8 minute read
Pulpit
Opinion
Actions speak louder than words
Alternative View
Alan Emerson
I WROTE an article early last year about a top secret group that was holding meetings in Wellington to decide the future of the rural sector.
It was called the Primary Industries Strategy Coordination Group (PISCG), including the heads of the Ministry for Primary Industries (MPI), the Ministry for the Environment (MfE), Trade and Enterprise and the Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment (MBIE). Also, there were the Federation of Māori Authorities, the forestry, seafood and wine industries, the chairs of Beef + Lamb NZ, DairyNZ and Horticulture NZ and Mike Petersen.
My point was that talk-fests held behind closed doors have no place deciding our future.
My article received an interesting reaction, mainly one of denial. Two people told me I’d got my facts wrong, which irritated me.
As a result, I put in a series of Official Information Act (OIA) requests to MPI and what a circus that was. I’ve been using the OIA since it became law 39 years ago and I expect government departments and ministries to obfuscate. MPI turned obfuscation into an art form.
My initial request was filed on June 5, 2020. By law MPI was required to respond to me in 20 working days, which would have been July 3. The response I received was much later on July 30, and I didn’t receive a full response until September 8.
The minutes of the meetings were, in a word, underwhelming.
As background, the Primary Sector Council was established amongst great fanfare in April 2018. That morphed early last year into the Primary Industries Strategy Coordination Group. Its aim was to build on the “success” of the Primary Sector Council “to support New Zealand’s economic recovery both at home and overseas”.
A worthy aim but actions speak louder than words.
I was told the PISCG "included a cross section of sector groups and leaders." It doesn’t.
There was an "Establishment Group" meeting on February 24 last year. It decided on issues such as terms of reference for the group, four key priorities and an update of Taiao principles.
There are worthy issues discussed but nothing new or earth shattering. I was interested to see regenerative agriculture touted as a means of reducing carbon emissions.
The next meeting was to be held on May 1, where MPI was to provide a “strategic document”. If that happened they didn’t give me the minutes as they are required by law to do.
Such is the urgency of the group that there was a meeting on July 1. The minutes of that meeting were not finalised by July 30, 29 days later.
I found that amazing as the meeting discussed, amongst other things, the release of the Fit for a Better World document, which was a culmination of efforts from 2018.
The PISCG has further morphed into the Food and Fibre Partnership Group.
The people involved are the same.
In Farmers Weekly’s March 22 issue, the Food and Fibre Partnership chair Mike Petersen told us that “no one is interested in a talkfest; my role is to ensure we are connected to complement sector work to get action, get work done and see results”. That’s all very worthy.
I find the whole deal unconvincing.
For a start, they are talking about fibre, which is mainly wool in New Zealand. I’m unaware of any fibre expertise within the group.
They’ve talked about involvement across the sector, yet they’ve ignored Federated Farmers, which I find bizarre.
It’s fine having the chairs of DairyNZ and Beef + Lamb there, but those organisations look after the product, Feds look after the farmer.
Further, it is Feds that do all the donkey work with local and regional government plans, the documents that dictate how a farmer can farm. The levy organisations don’t.
In addition, if you’re considering our products and markets, I fail to see how you can be effective without the Dairy Companies Association or the Meat Industry Association.
Both organisations are intimately involved with getting our products to market. To have an organisation deciding NZ’s future and not including Feds, the MIA or DCANZ is arrogant.
They also need meaningful academic input.
And why all the secrecy?
We talk about open government but we’ve had these organisations operating below the radar since 2018.
Even when they’re presented with OIA requests they go into denial. Further, the minutes of the meetings I was provided with are extremely general, bordering on the irrelevant. It is all just a mighty talkfest.
There is no challenging of results, serious scrutiny, meaningful consultation or accountability.
What we have is a hand-picked group operating behind closed doors. It’s Essential Freshwater all over again, leading to the inevitable train wreck.
If the group wants me to take them remotely seriously, they will include all components of the sector and consult.
In summary, more openness, fewer meetings, meaningful consultation and action ahead of talk.
TALK-FESTS: Alan Emerson shares his views on strategy groups deciding the future of the sector, without some of its key players having a seat at the table.
Your View
Alan Emerson is a semi-retired Wairarapa farmer and businessman: dath.emerson@gmail.com
Rendezvous with the Duke of Edinburgh
From the Ridge
Steve Wyn-Harris
THE death of Prince Philip the Duke of Edinburgh reminded me of a terrific family story concerning him, but first let’s set the scene.
My English paternal grandfather was called Percy and even in the early 1900s he wasn’t enamoured of the name. Ironically, he wanted me to be called Percy, but my Christchurch-born mother put her foot down. Fortunately. So, he came to be called Pwyn, making use of his Welsh second name.
After a degree at Cambridge, he joined the Colonial Service and spent his career working in Africa.
He was a keen mountaineer and in 1929, along with his university climbing mate Eric Shipton, made the first ascent of Nelion, the second summit of Mount Kenya. Then for good measure, they climbed Batian on the other side of this old volcano, which is 100 metres higher at 5200m.
This climbing partnership continued to Everest, when in 1933 they were both on the fourth British expedition to the mountain. Percy climbed to 28,120 feet, just 900 feet below the summit, before turning back. He and Wager carried no oxygen, which cost them the summit that day, and no one climbed above this height until the Swiss in 1952, and Hillary and Tenzing in 1953 – and no one else without oxygen until the Italian Messner in 1978.
On his descent, Gramps picked up an ice axe he had surprisingly spotted on the way up and took it back to England as at that height, it could only have been Mallory or Irvine’s who had disappeared in 1924. He always claimed it could be either mans as his own porter inscribed some marks on it to identify it from all the others, but the establishment named it Irvine’s, preferring to believe Mallory was heroically dead near the summit. He carefully described the slab rocks from where he found the axe and in 1999, an expedition found Mallory’s body on the fall line directly below. Irvine’s body is still being searched for as he carried the camera which may show whether they got to the top or not.
It was likely these tales of heroics in the death zone of Everest and other adventures attracted Philip to Percy when Philip visited Gambia in 1957, where Percy was now the Governor. I still have his Governor Generals hat and sword, and fully prepared and clothed should I ever be asked to be GG of this country.
Philip was a great conservationist later but all during my growing up, we had a dried crocodile head on our back doorstep with “Shot by Prince Philip” on it. One of my sisters has it and it sits in the centre of the dinner table at her parties. Well, it should.
And so, we come to the story.
My grandparents were guests for the night on the Britannia, which was moored up the River Gambia.
I imagine they all had a good party but when it was time to return to shore the next morning, the boats were tied to the riverbank and no staff could be hailed to bring one over for my grandparents to disembark.
Now my grandmother, Mary Moata, or Mo, loved to swim and before anyone noticed, she stripped off down to her bra and knickers, dived off the royal yacht and swam across the crocodile and hippo infested river, grabbed a boat, and rowed back to fetch her husband.
She was a large woman when I remembered her but pictures from that era show she would have had more of a swimmer’s physique and not too hard on the eye of the young duke.
Naturally, Philip was highly amused but not Percy. He was furious that she did this in front of the Prince and husband to the Queen.
Within days she found herself on a plane back to England where she was banished for a few months to serve out her punishment for this gross embarrassment to him.
The Africans thought it hilarious.
However, Philip didn’t hold it against Gramps and some years later commissioned him to travel the world and set up the Duke of Edinburgh’s Award, which he did successfully, including here.
Our three sons along with many thousands of others completed the award, and it was a great experience and fantastic for them.
The awards are an excellent legacy of the late Prince.
