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The Muster- Don Morrison: We Need A Tax Reset · The Muster on Hokonui

• 0:11
  Speaker 1: Don Morrison farms at Willow Bank. He's a former Alliance.
• 0:14
  Speaker 2: Board Director, and we catch up once again on the muster.
• 0:17
  Speaker 1: Good afternoon, Howie Blue Sky. It's a thing of beauty.
• 0:20
  Speaker 3: Kia ora, Andy. Yeah, no, it's great in some of
• 0:23
  Speaker 3: this weather, and you can rock and roll and really
• 0:26
  Speaker 3: get some good work done when you get a week
• 0:28
  Speaker 3: like this, that's for sure.
• 0:30
  Speaker 1: How are ground conditions out there?
• 0:32
  Speaker 3: Oh no, superb Andy, you know, and nice fresh green covering,
• 0:36
  Speaker 3: things are coming away. We've been doing, started the tailing and,
• 0:41
  Speaker 3: you know, animals are better than I thought they might be.
• 0:44
  Speaker 3: You know, condition of the ewes, lambs are looking pretty
• 0:47
  Speaker 3: good and we've got some pretty good paddock percentages. So,
• 0:52
  Speaker 3: you know, that tough weather was tough, it was a
• 0:55
  Speaker 3: bit depressing, but fortunately I think we've got away pretty lightly.
• 0:59
  Speaker 3: We've had all that rain, but when you get some
• 1:01
  Speaker 3: good weeks, we're still going to need some rain, and
• 1:03
  Speaker 3: I see that's what we're getting next week. We're busy,
• 1:06
  Speaker 3: got a lot of ground turned over, so the last
• 1:09
  Speaker 3: of the barley went in yesterday, and we've got another,
• 1:12
  Speaker 3: this week we'll have all the leafy turnip, the summer
• 1:15
  Speaker 3: turnip sown, and we've already got a lot of the
• 1:18
  Speaker 3: fodder area turned over and ready, so we've had a
• 1:23
  Speaker 3: big week tailing, tractor wheels turning, and instead of landing
• 1:28
  Speaker 3: some hoggets, probably about 200 or 300 hoggets left to land,
• 1:30
  Speaker 3: but the end's in sight on them as well.
• 1:32
  Speaker 2: So even with the correction in the weather, you've managed
• 1:35
  Speaker 2: to get things up to speed?
• 1:36
  Speaker 3: Oh, I just dried up nice and quickly, Andy, which,
• 1:39
  Speaker 3: you know, let us turn over paddocks, and that was
• 1:41
  Speaker 3: the big thing we thought might have held us off. So, yeah, no,
• 1:45
  Speaker 3: we're pretty up to date. And then, of course, the
• 1:48
  Speaker 3: other thing, we've got some loggers in at the moment.
• 1:51
  Speaker 3: We're working on some of the damage from last year's storm, so...
• 1:55
  Speaker 3: So it actually feels very much like it did last
• 1:57
  Speaker 3: year when we were actually on top of things and
• 2:01
  Speaker 3: then in came that storm and made a heck of
• 2:04
  Speaker 3: a mess.
• 2:05
  Speaker 2: The anniversary is the 23rd of October, which is Friday.
• 2:08
  Speaker 2: It's 12 months on now. A lot of people are
• 2:11
  Speaker 2: still feeling the after effects. Yourself there, what are you
• 2:14
  Speaker 2: having to do as a result of 12 months ago?
• 2:17
  Speaker 3: We've still got a lot of fencing to do, Andy.
• 2:21
  Speaker 3: What we had to fix was the fencing on one
• 2:22
  Speaker 3: side of the shelter belt so that paddocks were stopped through.
• 2:26
  Speaker 3: But now we've had to drop a lot of those trees.
• 2:28
  Speaker 3: We're milling what we can, firewooding some others. And then
• 2:31
  Speaker 3: we've got to re-fence on the south side that all
• 2:35
  Speaker 3: the trees toppled over. So that's going to be a
• 2:38
  Speaker 3: bit of an expense and some work. Although we've got
• 2:42
  Speaker 3: probably about a third of it done and now we'll
• 2:44
  Speaker 3: get into it these next six weeks.
• 2:47
  Speaker 2: Apparently, Invercargill or Southland was the windiest place on earth
• 2:50
  Speaker 2: that day.
• 2:51
  Speaker 3: Yeah, it was a kind of a freezing temper to
• 2:54
  Speaker 3: go through. So, yeah, no, pretty, I can certainly remember
• 2:58
  Speaker 3: it well, Andy.
