Opinion
26 FARMERS WEEKLY – farmersweekly.co.nz – September 28, 2020
Five-point wishlist for next government Alternative View
Alan Emerson
LET me start by saying that I’m over the election. I am totally sick and tired of my intelligence being grossly insulted for the sake of the ubiquitous sound bite. Do politicians and candidates think the public has collective Alzheimer’s with memories that just go back a couple of days? I accept it is the opposition’s job to oppose, but I’d prefer sane dialogue and constructive policy. I want to be able to judge a political party by the strength of its policies and not the volume of its protests. I’m also over the partisan negativity. In the past politicians from both Labour and National have worked together for the common good, I can’t see that happening now. An example of that cooperation was over the establishment of Fonterra. Labour Minister of Agriculture Jim Sutton and National Agriculture spokesperson Shane Ardern worked together to get a robust system established. It was a credit to both. That Shane Ardern didn’t become a Minister of Agriculture was a travesty.
Currently, I wonder why Ian McKelvie isn’t National’s primary industry spokesperson. He is intelligent, approachable, knows agriculture backwards, is a big picture person, energetic and a top bloke. His roles are fisheries and racing, which is a waste. Back to the election, Feds, DairyNZ and Beef + Lamb NZ have issued manifestos for the election. Feds want better broadband in the provinces, advocating for free trade and opposing protectionism. They want regulatory and science systems that empower environmental gains rather than stifling enterprise and innovation.
With some of the statements coming out of there, I doubt if the person involved would know a sheep from a tractor. In addition, they want more Kiwis working on farms and recognition of the importance of migrant workers, continual vigilance on biosecurity and pest management and ensuring local government concentrates on key services. They also want the right tree in the right place preventing good productive farmland being planted into forestry. The full manifesto is excellent and a must read for candidates.
DairyNZ supports many of the Feds points with a greater scientific emphasis along with water storage. It is also a well-researched and reasoned document as is the B+LNZ/MIA manifesto. What was interesting was the Local Government NZ manifesto. Simply, it made the point that one size doesn’t fit all and there’s too much emphasis on top down solutions. They also want more of the central government money that’s collected from motorists to go to the provinces. I’d agree. I’d like a lot more resources put into rural roads. So, while the rural sector has been constructive in its approach to the general election, there is a distinct lack of constructive elsewhere. For the record, I believe the Government has handled the covid-19 response well and that Grant Robertson has done a good job over an extremely testing period. Bodice ripping over the debt being at 54% of GDP is ridiculous. In the early 1990s, the figure was 54.8% of GDP and interest rates were 15%. We paid it off. In fact, at the end of Sir Michael Cullen’s time as minister of finance it was just over 5% of GDP. This allowed Sir Bill English some latitude to borrow during the Global Financial Crisis, which he did judiciously as did Grant Robertson pre-covid-19. We’ve had three good Ministers of Finance since the late 1990s in my view.
COUNTDOWN: The 2020 New Zealand general election will be held on October 17. Federated Farmers, DairyNZ and Beef + Lamb NZ have issued manifestos for the election.
My issue with the Government is that their freshwater approach was flawed and impractical and the consultation process was a sham. I don’t like top down and one size fits all. With the opposition, I believe the Collins-Goldsmith team is untested when it comes to finance. I was also surprised when Judith Collins told me about our hi-tech future that “could be bigger than dairy”. It reminded me of the late David Lange’s statements in the mid-1980s. Lange went on to call agriculture “a sunset industry”. So, here’s my wish list for the next government: 1. Insist that there is a strong practical rural presence in the Wellington bureaucracy. With some of the statements coming out of there, I doubt if the person involved would know a sheep from a tractor. 2. Have a proper stocktake of what has actually happened environmentally in the provinces.
Would Auckland Bridge fall down? TWO weeks ago, a truck was blown over by a sudden gust of wind while it was crossing Auckland Harbour Bridge. Unfortunately, that truck fell into a major load carrying girder. In that instant, for those on the bridge and for those about to drive onto the bridge, life froze. Let’s leave them there for now awaiting their fate and consider how we came to this. Would Auckland Bridge fall down? It’s a reasonable question. Cities all around the world, including our own, have ageing infrastructure which successive councils have ignored in their bid to get re-elected by promising low rate rises, preferring to leave the problems to future aspiring local body politicians. London’s bridges are literally falling down left, right and centre. Hammersmith Bridge, which I used to walk over to work when I lived there, has just been closed to all traffic and pedestrians as it is in imminent danger of collapsing. Vauxhall Bridge is closed for emergency repairs, London Bridge itself is partially closed and Tower Bridge broke down in mid-lift and it took two days to get it going again. Auckland Bridge was opened
DISRUPTION: Auckland traffic was ground to a halt after a truck was blown over by a gust of wind and the engineers reckon it will be several weeks before it’s properly fixed.
on the day of my own birth (May 30, 1959) and both the bridge and I have had our ups and downs in the succeeding 61 years and threeand-half months. The city planners who built the bridge don’t appear to have planned for any sort of population increase. Not really what you would call particularly good planners.
So, their successors just 10 years later had a cunning plan to hang two extra lanes on either side of the bridge. These were made in Japan, so were coined Nippon Clip-ons. When they put on the clipons, many folk refused to drive anywhere but in the four centre lanes on the bridge proper. After all, clip-on is hardly a term
to inspire any sort of confidence in anyone. And resulting regular news items of cracks in the clip-ons and ongoing maintenance to stop them falling off would tend to back up this prudent scramble for the centre lanes. Within another 10 years, eight lanes were again several lanes too few for Auckland’s burgeoning population, but even the planners didn’t think clipping clip-ons onto the clip-ons would be a very good idea, so everyone up there just puts up with driving very slowly to and from work each day. However, there is now much talk and agitation to hang some little clip-ons to the clip-ons to allow pedestrians and cyclists to meander across the Waitemata in a sustainable and pleasurable manner. Auckland Bridge falling down sounds fanciful but given over the last year we have had an appalling terrorist attack, folk killed and maimed in a volcanic eruption, a major pandemic sweep the world, our economy in tatters and an election postponed, our biggest bridge collapsing and thousands of people being thrown into the Waitemata would hardly be surprising.
Again, I don’t think anyone in Wellington has a clue. 3. As has been already stated, don’t drop pearls to the swine from Wellington. Consult with the provinces and listen. 4. Do what’s recommended in the Feds manifesto and acknowledge the science and water storage recommendations in the DairyNZ document. 5. Free beer for the provinces on Fridays. Finally, my problem with both Labour and National is that there isn’t a lot of difference between the two. Two of the wackiest pieces of legislation to be passed last term, in my opinion, involved Zero Carbon and Arms Control. The National Party voted with the Government on both. The only party that didn’t was ACT.
Your View Alan Emerson is a semi-retired Wairarapa farmer and businessman: dath.emerson@gmail.com
From the Ridge
Steve Wyn-Harris
But as we know the bridge didn’t collapse, so we can allow those people frozen in space and time earlier in this column to continue on their journey with only the unusual sight of a couple of trucks lying on their sides in the middle of the bridge and a bent girder to show why they didn’t continue to be blown into the other lanes. Half the bridge has been closed, Auckland traffic ground to a halt and the engineers reckon it will be several weeks before its properly fixed. It’s a pity the border is closed, and we can’t fly a few Chinese engineers in to sort it out. Possibly the ones who built that hospital in Wuhan in 10 days. Replacing one girder shouldn’t be too tricky.
Your View Steve Wyn-Harris is a Central Hawke’s Bay sheep and beef farmer. swyn@xtra.co.nz
