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The Muster- Riley Kennedy: Business Desk · The Muster on Hokonui

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  Speaker 1: Riley Kennedy of Business Desk joins us this afternoon.
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  Speaker 2: He is the 2026 Rural Communicator of the Year, as
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  Speaker 2: voted this year at the National Field Days. Good afternoon, Riley.
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  Speaker 2: Last time we spoke to you, you were going to
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  Speaker 2: a bull sale in the middle of Auckland. How did
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  Speaker 2: it go?
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  Speaker 3: Yeah, that bull sale was quite interesting, actually. Something like,
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  Speaker 3: they're averaging about $ 8, 000 a head. Quite successful for Auckland Central.
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  Speaker 3: I'd imagine it would be a record if there was
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  Speaker 3: any other bull sales ever held here.
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  Speaker 2: Well, at least having a bull sale in the middle
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  Speaker 2: of Auckland gives a bit of credit to the Rimuera
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  Speaker 2: tractor philosophy or theory.
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  Speaker 3: Yes, exactly, it does. And I'm... That bullseye was about
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  Speaker 3: 10 minutes out of the CBD. Well, today I'm joining
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  Speaker 3: you from basically directly under the sky tower, so I've
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  Speaker 3: gone quite far in a short amount of time.
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  Speaker 2: Just quickly, cell coverage is a massive thing rarerly at
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  Speaker 2: the moment. You're in the middle of Auckland itself. Coverage,
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  Speaker 2: do you have any issues like dead spots and that?
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  Speaker 2: Is that such a thing in the City of Sales?
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  Speaker 3: Well, actually, funnily enough, it is. I was just trying
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  Speaker 3: to call someone before inside the hotel room at the moment,
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  Speaker 3: and it was completely dead and I had to walk outside.
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  Speaker 3: I don't know whether that's an issue just with the hotel,
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  Speaker 3: but occasionally, or it could just be my technological incompetence,
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  Speaker 3: to be fair, and I couldn't get a phone to go,
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  Speaker 3: but occasionally I do find myself in a dead spot.
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  Speaker 3: But I know it's a massive issue in rural New
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  Speaker 3: Zealand and probably not so much here, but I do
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  Speaker 3: occasionally have to deal with it.
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  Speaker 2: Talking about dead spots, the lamb tariff situation with the
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  Speaker 2: US and President Trump wanting to put tariff on lamb
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  Speaker 2: coming into the country. Kate Eklund over there last week
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  Speaker 2: from Beef and Lamb pleading our case. Do you see
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  Speaker 2: a positive outcome out of this for New Zealand producers?
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  Speaker 3: Yeah, on a data point of view, it's a really
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  Speaker 3: tough sell for the American producers because Their lamb price
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  Speaker 3: on a New Zealand dollar basis is double than what
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  Speaker 3: we're getting. And we're getting record prices, right? You're not
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  Speaker 3: hearing too many people complain about lamb prices. Well, they're
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  Speaker 3: getting $ 24 a kilo and we're getting $ 12. And so,
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  Speaker 3: if anything, we're actually helping their industry rather than hindering it.
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  Speaker 3: I would say that it's a whole lot of uncertainty
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  Speaker 3: and it's quite a big process they've got to go through.
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  Speaker 3: This report has to be back within a month, I think,
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  Speaker 3: after Friday's hearing. And then it's actually up to President Trump.
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  Speaker 3: who makes the final call. So, I mean, it really
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  Speaker 3: depends on what he, you know, on what he decides.
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  Speaker 3: The one good thing is that he'll probably make his decision,
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  Speaker 3: I think, maybe after the midterm elections. But interestingly, he'd
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  Speaker 3: fallen out quite badly with the American cattle industry, and
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  Speaker 3: they're basically Republican voters, right? A bit like us falling
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  Speaker 3: out of bed with the current coalition. And so he's
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  Speaker 3: really annoyed them because he keeps bringing in cheap imported
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  Speaker 3: beef from low-cost producers like South America and stuff. So,
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  Speaker 3: I mean, who would know, really? But it all comes
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  Speaker 3: down to Trump.
