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Tuesday, 12 April 2022 11:59

Gloves off?

Written by  The Hound
Gloves off?

OPINION: Your old mate reckons a nasty war looks to be brewing in NZ farming politics.

For the past 18 months or so, the Groundswell lobby group has been stirring up farmers around the country over freshwater reforms, greenhouse gas taxes and a myriad of other issues troubling the rural sector.

It has also taken regular pot shots at the establishment lobbies such as Beef+Lamb and DairyNZ, accusing them (probably quite fairly) of cuddling up to the Government and selling out the sector time and time again.

All of this tension has now come to a head with the end of the recent farmer 'consultation' meetings held by HWEN (basically BLNZ and DairyNZ in drag).

Groundswell has accused DairyNZ of shutting down options; DairyNZ accused Groundswell of spreading misinformation and being offensive.

Pass the popcorn, this could get interesting.

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True Reflection?

True Reflection?

A fair question has been raised about how member-funded organisations should conduct themselves when taking a public position on any given issue.

Stuffed!

Stuffed!

The canine crusader always has his nose in the air for more media maleficence, so was pointing as soon as he saw the Stuff headline: ‘Wellington residents respond to PM saying he doesn’t need his job!’.

Civil Circus!

OPINION: It really is getting harder to lampoon government bureaucrats when they do such a good job of it themselves.

Anyone in the primary sector will know about the clowns covering the countryside in the red tape we all have to wade through.

Spare a thought then for media outfit Stuff who were threatened with fines up to $200,000 by a snivelling civil servant from the MoH for illustrating a quiz question with a photo of part of the cover of a 45-year-old copy Playboy.

As Stuff notes, “It wasn’t the Playboy cover which caused offence. No, it was the back page which… featured an advert for a cigarette brand”.

As Regulations Minister David Seymour notes, “The real scandal here is, well, no wonder we’ve got problems in healthcare when they’re doing the Stuff quiz during work time.”

Ewe Zealand First

OPINION: After all the criticism that Winston Peters leveled at the India/NZ FTA, it seemed just a trifle ironic to the Hound that the first NZ politician to visit India after Prime Minister Modi's visit was a member of the Ewe Zealand First party.

Bouquets

OPINION: Bouquets this week from the old mutt for Fed Farmers and Groundswell for continuing to resist the proposed Gore District plan and its intention to apply costly "cultural values" across the district and a raft of land classifications that are unworkable and counterproductive.

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