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 suggests if there was any doubt that our so-called farmer industry bodies are little more than a bunch of quislings who are fully in the Government's pocket, then a recent publicity stunt will have quelled that doubt.
Earlier this month, PM Jacinda Ardern - joined by her chief handbag carrier Agriculture Minister Damien O'Connor - was in the Waikato for a pre-Budget publicity photo shoot.
This stunt wasn't held on just any old Waikato farm, but on the property of current DairyNZ chair Jim van der Poel.
When most farmers wouldn't want to be seen dead in the company of possibly the most anti-farming Government in NZ's history, van der Poel couldn't have seemed happier.
Makes it hard to argue that the lack of fight and push back from DairyNZ at the avalanche of govt regulations on farming doesn't come right from the top!
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”.

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