Diplomatic Incident
OPINION: Your old mate hears an international incident is threatening to blow up the long-standing Anzac alliance as Kiwis and Aussies argue over who wants new Australian resident and former NZ Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern.
The Government is today introducing the long-awaited Climate Change Bill with agriculture included.
Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern says agriculture is incredibly important to New Zealand, but it also needs to be part of the solution.
“That is why we have listened to the science and also heard the industry and created a specific target for biogenic methane.
“The split gases approach we’ve agreed on is consistent with that commitment.”
The Bill sets a target for 10% reduction in biological methane emissions by 2030, and aims for a provisional reduction ranging from 24% to 47% by 2050.
That provisional range will be subject to review by the independent Climate Change Commission in 2024, to take account of changes in scientific knowledge and other developments.
Ardern says the independent Climate Change Commission, established by the Bill, “will support our emissions reduction targets through advice, guidance, and regular five-yearly “emissions budgets”.
“The Bill also creates a legal obligation on the Government to plan for how it will support New Zealand towns and cities, business, farmers and Iwi to adapt to the increasingly severe storms, floods, fires and droughts we are experiencing as a result of climate change.
“New Zealanders have made it clear they want leadership and consensus on climate change legislation.”
She says “a practical consensus” has been built across the three Government parties that creates a plan for the next 30 years, which provides the certainty industries need to get in front of this challenge.
New Zealand's diverse cheesemaking talent shone brightly last night as the New Zealand Specialist Cheesemakers Association (NZSCA) crowned the champions of the 2026 New Zealand Cheese Awards.
Tracing has indicated that the source of the first velvetleaf find of the 2025-26 crop season, in Auckland, was likely maize purchased in the Waikato region.
Fish & Game New Zealand has announced its election priorities in its Manifesto 2026.
With the forage maize harvest started in Northland and the Waikato, the Foundation for Arable Research (FAR) is telling growers of later crops, or those further south, to start checking their maize crop maturity about three weeks prior to when they think they will start silage harvesting.
Irrigation NZ is warning that the government's Resource Management Act (RMA) reform risks falling short of its objectives unless water use for food production and water storage infrastructure are clearly recognised in the goals at the top of the new system.
More than five million trays, or 18,000 tonnes, of Zespri’s RubyRed Kiwifruit will soon be available for consumers across 16 markets this season.
OPINION: The good news keeps getting better for NZ dairy farmers.
OPINION: With export of livestock by sea dead in the water, opponents of the Gene Technology Bill think they can…