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The Muster- Jeff Grant: Election Season · The Muster on Hokonui

• 0:09
  Speaker 1: Welcome back to the muster on Hokonui. Geoff Grant chats
• 0:12
  Speaker 1: politics on a Monday, as we do weekly. Good afternoon, Geoff.
• 0:16
  Speaker 1: There's a lot going on in the political landscape, and
• 0:19
  Speaker 1: it all kicked off yesterday with the election campaigns proper.
• 0:22
  Speaker 2: Yeah, well, theoretically, we had the launch of the two
• 0:26
  Speaker 2: major parties, Labour and National, although it's almost hard to
• 0:29
  Speaker 2: call them major parties these days when they're both polling
• 0:32
  Speaker 2: under 30%. It just is that we're going to see
• 0:36
  Speaker 2: quite an unusual outcome, I think, on the 7th of November.
• 0:40
  Speaker 1: Do you think top will get 5% or are they
• 0:42
  Speaker 1: inflated figures?
• 0:46
  Speaker 2: History has shown that minority parties tend to poll well
• 0:50
  Speaker 2: up until Election Day and then get slightly deflated. Green's
• 0:53
  Speaker 2: a good example. Get up around that 13%, 14%, then
• 0:56
  Speaker 2: end up at 10%. I think top will just probably
• 1:02
  Speaker 2: get over the five.
• 1:04
  Speaker 1: Chris Hopkins yesterday as well, using strong language in his
• 1:07
  Speaker 1: opening statement. So I was a bit bemused by this.
• 1:12
  Speaker 2: Yeah, look, ironically, I think in terms of where they're positioned,
• 1:19
  Speaker 2: they just seem to be in lacklustre getting to the
• 1:23
  Speaker 2: platform in terms of the election campaign. So it'll be
• 1:26
  Speaker 2: interesting to watch over the next six weeks what they
• 1:28
  Speaker 2: really drive hard around. I mean, the reality is we've
• 1:33
  Speaker 2: all now got every political party seems to have a
• 1:36
  Speaker 2: view about the supermarkets, that's for sure. But on some
• 1:39
  Speaker 2: of the other policy areas, it's still not clear. You know,
• 1:42
  Speaker 2: people's pockets are being hurt pretty strongly on a weekly basis.
• 1:46
  Speaker 2: And so, you know, where's the first attack going to happen?
• 1:50
  Speaker 2: Obviously in groceries. And so that's why the supermarket became...
• 1:54
  Speaker 2: a prominent figure in terms of policy development from those
• 1:58
  Speaker 2: parties over the last few weeks.
• 2:00
  Speaker 1: Now, if Chris Hipkins was using strong language, Christopher Luxon
• 2:03
  Speaker 1: was using tax language, and just using cattle dog mentality,
• 2:08
  Speaker 1: attacking Hipkins and these 10 tax policies that Kipley implemented,
• 2:14
  Speaker 1: is this just what we're going to see?
• 2:17
  Speaker 2: Look, without any doubt, the big driver for National will
• 2:22
  Speaker 2: be how to split out you know, the big concerns
• 2:26
  Speaker 2: that the general public might have. And I'm not sure
• 2:29
  Speaker 2: that we all get up in the morning worrying about
• 2:31
  Speaker 2: our tax position. And I think they've got a bit
• 2:35
  Speaker 2: of a hard grind to try and rush home that
• 2:39
  Speaker 2: sort of view about future tax. But yes, capital gains
• 2:43
  Speaker 2: will have some impact in terms of people's thinking, because
• 2:46
  Speaker 2: it's not the initial capital gains, it's what they choose
• 2:48
  Speaker 2: to do further down the track and how big an
• 2:51
  Speaker 2: impact that would have on the economy. But I think overall,
• 2:56
  Speaker 2: the race between the two major ones is not going
• 2:59
  Speaker 2: to open up. I don't think that National will necessarily
• 3:03
  Speaker 2: get a big jump on Labour.
