McRae Wins Southern South Island B+LNZ Director Vote
Matt McRae, a farmer from Mokoreta in Southland who runs a sheep, beef and dairy support business alongside a sheep stud, has been elected to the Beef +Lamb NZ Board as a farmer director.
Farmers were so enraged by the move that they not only rejected the fee hike, but also voted out one director and just re-elected the other incumbent by a very slim margin.
However, despite all of this, BLNZ chair Andrew Morrison still had the chutzpah to say that the board "stood by its decision" to propose the big increase in director fees.
This old mate wonders if Morrison's off-farm life as a company director - as he is also a director of fertiliser co-op Ballance - and the $175,000-plus he pulls in annual remuneration between BLNZ and Ballance alone is putting him out-of-touch with the economic realities that farmers are currently facing?
