Opinion

NZ Post fails to address problem

Alternative View

Alan Emerson

IF YOU want to work for an organisation that doesn’t seem to care about communications and isolates itself in an insulated cocoon, then NZ Post is the place for you.

What happened initially is that we were in Cairns flying back to New Zealand. We had to fill in an online immigration form, which was fine, but when it came to the address it wouldn’t accept any we offered.

Our address is RD12 Masterton 5872. Put that in the system and it tells you there is no such address.

Further we have a fire number as rural addresses do. We put in our fire number, the road and the RD number to be told again there was no such address.

We then inserted the general area for the same result. At this stage, the plane is about to depart and we’re sweating. Finally it came to us. It was our name, the fire number and the road with the suburb required as the beach five kilometres distant.

That took an hour of stressful playing around and anything containing our RD number wouldn’t work, meaning our immigration application couldn’t be completed.

Obviously, some clown at NZ Post HQ doesn’t have the faintest clue there’s a rural mail service they’re supposed to be serving.

It also creates a larger problem when you order a parcel to be delivered. You tell the enterprise you are RD12 and they tell you there is no such address.

My thought was to go to NZ Post and ask what is going on or words to that effect. That’s when the stupidity really advanced at pace.

I wanted to talk to someone and that is nigh on impossible with that hide-bound bureaucracy.

On the website they have an 0800 number. I rang it and received a variety of options all dealing with letter or parcel deliveries. There was no instruction to hang onto the phone if you had an enquiry that didn’t cover mail or parcels. Google NZ Post corporate and you get the same 0800 number.

You can go onto the website and find out all kinds of ‘exciting and riveting’ information.

You are told that NZ Post is now carbon neutral and that you can write a letter to Santa in Te Reo. I found the information less than riveting.

You can find out the names of all their executive team, with more about their qualifications than what they actually do. There are some grandiose titles, I tell you.

Amazingly, there are no contact phone numbers or even emails reinforcing my belief that NZ Post HQ is in an ivory tower with the drawbridge up. They also send out media releases without contact phone numbers attached. I don’t know any other organisation that does.

I finally came across a division headed ‘Datam’, which isn’t in my dictionary. The word progression there is from data-to-date and doesn’t include Datam. Maybe it is an internal NZ Post word to describe Data Missing?

At Datam HQ there were several names and phone numbers. Finally, the excitement was getting to me.

I carefully phoned the said number and a voice answered, a human voice. I was half expecting a robot.

I was duly greeted and asked what I wanted. I explained at length that all I wanted to know was why NZ Post had taken an arbitrary decision to change my address to an official one of their choosing without telling me what it was.

I was told that it wasn’t their department.

“Can you please look up your computer and tell me who I can phone,” I asked politely.

She paused for a while to let the excitement build and then told me she couldn’t help as her computer was turned off. “Can’t you turn it on and let me know who I can talk to?” I asked, once again as politely as was possible.

I was told no at 4.25 on a Tuesday afternoon. That told me that NZ Post has a customer focus second to none.

Out here in the sticks Sharyn our mail lady does an exceptional job. If RD12 is on the envelope she’ll deliver it.

NZ Post corporate is different as it usually takes a week for a package or letter to get from Masterton to Timaru. A horse would be quicker.

But fellow farmers there is a light at the end of the tunnel. If you have an employee who is useless you could write them a glowing reference and suggest they get a job at the executive team of NZ Post. The termination won’t cost you a cent and the mail system could only improve.

Finally, if an ex-farm worker did get a job at NZ Post HQ, it would mean at least one person in the organisation would know what rural delivery meant.

EXPERIENCE: Alan Emerson recounts dealing with NZ Post after discovering that his address had miraculously changed.

Your View

Alan Emerson is a semi-retired Wairarapa farmer and businessman: dath.emerson@gmail.com

Country halls taking on new life

From the Ridge

Steve Wyn-Harris

SMALL country halls have been on my mind this week.

I’m told that there are at least 52 here in Hawke’s Bay.

A simple, although dodgy, extrapolation means there could be somewhere between 500 and 1000 of these halls scattered throughout rural New Zealand.

Before the advent of the modern motorcar, these halls were an important facet and hub of rural communities.

Our local hall was in the Hatuma settlement about 10km from here.

It was built in 1932 on a reserve controlled by the Hatuma Domain Board and cost the district £626.

It was used for a variety of functions in those early years including dances, social functions, children’s fancy dress balls, meetings and an annual social where newcomers were welcomed and departers farewelled.

I well remember the annual Christmas party and the anticipated and exciting appearance of Father Christmas.

