Tuesday, 30 November 2021 12:55

Ticket clipping

Written by The Hound

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OPINION: Your old mate is cynical about the real motives of many who push the latest fad in farming, regenerative agriculture.

Several groups - as well as a fair few government-funded bodies - seem to be cashing in on the regen bandwagon.

One is a group called 'Calm the Farm' - a self-described investment service that aims to "help" conventional farmers to convert to regenerative agriculture.

Its founders are Nathalie Whitaker of Give A Little, data analytics expert Mike Taitoko and physicist Shaun Hendy.

If that last name rings a bell, that's because it is the the same Shaun Hendy from the University of Auckland's Te Punaha Matatini (TPM), the Government's favoured 'Covid modelling' outfit.

It seems Hendy is not content with just clipping the ticket on Covid, to the tune of more than $6 million for Covid-19 modelling from TPM, but is now also keen to cash in on the regen ag fad as well!

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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.

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!’.

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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.”

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Wrong focus

OPINION: Your old mate reckons townie Brooke van Velden, the Minister of Workplace (or is it Woke Place) Relations is now showing how underemployed she is as a minister by initiating an investigation into whether young children should be banned from collecting eggs on farms and feeding animals.

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