Damien O’Connor Criticises Budget 2026 as ‘Miserable’ for Rural New Zealand
A miserable budget that didn’t deliver much for anyone.
OPINION: The Hound wonders why so much fuss was made about the PM’s recent overseas trip to Singapore and Japan.
It appears, to this old mutt, that the press pack who attended this trip, along with the PM and Trade Minister Damien O’Connor (whose sole purpose seems to have been to carry Ms Ardern’s handbag), seemed to have over-imbibed on the Government Kool-Aid after three years of closed borders and over-egged just how much of big a deal this overseas junket actually was.
The facts were that, of the 50 people on the week-long jaunt, only 12 were real business people – with three of these failing to make it to Japan due to that country’s strict Covid test regime.
The other 38 were just a bunch of politicians, bureaucrats, media and government spin doctors – making it more a glorified junket for officials and hangers-on than some earth-shattering trade delegation!
New Zealand dairy farmers are set to be the first in the world to receive access to a new digital physical milk pricing tool that enables them to fix the price for their physical milk.
State farmer Pāmu is opening its farm gates this summer in an effort to give the rural sector the opportunity to see how large-scale, multi-system farming is delivering productivity and profitability across New Zealand.
A five-year study has found that the cost of reducing emissions without technology may be significant and unsustainable for Northland dairy farmers.
DairyNZ says Waikato farmers need certainty on Plan Change 1, but they say that certainty must be matched with practical, workable rules and a clear transition that doesn't get ahead of the new resource management system currently under review.
While the Government has moved quickly to make commercial hauliers' lot easier during the current fuel crisis, they appear to be stuck in the creep box when it comes to the agricultural industry.
Waikato farmers have been told that the Government’s new planning system legislation and the region’s Plan Change 1 (PC1) “won’t mesh together very well”.