Displaying items by tag: Andrew Hoggard

OPINION: While we're on the topic of lumberjacks, Biosecurity Minister Andrew Hoggard has no doubt used a chainsaw hundreds of times, but your old mate reckons he would’ve still been sweating on getting it right when cutting down a pine in front of the cameras, as he did above Queenstown during a recent pre-Budget announcement around extra funding for wilding pine control efforts.

Wilding pines are the wrong tree in the wrong place, and they need to go, says Biosecurity Minister Andrew Hoggard.

OPINION: For thousands of Southland farmers, this week would have tipped them into the non-compliant category when it comes to following regional freshwater plan rules. But the Government has stepped in to give them the clarity they deserve.

Southland farmers staring down a May deadline to submit freshwater farm plans under current regional plan rules have been given an 18-month reprieve by the Government.

Federated Farmers says the Government's announcement of $79 million in funding for wilding pine control marks a major breakthrough.

ACT MP and Minister for Biosecurity Andrew Hoggard says he's hearing a common story about school buses, with empty seats, driving past pick-up points, while a parent follows behind in a farm ute, burning fuel and taking up time to get their children to school.

The Government has announced changes to stock exclusion regulations which it claims will cut unnecessary costs and inflexible rules while maintaining environmental protections.

OPINION: Rural school buses is a topic I have had a great deal of correspondence on over the last couple of months.

OPINION: The coalition Government seems to have chickened out when it comes to live animal exports by sea.

Associate Agriculture Minister and Manawatu dairy farmer Andrew Hoggard says the free trade agreement (FTA) negotiated with India is not a bad deal and his party, Act, will support it when it goes before Parliament.