• 2:59
  Speaker 2: Right, so the hoggets, it's been a topic for a
• 3:01
  Speaker 2: lot of people at the moment. Like I said, Harriet
• 3:03
  Speaker 2: Bremner yesterday, they don't lamb their hoggets. A lot of
• 3:06
  Speaker 2: people do put the ram out there, though, and you've
• 3:08
  Speaker 2: been happy with how it's been going, Howie, compared to, say,
• 3:11
  Speaker 2: the main flock?
• 3:12
  Speaker 3: Oh, ewes are easy to lamb compared with hoggets, and hoggets,
• 3:16
  Speaker 3: you've still got to do a bit of work. There's
• 3:17
  Speaker 3: some to lamb every morning. There's a few deaths. But
• 3:21
  Speaker 3: what I like to look at it, Andy, is, you know,
• 3:24
  Speaker 3: people often, quote, the stock units they're running. I actually
• 3:27
  Speaker 3: prefer to look at it as quoting your productive units.
• 3:30
  Speaker 3: So if you're running a hogget for the whole year
• 3:34
  Speaker 3: and you're not producing a lamb, it's not exactly a
• 3:36
  Speaker 3: productive unit. So, look, I understand why a lot of
• 3:38
  Speaker 3: people don't. There's a cost with it, there's extra work.
• 3:41
  Speaker 3: But as far as we go, it's a big part
• 3:43
  Speaker 3: of our operation. We are, you know, about 900 hoggets
• 3:46
  Speaker 3: in lamb at 130%. You know, that's... that's up where
• 3:53
  Speaker 3: we used to be doing probably 20, 30 years ago
• 3:55
  Speaker 3: with our ewes. So there's certainly a good potential there.
• 3:59
  Speaker 1: Do you cull your dry hoggarts?
• 4:03
  Speaker 3: The dry hoggarts, the ones that don't, no, we've made
• 4:05
  Speaker 3: our selection on what the replacements are going to be.
• 4:09
  Speaker 3: So no, they are retained. We still need those numbers. But,
• 4:13
  Speaker 3: you know, and we accept that they're not all going
• 4:16
  Speaker 3: to raise a lamb. So, you know, what does, does,
• 4:19
  Speaker 3: and that's... a big part of our system.
• 4:22
  Speaker 2: Howie, a big issue at the moment with funding for
• 4:24
  Speaker 2: the health system, the election isn't too far away. You've
• 4:28
  Speaker 2: been pretty open and transparent about the way your vote's
• 4:31
  Speaker 2: going to be swayed. What are you seeing in the
• 4:32
  Speaker 2: political landscape at the moment?
• 4:35
  Speaker 3: Look, I hear the rhetoric that goes back between the
• 4:38
  Speaker 3: main parties and a lot of the minor parties is
• 4:41
  Speaker 3: just not positive what they're going to do. It's blame
• 4:44
  Speaker 3: game to the other party. We absolutely need a reset
• 4:48
  Speaker 3: in New Zealand because we are totally under-resourced in health
• 4:51
  Speaker 3: and we are totally under-resourced in education. And they're two
• 4:54
  Speaker 3: really crucial areas that are going to hold the country back. Look,
• 4:59
  Speaker 3: I was visiting a great mate in Southend Hospice on
• 5:02
  Speaker 3: the weekend. And, you know, they're reliant on donations and
• 5:05
  Speaker 3: the hospice shop and sausage sizzles for 55% of their funding.
• 5:10
  Speaker 3: You see the kids at Starship that aren't getting treated. So,
• 5:14
  Speaker 3: you know, we absolutely need a reset, and I'm firmly
• 5:17
  Speaker 3: in the camp of we need a tax reset, and
• 5:21
  Speaker 3: that's those that should be paying their fair share of
• 5:24
  Speaker 3: the tax need to be doing it. If you're a
• 5:27
  Speaker 3: wage earner, you are taxed on everything you earn, and
• 5:31
  Speaker 3: yet there's a lot of people in business with capital
• 5:33
  Speaker 3: gains that go untaxed. So my response is if you
• 5:37
  Speaker 3: disagree with that, hey, get over yourself because we all
• 5:41
  Speaker 3: need to be paying our fair share, myself included.
• 5:44
  Speaker 2: Because I remember we spoke to you last time and
• 5:47
  Speaker 2: you weren't a fan of the right as such. Opportunity,
• 5:49
  Speaker 2: is that the kind of party you'll go for, bearing
• 5:52
  Speaker 2: in mind there's a good chance they could actually go
• 5:55
  Speaker 2: in a right-wing coalition?
