that. So, you know,
getting a big deep dive into the nitty gritty and
making sure that we have our processes in place that
(03:42):
we get a better response you know when these when
these events happen. So, yeah, that's what I want to
get out of it. And I want to make sure
you know that everybody is thought of and looked after
it at the time, and you get the right people
in the room according to the event that's at foot right,
you know, you've got the wind storm. It took out
all the colms and the power of the first people
(04:02):
I would have in the room is the power networks
and the comm networks, right, because you need to need
to know exactly what needs to be done there in
a flooding event where you're going to have all of
the emergency services involved and all of the strategic partners
to make sure that everybody in the line of a
flooding event is safe.
Speaker 1 (04:23):
Well, the calms one for me is the big one, Jason.
I mean, I've been bagging on for a while now
about retaining three G services. But these are slowly but
surely leaving all the areas. So when we do get
another catastrophic whether event is a matter of when not,
at least be perfectly rested now and realistic about this.
Then how are we going to use the outside well
communication wise?
Speaker 2 (04:43):
Oh? Correct? And it really showed a weakness there, right.
COLMS is out and nobody could get a hold of
one another, you know, even from Australia. The people I
could get a hold of we're outside the district or
living up in Queenstown with Joseph Mooney and so on.
And the only other person I could get a hold
of on the ground sorry, two people from my executive
was mister Chris Dyllon and he was in hardware at
(05:06):
the time so I could get a hold of him.
And cass Ralberh who's a member of Landsache and Rescue
who had a sat phun. You know, those are the
only two that I could really get a hold of.
And it just goes to show that when COMMS goes out,
it's very hard to liaise. And I've really felt sorry
for all of our electricians and so forth trying to
get around to help as many people as they could
(05:27):
without any comps, you know, and it's definitely something that
needs to be looked that hard into the future and
make sure that we've got some good Robusque backup systems
for our comms.
Speaker 1 (05:38):
Now, counsel amalgamations has been a hot topic for a while. Now,
what's the latest you can tell us there is there
any development at all?
Speaker 2 (05:45):
Yeah, So I've just received an invite from the local
government n Z Commissioner for talks and discussions around around this,
so that it would be interesting. I don't know the
details that they want to go into, but they definitely
have invited us to the table to start having these
discussions and obviously following up the last meetings they had
(06:06):
the two months ago, I think it was that Environment
South and it organized and obviously we had a panel
discussion at the Field Days which was well received. They've
got a lot of positive feedback about that, which is good.
Speaker 1 (06:20):
Now this is a common sense story as well. Good
news caller, what you will, Key we Saver finally is
going to be opened up for farm workers regarding house
purchases and farm ownership.
Speaker 2 (06:31):
Yeah, no, that's that's just brilliant. We've been fighting for
this for a week while and around having key Wesaver
open to farm workers and up and coming studards of
our industry, you know, And it's been been a bit
of a fly in the ointment for that. That has
been a unfair advantage for the royal folk to not
(06:53):
be able to use their KEYV Saver. And I'd like
it to go one step further as well and allow
Key we Saver to be opened up for shea milkers
wanting to buy their first herds and setting up businesses
and stuff as well. I'd like to see that in
the future and we will continue working hard to try
and get that across the line. But this is a
good step in the right direction now allowing our young
(07:15):
ones coming through to be able to get on the
property market and investment market.
Speaker 1 (07:18):
So good on you, Jason. You carry on with your day,
Thanks for your time as.
Speaker 2 (07:22):
Always, and you're welcome and you kepical on yourself.
Speaker 1 (07:26):
Jason here South and Federated Farmers. You're listening to the
muster toy Tremaine of Banamin Crutsing Pride to Lawyers is
up next.
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