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  Speaker 2: The American lamb industry stating that they don't like having
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  Speaker 2: to compete with New Zealand and Australia produce.
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  Speaker 3: Exactly. And it's actually largely aimed at Australia. We have 25%
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  Speaker 3: of that volume that goes into the States. Australia is
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  Speaker 3: about 75%. I think New Zealand does, as an industry,
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  Speaker 3: looks quite nervous. I mean, I think even, you know,
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  Speaker 3: like Nathan Guy has admitted that New Zealand is nervous.
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  Speaker 3: The Australians have been up there prior to this deal
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  Speaker 3: trying to actually cut a deal by saying they'll try
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  Speaker 3: and get the super funds, their super funds, to invest
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  Speaker 3: in their meat industry. We haven't. That might be because
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  Speaker 3: we're in election mode and our Trade Minister and Prime
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  Speaker 3: Minister and Foreign Minister are busy trying to campaign for
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  Speaker 3: our votes. I think whatever... We're either going to be
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  Speaker 3: the beneficiary of Australia's efforts or we're not at all. But, yeah,
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  Speaker 3: I think it's going to... It's very uncertain, but I
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  Speaker 3: think it's going to be an interesting outcome regardless.
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  Speaker 2: Is this a case of New Zealand just being tagged
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  Speaker 2: along with the Big Brother, Little Brother syndrome, courtesy of Australia?
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  Speaker 3: Well, I mean, your word's not mine, but, I mean,
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  Speaker 3: in any case, globally, we're so small, right? We're going
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  Speaker 3: to be tagged on.
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  Speaker 3: To whatever happens globally, but kind of, yeah, basically.
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  Speaker 2: Well, and to follow on from that as well, and
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  Speaker 2: this still fascinates me, Mark Delatour of Open Country a
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  Speaker 2: few weeks ago on The Country with Jamie Mackay stating
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  Speaker 2: openly that New Zealand should withdraw from the Paris Accord,
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  Speaker 2: which has gone against the grain. So the fact that
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  Speaker 2: Mark's still giving credence to this, do you think this
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  Speaker 2: would ever occur?
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  Speaker 3: No, I don't think we would ever withdraw from it. fully.
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  Speaker 3: I think, and the risk here is, I wrote about
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  Speaker 3: this maybe about 12 months ago, actually after the last election.
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  Speaker 3: I don't think it's perfect, but you can't say any
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  Speaker 3: agreement that we've ever signed up to is perfect. I
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  Speaker 3: don't think we should be the first mover in this.
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  Speaker 3: If everyone else follows, then of course, but yeah, I
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  Speaker 3: The first mover advantage in this, I don't think, is
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  Speaker 3: a good call. But Mark likes to be very outspoken
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  Speaker 3: on various issues, and I suspect that benefits them trying
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  Speaker 3: to get farmers from their main competitor at Fonterra.
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  Speaker 2: The EU making noise as if New Zealand withdraws, and
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  Speaker 2: that'll impact on our free trade agreement.
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  Speaker 3: Yeah, and it would. But I would also note that
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  Speaker 3: last week's leaders' debate, the Herald's leaders debate, Chris Hipkins
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  Speaker 3: left the door open to even signing up to the EU,
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  Speaker 3: which I thought was totally bizarre and weird, and why
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  Speaker 3: would we do that? But, I mean, the EU, they're
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  Speaker 3: a highly regulated market. And, of course, it would affect
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  Speaker 3: our STA. And that's something we've got to be very
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  Speaker 3: careful about. We don't want to lose access to markets
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  Speaker 3: by making a swift call like this.
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  Speaker 2: And just on that, Global Dairy Trade Auction occurring on
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  Speaker 2: Wednesday morning New Zealand time. What do you think is
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  Speaker 2: going to occur?
