More focus on rural New Zealand

With the recent reshuffle of Cabinet I have gained some new Ministerial colleagues and I want to take the opportunity to acknowledge their appointments and their work ahead. It’s a pleasure to have Kieran McAnulty as the new Minister for Rural Communities.

with Damien O’connor

Minister for Agriculture, Biosecurity,

Food Safety and Rural Communities

I valued the work in the Rural Communities portfolio immensely. It goes to the heart of why I got into politics in the first place.

It’s great to have Kieran in the role, as it provides another advocate at the Cabinet table and helps me balance domestic travel with my international travel as Trade Minister. Kieran will hit the ground running and he has a head start after meeting with all 54 rural and provincial councils last year when he was Associate Minister for Local Government.

And outside the Cabinet room, Jo Luxton is on the ground in her new role as Parliamentary Under-Secretary to the Minister of Agriculture. That title is a bit of a mouthful, but what it means is that Jo will be another voice advocating for and supporting those in the primary sector. Being based in Ashburton, and having been the Chair of the Primary Production Select Committee, Jo knows the lay of the land.

It’s going to be fantastic to work together on boosting the already huge success of our primary sector.

As we keep on with the recovery from Cyclone Gabrielle and the Auckland storm, it feels like a pertinent time to be looking forward to what the future holds.

Both storms saw the tragic loss of life and our hearts go out to those families grieving loved ones.

In recent days I went to Northland, Pukekohe and Hawke’s Bay to look at the damage and listen to the myriad issues farmers and growers are facing. It’s particularly devastating in Hawke’s Bay, where there’s a high density of capital infrastructure and intensity of orchard and farming operations.

We’ve announced $50 million to kickstart the recovery work on top of an initial $4 million to mobilise the response in the days after the cyclone. Gabrielle’s impacts have been widespread and severe and MPI is working on the ground with sector groups to make sure the funding goes where it’s needed most.

Climate change means that these events are going to become more frequent. It was said Auckland was a one in 200 year storm, but in the future that may become a one in 50 year or 20 year or 10 year. Who really knows? It was a similar thing with the Ashburton floods of 2021.

What’s evident is that we need to re-think the capacity of the infrastructure systems we build, the materials and methods we use, and how we situate them. As farmers and growers we’re exposed to shifting climatic conditions. Storms like these will require us to rethink our businesses in similar ways.

On the job: Minister of agriculture Damien O’connor has been visiting some of the worst hit areas in Northland, Pukekohe and hawke’s Bay following cyclone Gabrielle.

It’s good that we’ve passed the debate on whether climate change is a reality and can focus on what we’re doing about it.

The Government is determined to support our primary industries both with adapting to new climate conditions and severe events, as well as addressing emissions through innovative solutions to lower them over time.

Our focus is on helping farmers and growers adapt to changing markets whose consumers are concerned about climate and sustainability. This is one way we can help the sector as it positions itself for the future.