Thirty years later I inherited the mantel of Father Christmas from Roger Bronte and for my first year had what seemed like an excellent idea of appearing upon a horse with antlers strapped to its head.

What is even more surprising was that noted horseman Tim also thought this a good idea and supplied the horse.

What was not surprising in hindsight was that the horse didn’t think it a promising idea at all to have antlers on its head and a padded bloke wearing a large white beard and a bright red billowing costume on its back.

We had to take the antlers off the horse and as a non-horse rider I pleaded with Tim not to let go of the reins as he led this distraught beast, whose eyes managed to swivel backwards to look at me whilst snorting and trying to rear up and bolt.

That year Father Christmas walked back to the North Pole and reverted to arriving in old cars and fire engines in following years.

We used to have weekly badminton nights which were good fun.

The hall also served as a war memorial with the names of the five men who lost their lives in WW1 and the four who died in WW2.

But the Hatuma district is near to Waipukurau, with those of us further out only taking 15 minutes in modern cars to get to town.

The two schools in the district closed in 1963, ending the school’s use of the hall.

Our hall’s usage fell away but the neighbouring district of Flemington lacked a school hall, so it was relocated there where it is now also used as their district hall.

There has been a great initiative over the last couple of years to give some of Hawke’s Bay’s halls a new use.

It’s called The Small Hall Sessions and the man behind this idea is Jamie Macphail, who amongst other things has been a music promoter.

I first met Jamie when he turned up at Central Hawke’s Bay College in my history class and told us he was a Baha’i and then brought Barry Crump into the classroom to have a chat with us.

So, he was an interesting rooster even back then.

Jamie has been bringing some of the country’s biggest acts to these small intimate venues over the past year or two.

A couple of weeks ago, Jane and I travelled out to the Mangakuri Chapel and with just 50 others were privileged to watch and listen to Reb Fountain in this very cool space.

She is a fantastic singersongwriter and despite a sixmonth break from performing after the Auckland lockdown put on a terrific show.

And then last week we didn’t have to travel so far to see Tami Neilson and her opener Hera as they came to the Takapau Hall and again we were treated to a wonderful show with two exceptionally talented performers giving their all.

Tami’s set was her songs interwoven with anecdotes and stories of her life as a musician.

We are all aware of how tough this pandemic has been for hospitality and tourism, but we forget how difficult it’s been for the performing sector and musicians such as these.

Performers of this calibre usually play to crowds in the many hundreds and thousands, so we are truly fortunate to have them on our own doorsteps.

So, if you are in this part of the world and see these gigs coming to a hall near you, don’t miss the opportunity.

FANTASTIC: Singer-songwriter Reb Fountain put on a wonderful performance at the Mangakuri Chapel a couple of weeks ago, Steve WynHarris says.

Sector faces tumultuous 2022

The Braided Trail

Keith Woodford

THIS year is not going to be just any year for the food and fibre industries. On the price front, things should go well for most products. However, on the policy front, it is the second year of the three-year political cycle, and that has implications.

This is the year when key implementation decisions must be made on multiple political issues. It is all about setting up the glide path for the next election.

For the food and fibre industries, and this includes carbon farming, these key decisions have potential to determine the path for the next decade. I reckon there is going to be quite some heat, and I am not referring here to the weather.

First of all, the good news.

There is no obvious reason why the current excellent prices for dairy, sheep and beef should not be retained. The next six months are going to be complex as Omicron works its way across the world, but pastoral agriculture has shown that it can prosper in covid-dominated times.

The biggest covid challenge this year for New Zealand at home is going to be having Omicron spread through the community. There is also a high likelihood that China will have an Omicron epidemic this year.

One way or another, I expect that the cows will still get milked in NZ despite whatever disruptions are upon us. But how Omicron will affect China is going to be of some importance. I consider it unlikely that the Chinese authorities will be able to keep Omicron at bay the way they have with other variants. Also, their existing vaccines are unlikely to be particularly effective. It is going to be a challenging year for our most important trading partner.

The food and fibre product with the greatest short-term risk is lumber. Remember, China is the dominant export market for NZ’s forestry products and most of that is unprocessed logs. Those logs are primarily used in construction, providing the formwork that holds wet concrete in place.

On the policy front, this is the year when the Government will have to be explicit as to what the long-term nitrogen leaching rules are going to be. Last year’s requirement to reduce nitrogen applications to no more than 190kg a hectare will not be the last that we hear on that front.

