Latest / Best of Business / Jamie Mackay: The Country host on Federated Farmers voicing support for keeping agricultural and horticultural science available for Year 11

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Jamie Mackay: The Country host on Federated Farmers voicing support for keeping agricultural and horticultural science available for Year 11 · Best of Business

• 0:09
  Speaker 1: You're listening to a podcast from Newstalk ZB. Follow this
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  Speaker 1: and our wide range of podcasts now on iHeart Radio.
• 0:18
  Speaker 1: The Rural Report on Heather Duplessy-Allen Drive with Light Force Solar.
• 0:24
  Speaker 1: What's your solar savings number?
• 0:26
  Speaker 2: Jamie Mackay, host of The Country's With Us.
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  Speaker 3: Hello, Jamie.
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  Speaker 1: Hello, Heather.
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  Speaker 3: Thank God we don't have to worry about that, eh? No, Jesus.
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  Speaker 3: In my case, the face for radio, not yours, of course.
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  Speaker 1: And they would have screened us.
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  Speaker 3: You can star on across, eh?
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  Speaker 1: No, they would have screened us. They would have been
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  Speaker 1: those two faces for radio.
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  Speaker 3: In you go. Fine, don't you think?
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  Speaker 2: Well, one of us crosses over into TV, but never mind. Hey,
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  Speaker 2: a lot of momentum building, Heather. A lot of momentum
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  Speaker 2: building on the story I was talking to you about
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  Speaker 2: on Tuesday evening. And this is, well, Federated Farmers have
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  Speaker 2: jumped on board. There's several high-profile backers in the ag
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  Speaker 2: industry have. And this is fielding high school's battle against
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  Speaker 2: Erica Stanford, really, because she wants to get rid of
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  Speaker 2: agriculture in year 11, a standalone industry.
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  Speaker 3: Subject.
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  Speaker 2: And basically, everyone's kicking up against this. The government want
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  Speaker 2: to make it only available in year 12 and 13.
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  Speaker 2: In the meantime, the year 11 students, they're just going
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  Speaker 2: to have to put up with a small component of
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  Speaker 2: these ag topics incorporated into a general science course instead.
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  Speaker 2: That's watered down year right sort of stuff. So the
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  Speaker 2: feds are backing horticulture or the horticulture and agriculture Agriculture
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  Speaker 2: Teachers Association, spit it out, and fielding high school. Now,
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  Speaker 2: quite rightly, Federated Farmers and their education spokesperson, Greg Anderson,
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  Speaker 2: are saying, look, getting to these young adults, kids, pupils,
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  Speaker 2: whatever you want to call them, at year 11 gets
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  Speaker 2: them interested in a career. Federated Farmers argues, along with
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  Speaker 2: the rest of us, that a general science course cannot
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  Speaker 2: offer the depth. context or industry connection of a specific subject.
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  Speaker 2: And they go on to say their position matches the
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  Speaker 2: backing Kiwi farmers election platform, which urged more agriculture and
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  Speaker 2: horticulture content in years zero. to 10 science curriculum.
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  Speaker 3: So there you go.
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  Speaker 2: I think this is a battle that even I raised
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  Speaker 2: it with Winston Peters, and I know he was on
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  Speaker 2: your show today, and he said he's going to talk
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  Speaker 2: directly to Erica about it himself.
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  Speaker 3: It's just not going down that well.
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  Speaker 2: No, it doesn't sound like it is at all.
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  Speaker 1: So what has Hound in the Rural News had to say?
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  Speaker 3: Well, there's several rural publications.
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  Speaker 2: I guess two of the biggest ones are Farmers Weekly
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  Speaker 2: and the Rural News. They've been around for a long,
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  Speaker 2: long time. And the hound is this mutt, he calls himself,
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  Speaker 2: or itself, a mutt. I don't know the gender of
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  Speaker 2: the hound anymore. I do know it's sort of the
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  Speaker 2: rural equivalent of Felicity Ferrett for you Ponsonby types, Heather,
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  Speaker 2: so that might explain it to you.
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  Speaker 3: It used to be the domain of.
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  Speaker 2: The late David Anderson, who incidentally, is the brother of
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  Speaker 2: the current Waitaki MP, Miles Anderson. And I'll just read
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  Speaker 2: you a wee excerpt, if I can, from The Muppet. Well,
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  Speaker 2: not from The Muppet, from The Mutt. who said, the
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  Speaker 2: main mainstream media muppets, that's where I got confused, Heather,
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  Speaker 2: that brought you Jacinda Mania in 2017 have been flat
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  Speaker 2: out pimping the Opportunities Party, labelled by some as the
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  Speaker 2: LinkedIn Greens. I really like that reference there, for their
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  Speaker 2: corporate spin on Green-esque tax the rich policies. Said media
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  Speaker 2: mavens have reacted grumpily to the politically savvy move by
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  Speaker 2: National to rule out working with their favoured horse. So
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  Speaker 2: you can read all about The mutt's very, the hound,
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  Speaker 2: the mutt, his very or her very cynical take in
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  Speaker 2: rural news. A shameless plug for that rural publication. I
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  Speaker 2: don't know who does it now. As I said, it
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  Speaker 2: was the late David Anderson. And he even had the temerity, Heather,
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  Speaker 2: to criticise me in the hound column.
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  Speaker 3: So, you know, you just got to take it. If
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  Speaker 3: you give it, you got to take it.
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  Speaker 1: Yeah, not someone unless you've been in the hound column.
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  Speaker 3: Thank you very much, Jamie.
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  Speaker 1: Look after yourself. For more from Newstalk ZB, listen live,
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