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The late expansion of Three Waters to Five by Minister Nanaia Mahuta seems to have caught her own Cabinet colleagues out, with even the Prime Minister's office taking a while to get its spin straight on this one.
'Nothing to see here, you are just confused' is now the mantra.
Three or Five, the more troubling aspect of Mahuta's water work is probably the Te Mana o Te Wai statements which seem to allow Maori to lay claim, with no apparent parameters, to local water of any kind and all related economic "aspirations".
Apart from Newstalk ZB, media have largely ignored this and the implications for other water users such as farmers.
OPINION: Groundswell's opinion of the incumbent farm industry representatives isn't high.
OPINION: After hogging the media limelight for telling a NZ Chinese MP to "go back home", Winston Peters has decided to focus on a domestic issue - oil and gas drilling.
OPINION: With fuel prices soaring, one would have expected most farmers to be reclaiming excise duty on petrol.
OPINION: The world's first floating dairy farm, once hailed as a vision of farming's future, is up for sale after seven years.
Pāmu has released its FY26 Integrated Annual Report, reporting a Net Operating Profit of $113 million, more than double the $49 million recorded in FY25.
Meat Industry Association data, released alongside the Red Meat Sector conference in Wellington, shows export value climbing across the US, China, UK and Canada.
Applications are set to open for the 2027 Zanda McDonald Award, a trans-Tasman award recognised for identifying and fast-tracking talented young leaders in agriculture and agribusiness.
The Royal New Zealand College of General Practitioners (the College) and Hauora Taiwhenua Rural Health Network are calling for investment in a proposed new training pathway for rural GPs, warning that many rural practices are struggling to recruit while a large share of the existing workforce nears retirement.
Federated Farmers has called on Central Otago District Council (CODC) to drop or vote down a plan to truck sludge from Alexandra and Cromwell to farmland near Lauder, warning it would compound an "outrageous" situation created by a separate council's decision weeks earlier.
Synlait has swung to second-half profit as operations stabilise, but the dairy processor still posted a $75.4m annual loss.
