RWNZ chief executive to step down
Rural Women New Zealand (RWNZ) chief executive Gabrielle O’Brien will step down at the end of June.
Politicians who advocate that New Zealand should adopt any form of protectionist trade policies have been labelled “stupid” by the chair of the Dairy Companies Association of NZ (DCANZ).
Malcolm Bailey is concerned about some of the remarks by certain politicians, whom he says have been quoted as thinking along these lines.
Bailey says at some stage COVID-19 will transition from being a health problem to an economic problem and any rise in protectionism will be bad for NZ.
Bailey says putting up the shutters in terms of trade barriers would be bad for everyone. He points to the example of Singapore, with whom NZ has an excellent trading relationship.
He says under a protectionist regime that country would virtually starve to death because they are not a food producer and in turn New Zealanders would be deprived of quality, cost effective consumer products.
“Anyone advocating protectionist policies is just plain dumb,” he says.
Bailey believes the market for dairy products has held up pretty well so far, but acknowledges that there have been challenges in terms of getting product to market. However, he says people have found innovative and pragmatic ways of sorting these out.
The Commerce Commission says connectivity options for rural New Zealanders are front-of-mind as it begins a formal investigation into the future of the copper network.
Grand Finalists have been selected, all regional finals have concluded, and the journey towards the FMG Young Farmer of the Year Grand Final is underway.
Hopes of NZ sheepmeat prices picking up anytime soon in the country's key export market of China looks highly unlikely.
Regional councils are welcoming the certainty for councils in today’s Resource Management Act (RMA) announcement by the Government.
ASB says the decision to sign on to the AgriZeroNZ joint venture came out of a wish to be a part of the solution.
Federated Farmers says changes announced to the Resource Management Act today mark the end of the war on farming.
OPINION: This old mutt understands that NZ Post will soon no longer be delivering to rural addresses on Saturdays.
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