Latest / Best of Business / Jamie Mackay: The Country host on the groups vying to take over Molesworth Station

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Jamie Mackay: The Country host on the groups vying to take over Molesworth Station · Best of Business

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  Speaker 1: You're listening to a podcast from News Talk zed B.
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  Speaker 1: iheartradiogether due to see Ellen.
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  Speaker 2: Jamie mckaie, host of the Countries with Us. Hello Jamie.
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  Speaker 3: Hello, Yeah, Well, I'm having an informed opinion guest guests
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  Speaker 3: that once to months to be prime minister. That's my
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  Speaker 3: latest theory. Man.
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  Speaker 2: Only he can only extract that, Jamie, if he is
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  Speaker 2: in the king maker position, because it's quite a ballsy like.
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  Speaker 2: No one's done that, right, No one's given the prime
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  Speaker 2: ministership to a smaller party. So in order for him
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  Speaker 2: to be able to extract that, he has to have
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  Speaker 2: absolute leverage. And you only have absolute leverage if you
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  Speaker 2: can put in place either label or national.
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  Speaker 3: I wouldn't be surprised if he finds himself in that
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  Speaker 3: position on election. I will see what happens.
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  Speaker 2: No, that's fine, I made that prediction. You've made that prediction.
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  Speaker 2: Now we're in this together. Now, what's going on. What's
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  Speaker 2: going on with Molesworth?
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  Speaker 3: Well, Molesworth is New Zealand's biggest farm. It's owned by
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  Speaker 3: the government or either seen by Doc one hundred and
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  Speaker 3: eighty two thousand hectest. That's like an old school money
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  Speaker 3: four hundred and fifty thousand plus acres, huge farm and
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  Speaker 3: wonderful piece of conservation land. A lot of New Zealanders
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  Speaker 3: take four wheel drives tours through it. It's absolutely a
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  Speaker 3: magnificent country. So the supporters have a proposal of to
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  Speaker 3: make New Zealand's biggest farm, Molesworth, a station for the nation.
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  Speaker 3: So that means that means former. Sorry, there's just some
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  Speaker 3: noise in the background. I've got a rid of it
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  Speaker 3: now I can concentrate on the job at hand. Sorry
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  Speaker 3: about that, Heather So. Former Molesworth station manager Jim Ward,
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  Speaker 3: whose father Ron has the distinction of playing Test rugby
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  Speaker 3: for the All Blacks as a forward and a back.
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  Speaker 3: He's spearheading a proposal to run a charitable trust and
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  Speaker 3: they're going to run this as a self funding farming operation.
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  Speaker 3: And he says interest in the proposal has been growing
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  Speaker 3: strongly within both the farming and broader business communities. Now
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  Speaker 3: existing lease between DOC and p Parmu are running it
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  Speaker 3: at the moment expires on June the thirtieth. We understand
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  Speaker 3: that Palmu is not one of the five parties who
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  Speaker 3: have made an expression of interest in this, So I'm
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  Speaker 3: not quite sure who the other four are. They may
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  Speaker 3: be commercial operations, they may be community good or industry
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  Speaker 3: good bodies. I have no idea what the hell's going
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  Speaker 3: on there, but they need to fund this. So they've
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  Speaker 3: got seven million dollars worth of livestock on the property,
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  Speaker 3: including a herd of three thousand breeding cows. They're like
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  Speaker 3: gold at the moment, so they're hoping some wealthy individual
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  Speaker 3: may be prompted to contribute to stocking the operation. Jim
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  Speaker 3: Ward also has a high profile New Zealander in mind
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  Speaker 3: to be patron for Molesworth, and then he's hoping to
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  Speaker 3: put some smart minds together on how to formulate a
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  Speaker 3: viable commercial model within the not for profit structure. This
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  Speaker 3: could include freeing up funds currently committed through rape to
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  Speaker 3: things like road maintenance, something the station also pays itself
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  Speaker 3: to keep it sixty five kilometers of road open for
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  Speaker 3: the public six months a year. So Doc expects to
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  Speaker 3: announce a preferred operator at the end of the end
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  Speaker 3: of May. I really hope it's Jim Ward, former manager
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  Speaker 3: who had a bit of a perhaps unpleasant or unsavory
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  Speaker 3: parting of the ways with Pamu. Hopefully he can stitch
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  Speaker 3: this together and we can have Heather a station for
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  Speaker 3: the nation.
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  Speaker 2: Now, how do you play as a forward and back
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  Speaker 2: for the old lads?
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  Speaker 3: Well, he was, He's a Southlander. He played pre war,
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  Speaker 3: so he played I think in nineteen thirty seven, and
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  Speaker 3: he played in those days. Of course there were no
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  Speaker 3: injury replacements. So he was a loose forward, a very
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  Speaker 3: very good one, a very gnarly, gnarly bloke. He used
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  Speaker 3: to terrorize us on the sideline of the firse fifteen
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  Speaker 3: at Saint Peter's College and God, Jim Ward and I
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  Speaker 3: were in that team, and he didn't like me because
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  Speaker 3: I was around the corner kicker. He only liked toe hackers.
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  Speaker 3: But an answer to your question, hither slong wanted answer,
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  Speaker 3: there was an injury. He was a loose forward. They
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  Speaker 3: had no one else. They shoved him out on the
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  Speaker 3: wing and he played very well out there as well.
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  Speaker 3: So one of the few All Blacks to have played
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  Speaker 3: Test match rugby as a forward in a back, and
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  Speaker 3: he was a tough old bugger. I'm sure Jim wouldn't
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  Speaker 3: mind me saying that.
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  Speaker 2: That's impressive, man, Hey, Jamie, thank you as always, always
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  Speaker 2: a nugget of gold in there somewhere with you Jamie McKay,
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  Speaker 2: Host of the Country.
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