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  Speaker 3: Yeah, that is going to be an interesting one. I
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  Speaker 3: see the futures market for the milk prices north of that, well,
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  Speaker 3: was north of $ 10 last week. It'll be interesting come
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  Speaker 3: early December, Fonterra will have to report their first quarter results,
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  Speaker 3: which is largely when they update the milk price. So,
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  Speaker 3: I would imagine if it keeps heading in the right direction,
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  Speaker 3: they'll have to upgrade their milk price again. But, yeah,
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  Speaker 3: last two weeks ago, it was all sort of driven
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  Speaker 3: by the pounders and while the fats were a little
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  Speaker 3: bit softer. I would imagine we'll continue to see that trend,
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  Speaker 3: but as long as it heads in the right direction.
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  Speaker 2: Regarding this election campaign, we'll just touch on this. From
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  Speaker 2: a rural viewpoint, do you think New Zealand is going
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  Speaker 2: to be well served for the rural sector regardless of
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  Speaker 2: who's holding the portfolios in November? Yeah, I do.
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  Speaker 3: I think the current coalition have done a good job.
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  Speaker 3: The Labour Party too, I was talking to someone this morning,
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  Speaker 3: they're actively engaged with the sector and the sector's actively
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  Speaker 3: engaged with them. I suspect they've learned their lesson of
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  Speaker 3: what happened three, six, nine years ago. But if the
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  Speaker 3: left was to form a coalition, most of the agriculture policy,
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  Speaker 3: I suspect, would be driven by their coalition partners, be
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  Speaker 3: that in the Greens or whatever they want to do
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  Speaker 3: with fertiliser and maybe the Opportunity Party and the Party Māori.
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  Speaker 3: I suspect the Labour Party will basically do almost nothing...
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  Speaker 3: when it comes to ag policy, or nothing significant, because
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  Speaker 3: they don't want to get scared like they did three
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  Speaker 3: years ago.
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  Speaker 2: Well, Daniel Ebb, I was reading this morning, he was
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  Speaker 2: a Nuffield scholar back in 2021.
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  Speaker 3: Yes, quite an interesting guy, actually. I saw him on
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  Speaker 3: Queen Street campaigning a couple of Sundays ago, and I
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  Speaker 3: said to him, have you got nothing better to do
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  Speaker 3: than walk up and down Queen Street trying to get votes?
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  Speaker 3: It seems like my idea of hell, to be honest.
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  Speaker 2: Talking about hell or heaven, depending on what side of
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  Speaker 2: the coin you're on, your new train network, are you
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  Speaker 2: enjoying it? Do you use it?
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  Speaker 3: Oh, you know, I love the train network. CRL is brilliant.
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  Speaker 3: I'm actually standing outside one of the stations. I mean,
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  Speaker 3: it's very nerdy and it's a very Auckland thing. I've
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  Speaker 3: described it as all it is is a train in
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  Speaker 3: a hole that's very efficient. And it's really not that exciting,
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  Speaker 3: but I mean, I know it doesn't affect anyone outside
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  Speaker 3: of Auckland, but It does make Auckland a much more
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  Speaker 3: mature city. I mean, the train system here, quite frankly,
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  Speaker 3: was just a bit shit beforehand. Now it's very good.
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  Speaker 3: The other day I caught the train from our office
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  Speaker 3: down to lunch at Britomart, and then I got the
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  Speaker 3: train back. I mean, I could have just walked, to
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  Speaker 3: be honest, but it was... It is a bit of
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  Speaker 3: a novelty, in fact. I mean, Auckland forever is going
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  Speaker 3: to have public transport issues, but this does go a
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  Speaker 3: long way to helping relieve those... I've never heard.
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  Speaker 2: Of Auckland being called mature before, but we'll leave it there, Riley.
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  Speaker 2: You've got a busy old day ahead of you. Thanks
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  Speaker 2: for your time as always.
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  Speaker 3: Very busy old day. Kia kaha.
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  Speaker 2: Riley Kennedy of Business Desk. Simon Hopcroft is next. You're
• 9:30
  Speaker 2: listening to The Muster.