MANAGEMENT
MACHINERY & PRODUCTS
ANIMAL HEALTH
Helping farmer well-being.
Powerful Puma unleashed!.
Developing a drenching strategy PAGE 26-27
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TO ALL FARMERS, FOR ALL FARMERS DECEMBER 6, 2022: ISSUE 765
www.ruralnews.co.nz
Sham marriage! PETER BURKE peterb@ruralnews.co.nz
THERE IS widespread anger and disbelief among farming leaders over the actions of MPI and MfE within the He Waka Eke Noa (HWEN) partnership. Both ministries were touted by the Government as being ‘partners’, along with iwi and a number of farm-
ing organisations in HWEN, which had been involved in working on a joint counter proposal to put to government to deal with agricultural emissions and avoid them going into the ETS. However, Rural News has discovered that with about a month before HWEN’s proposal was due to go to the Government in May, the Ministry for the Environment (MfE) and Min-
istry for Primary Industries (MPI) suddenly announced that they would not be signing it because they were, in their words, “conflicted”. This last minute walkout by the two ministries came as a complete surprise to the other members of the partnership who say they were led to believe the two ministries were ‘genuine partners’ like themselves. However,
it seems they weren’t. Rural News has been told the other HWEN partners felt they had been misled. “We acted in good faith all along, while it seems the Government did not.” On the HWEN website, the logos of MPI and MfE are still there as partners, but a question mark hangs over their real role. Were they just spies for
Cool creation! It sounds bizarre, but in fact it’s delicious – an ice-cream made from cauliflower. It drew hundreds of people to the Massey University site at Fieldays to sample this unique dessert. The product comes in three flavours, strawberry, chocolate, and mint and looks and tastes like ordinary ice-cream. It’s the creation of Taranaki entrepreneur, Jenni Matheson who started off 20-years-ago just making delicious dairy alternatives for her children and their friends is about to be launched nationwide on the menu of the Hell Pizza chain. – See more page 5
government ministers, advisors to the group or just a bit of political fluff to dress the deal up as something it never was or would turn out to be? When the partnership was launched at Parliament in October 2019, Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern described the agreement as “a world first” and said, “it’s great to see primary sector leaders sharing the same aspirations as the Government”. Climate Change Minister James Shaw added, “the agreement reached reflects a level of consensus never been reached in NZ before” (Rural News 5-11-19). Such words gave the appearance that HWEN was a genuine partnership between industry, iwi and government. But in the end, was it? Federated Farmers president Andrew Hoggard told Rural News he can’t understand the justification MPI and MfE used in refusing to sign off on the submission that HWEN lodged in May – where they claimed they had to provide ‘independent’ advice to ministers. “We should have been told that back in 2019. It should have been abundantly clear throughout this process to everyone that MPI and MfE wouldn’t be signing it,” he says. “Quite frankly, I would argue if we knew that at the start, the May proposal would have been quite different.” Hoggard says it was poor process and it should have been made abundantly clear from the start that TO PAGE 3
WE BROUGHT THE FMG SPOT CHECK ROADIE TO TOWN.
TOTAL
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THESE RESULTS MIGHT SURPRISE YOU.
FMG and Melanoma New Zealand recently visited rural locations around the country with the FMG Spot Check Roadie, sharing life-saving information and giving FREE skin cancer spot checks. Thank you rural New Zealand for booking out every stop on the roadie, here are the surprising results. Melanoma New Zealand checked 759 spots. Of those spots, 113 suspicious lesions were identified and referred for further analysis — that’s 15% of all the spots checked.
14 potential melanomas were referred on for clinical review. Check out the stat map to see how many families now have the information they need to act.
113
SUSPICIOUS LESIONS IDENTIFIED & REFERRED
It just shows how important it is to keep up to date with your skin checks. To find out more, head to fmg.co.nz/mnz or go to melanoma.org.nz/book-a-consultation.
132
SPOTS CHECKED
31
216
SPOTS CHECKED
17
213
SPOTS CHECKED
47
198
SPOTS CHECKED
18