• 3:05
  Speaker 1: What about agriculture policy? What's really grabbing your interest here,
• 3:10
  Speaker 1: or is anything?
• 3:13
  Speaker 2: So most political parties have lit out some policy. I've
• 3:17
  Speaker 2: noticed that ACT is probably the most comprehensive. National seems
• 3:21
  Speaker 2: to have dripped out stuff over a period since June.
• 3:25
  Speaker 2: Greens have shown quite a blunt sort of attitude towards agriculture,
• 3:29
  Speaker 2: which is not surprising, talking about a cap of 125
• 3:33
  Speaker 2: kilograms of nitrogen for dairy farms, having tougher regulations around
• 3:37
  Speaker 2: environmental aspects, you know, regenerative farming becoming a bit of
• 3:41
  Speaker 2: a play in the market again. So for that reason,
• 3:45
  Speaker 2: I think there is still more to come in the
• 3:48
  Speaker 2: agriculture policy area from the political parties. I don't think
• 3:51
  Speaker 2: New Zealand First has actually announced anything yet of any
• 3:55
  Speaker 2: material matters. And National seem to be relying on what
• 4:01
  Speaker 2: they've done rather than what they're going to do. But
• 4:04
  Speaker 2: ETS looks like it's off the table across all political
• 4:08
  Speaker 2: parties in terms of the agriculture sector, which is a
• 4:11
  Speaker 2: good thing.
• 4:12
  Speaker 1: Yeah, it is a good thing. But what does it
• 4:14
  Speaker 1: mean for the bigger picture regarding this Paris Agreement?
• 4:19
  Speaker 2: Look, I'm probably in the camp of saying you should
• 4:22
  Speaker 2: stay in the Paris Agreement. The reality for us is
• 4:26
  Speaker 2: that it has a bigger impact in terms of agriculture.
• 4:30
  Speaker 2: I think if political parties take the line of saying
• 4:33
  Speaker 2: we're not going to lead the world in this area,
• 4:35
  Speaker 2: I think we'll do some responsible stuff. But the reality is,
• 4:40
  Speaker 2: in terms of consumers, they don't really care about biodiversity
• 4:43
  Speaker 2: or water. The land, you know, the big thing is
• 4:48
  Speaker 2: climate change. And so, you know, our exporters are going
• 4:51
  Speaker 2: to probably lead the charge in this area rather than regulation.
• 4:56
  Speaker 1: What about Joe Luxton, ex-spokesperson for Labour? I've talked about
• 5:00
  Speaker 1: this before and I'll say it again. I have yet
• 5:02
  Speaker 1: to hear Joe Luxton say red meat sector and talking
• 5:06
  Speaker 1: about what it actually does for the economy or where
• 5:08
  Speaker 1: it's to that effect.
• 5:12
  Speaker 2: Yeah, look, I think she's brought some freshness to Labour's
• 5:16
  Speaker 2: agriculture policy after, you know, Damien being there for some years. Again,
• 5:20
  Speaker 2: I take the view that you're probably going to see
• 5:23
  Speaker 2: more policy issues come out on agriculture over the next
• 5:26
  Speaker 2: six weeks, and so we'll be interested to see. But
• 5:28
  Speaker 2: an interesting point. There's a lot of focus on dairy,
• 5:32
  Speaker 2: a lot of focus on horticulture, but not necessarily on
• 5:35
  Speaker 2: the meat industry.
• 5:36
  Speaker 1: And let's remember, this was the party, the last government,
• 5:38
  Speaker 1: David Parker was telling the South that they were going
• 5:40
  Speaker 1: to have everything sowed out in the next four weeks.
• 5:43
  Speaker 1: And if they just had half a brain come down
• 5:46
  Speaker 1: and seen the South at the moment, they know that's
• 5:48
  Speaker 1: just not practical.