• 5:57
  Speaker 3: Oh, absolutely, Andy. I make no apologies for that. Look,
• 6:01
  Speaker 3: I've been frustrated with many things that this present coalition
• 6:04
  Speaker 3: government has done. Um, and a lot of that is
• 6:07
  Speaker 3: particularly on the treaty, you know, that's our founding document
• 6:10
  Speaker 3: and to be ignoring the principles of that has really
• 6:13
  Speaker 3: set race relations back in New Zealand, probably 20 years. Um, so,
• 6:18
  Speaker 3: so I was really annoyed with a lot of that,
• 6:19
  Speaker 3: the anti, the smoking, um, they've done some good things.
• 6:23
  Speaker 3: They've gotten the free trade agreement with India is probably
• 6:25
  Speaker 3: one of the best things as farmers that, that the
• 6:28
  Speaker 3: coalition's achieved. And yet you've got Winston, um, going on
• 6:31
  Speaker 3: about it being such a bad deal. And, and, uh,
• 6:34
  Speaker 3: and dishing out the whole racist rhetoric. So I'm not
• 6:37
  Speaker 3: a fan of this coalition government. I'm certainly not necessarily
• 6:42
  Speaker 3: a fan of extreme left policy either, so I'm very centrist.
• 6:46
  Speaker 3: And I see the Opportunity Party as being a circuit breaker,
• 6:51
  Speaker 3: and I think if we've got a left-wing government or
• 6:53
  Speaker 3: a right-wing government, gee, we need that Opportunity Party there
• 6:56
  Speaker 3: to give it some correction. So that's my view on it.
• 6:59
  Speaker 1: The fact that they've dropped some of their bottom lines, though,
• 7:02
  Speaker 1: are you concerned they flip-flopped?
• 7:04
  Speaker 3: No, because the bottom line that everyone talks about is
• 7:07
  Speaker 3: their citizens' income and their land value tax. And what
• 7:11
  Speaker 3: they've actually said is it's a discussion point because we
• 7:14
  Speaker 3: need a tax reset in the country. And so, you know,
• 7:18
  Speaker 3: that wasn't a bottom line, but it's a starting point
• 7:20
  Speaker 3: for them. So, you know, and I support that we
• 7:24
  Speaker 3: need a tax reset.
• 7:26
  Speaker 1: Bowdoin Barrett was pretty good at the weekend.
• 7:28
  Speaker 3: Bowdoin Barrett was a very good ending.
• 7:31
  Speaker 1: So, yes, a humble pie.
• 7:32
  Speaker 3: Humble pie.
• 7:32
  Speaker 1: Well, it's really being.
• 7:34
  Speaker 3: eaten by me no no it was um it was
• 7:36
  Speaker 3: a hey i guess what they say is uh you
• 7:39
  Speaker 3: know class is timeless and form is uh form can
• 7:42
  Speaker 3: be variable so so he certainly showed his class and
• 7:46
  Speaker 3: hey great to see him still got that pace when
• 7:48
  Speaker 3: that that try line open at the other end of
• 7:51
  Speaker 3: the paddock But.
• 7:52
  Speaker 1: How bad were Australia?
• 7:54
  Speaker 2: Honestly, the game was over within 30 minutes and a
• 7:58
  Speaker 2: few people switched off thinking, well, there's no contest now.
• 8:02
  Speaker 2: And that's the thing, the Bledisloe used to be a contest.
• 8:04
  Speaker 2: In the late 90s, early to mid 2000s, it could
• 8:07
  Speaker 2: ebb and flow either way.
• 8:08
  Speaker 3: Yeah, it was. And, you know, we need strong opposition.
• 8:12
  Speaker 3: We need strong opposition for our, you know, domestic, the
• 8:16
  Speaker 3: Super Rugby competition, and we need it in our internationals. So, um, Yeah,
• 8:20
  Speaker 3: it would be nice to see Australia a bit stronger.
• 8:23
  Speaker 3: They'll go away from those two beatings hurting a fair bit,
• 8:26
  Speaker 3: and I believe they will come back stronger. I think
• 8:28
  Speaker 3: Les Kiss has actually unearthed some pretty good individual talent,
• 8:32
  Speaker 3: but it's a matter of getting them to gel as
• 8:34
  Speaker 3: a team.
• 8:35
  Speaker 1: Good on you, Hal. We'll let you get back to
• 8:37
  Speaker 1: the tailing pen. Always good to catch up.
• 8:39
  Speaker 3: Yeah, all good. Cheers, Andy.
• 8:44
  Speaker 2: Don Morrison based at Willowbank. You're listening to the muster
• 8:46
  Speaker 2: on Hockanui. David Frame is up next of Craig's Investment Partners.