When it comes to nitrogen leaching, the science tells us much of what has to be done. The big answers come from durationcontrolled grazing, with cows off-paddock except when they are eating during winter and the second half of autumn. We know how to achieve that in a cow-friendly and economic way using ‘composting mootels’ and ‘composting shelters’. But a small number of farmers are having to lead the way, with the research, development, extension and education (RDE&E) elements of the industry yet to seriously engage.

Last year, with support from AGMARDT, I brought together in one document what we know and what we need to learn about these farming systems from a RDE&E perspective. Now we need some action. One of my challenges is to try and bring that about. Progress is not as fast as I had hoped.

Greenhouse gases (GHG) are another key issue. There is no easy way around this. Given the politics, the GHG issue will not go away.

The best way for agriculture to achieve science-based outcomes is for agricultural methane and nitrous oxide to remain outside of the Emission Trading Scheme (ETS). But let there be no doubt, one way or another there is going to be a charging system for agricultural methane and nitrous oxide.

The Government has indicated that it is open to a methane and nitrous oxide charging system, whereby all charges are recycled within the industry so as to reward innovations and develop new emission-reduction technologies. That will not be the case if agriculture is inside the ETS. These decisions will have to be made this year, with He Waka Eke Noa playing the leading role on behalf of industry, but with support, albeit grudging, from farmers.

Carbon farming is another issue where big decisions will need to be made both by the Government and farmers. There is talk that government might restrict who can and who cannot farm for carbon.

The National Party has yet to decide where it sits in relation to the specifics of carbon farming. I remain to be convinced that there is an appropriate level of expertise in any of the political parties, or within government departments.

There is no doubt that carbon farming is currently a more economic land use than sheep and beef. The first worry is that it is an artificial market controlled by government and so anything can happen.

Putting restrictions on carbon farming is not in the personal interests of many existing pastoral farmers, despite this apparently being advocated by Beef + Lamb. It is carbon farming that is driving pastoral land values. Also, there is a lot of land that could be better off in forest. Converting two million hectares of the harder hill country to permanent radiata pine forests would more than balance all of the emissions from pasture-based land uses for the next 80 years.

Once again, I see carbon farming as generating great heat within the community as the year progresses. I reckon I will be writing a lot more about it this year. All decisions are going to require trade-offs between competing objectives.

Despite all of these issues and challenges, food and fibre is where NZ’s future lies. Agrifood is the key sector where NZ has an international competitive advantage, particularly for pastoral agriculture but also some specific areas of horticulture. The latest figures from MPI are that food and fibre comprise 82.4% of physical exports, with this figure increasing over the past 10 years.

In particular, NZ cannot afford to destroy its pastoral industries, with these alone earning $30 billion of foreign exchange per annum. But strategies for emission reduction will be needed and there are ways that this can be achieved.

I am hugely frustrated that most of the urban community, and many of the politicians, do not understand that it is food and fibre exports that provide the overseas funds that allow NZ to purchase the fuel, vehicles, machinery, computers, medical equipment and pharmaceuticals that make our lifestyles sustainable. They simply do not ‘get it’.

Just recently I heard for the umpteenth time on television how ‘agriculture has to pay its way’. The idea was that agriculture has to contract. I could only sigh and shake my head, because there was no point in screaming at the box that food and fibre is how all of NZ ‘pays it way’.

In recent weeks, I have written elsewhere for an urban audience at interest.co.nz about the strategic issues that NZ faces. For the last 12-month period to September 2021, NZ ran a record deficit on its external current account with the rest of the world of $15.9 billion. This is in part because earnings from export services, largely tourism and the education of foreigners, have crashed. Conversely, imports have ballooned to record levels.

This deficit has been financed by capital flows from overseas. At some stage the rest of the world is likely to question the economic sustainability of NZ. If that occurs then the exchange rate will crash.

If the exchange rate crashes, then that will be very bad for most New Zealanders. The exception will be for those New Zealanders who produce products for export.

A significant decline in the exchange rate may be what is needed to convince New Zealanders that export industries lie at the heart of our national wellbeing.

RISK: Keith Woodford predicts that the food and fibre product with the greatest short-term risk is lumber.

I am hugely frustrated that most of the urban community, and many of the politicians, do not understand that it is food and fibre exports that provide the overseas funds that allow NZ to purchase the fuel, vehicles, machinery, computers, medical equipment and pharmaceuticals that make our lifestyles sustainable.

Your View

Keith Woodford was Professor of Farm Management and Agribusiness at Lincoln University for 15 years through to 2015. He is now Principal Consultant at AgriFood Systems Ltd. He can be contacted at kbwoodford@ gmail.com Previous articles can be found at https://keithwoodford. wordpress.com