• 5:50
  Speaker 2: Yeah, look, in all of those sort of aspects around
• 5:54
  Speaker 2: the use of land and how it's dealt with, I
• 5:57
  Speaker 2: think we've constantly seen these proposals that, you know, people
• 6:02
  Speaker 2: on the land sort of look at it and say,
• 6:04
  Speaker 2: where are these people coming from? But again, you know,
• 6:07
  Speaker 2: even from a nationalist perspective, I don't think that they've
• 6:10
  Speaker 2: moved dramatically in the last three years in terms of
• 6:13
  Speaker 2: agriculture policy. All of this stuff's come very late. So
• 6:17
  Speaker 2: we still don't know what's required in terms of farm plans.
• 6:22
  Speaker 2: We're told that the Resource Management Act changes, which, you know,
• 6:26
  Speaker 2: passed on the last week of their three years, you know,
• 6:30
  Speaker 2: most of that stuff won't come into effect until 27, 28.
• 6:33
  Speaker 2: We don't know what the regulations are going to be
• 6:34
  Speaker 2: like in terms of the RMA. But the important thing
• 6:39
  Speaker 2: here will be to deal with consenting because that is
• 6:43
  Speaker 2: the biggest cost that is imposed on all businesses. And
• 6:47
  Speaker 2: if we can reduce the number of consents that have
• 6:50
  Speaker 2: to be notified and the number of consents that have
• 6:52
  Speaker 2: to be applied for by around 50%, I think that
• 6:55
  Speaker 2: would be a step in the right direction.
• 6:57
  Speaker 1: Yeah, you talk about consenting, you talk about local governments
• 7:00
  Speaker 1: and the roles they've had regarding this. But look, there's
• 7:03
  Speaker 1: a lot of concern that this amalgamation chat has been
• 7:06
  Speaker 1: put on ice by the government. So this puts the
• 7:10
  Speaker 1: bigger question out there. Why the hell even start this
• 7:12
  Speaker 1: conversation and waste money?
• 7:16
  Speaker 2: Well, in fairness to the local government officials, I can
• 7:20
  Speaker 2: understand their frustration because you're forced to do something in
• 7:24
  Speaker 2: three months. And as you saw from the result of that,
• 7:29
  Speaker 2: those local authorities that had been doing some work for
• 7:33
  Speaker 2: some time seemed to have been able to get some
• 7:35
  Speaker 2: semblance of order. But the reality is, I don't think
• 7:39
  Speaker 2: there's any proposal that really is concrete. And now the
• 7:43
  Speaker 2: government's saying, oh, it's all on hold. It just seems
• 7:46
  Speaker 2: to be silly policymaking.
• 7:49
  Speaker 1: Is this just sheer arrogance from Bishop Watson Co., which
• 7:52
  Speaker 1: is very flippant in their attitude towards local governance?
• 7:56
  Speaker 2: No, I think there's a lack of direction about next step.
• 7:59
  Speaker 2: I think they're really struggling as to what to do next.
• 8:03
  Speaker 2: What do you do? Do you take a position on
• 8:07
  Speaker 2: some local authorities where they're south? That's a good example.
• 8:10
  Speaker 2: You've got two options. I think the local government commission
• 8:13
  Speaker 2: is probably more likely to give us a solution than
• 8:16
  Speaker 2: the central government on this one.
• 8:18
  Speaker 1: As Hannibal Smith once said, I love it when a
• 8:20
  Speaker 1: plan comes together, but what that plan is exactly in
• 8:23
  Speaker 1: this instance, Jeff Grant, we're not too sure. Always appreciate
• 8:26
  Speaker 1: your time.
• 8:27
  Speaker 2: Cheers, Andy. Catch you again.
• 8:31
  Speaker 1: Jeff Grant and that local government, local governance issue. Ben
• 8:36
  Speaker 1: Dooley's up next. Sheep Bee Farmer based just out of Wyndham.
• 8:40
  Speaker 1: You're listening to The Muster.