Don’t forget to enrol
Gypsy Day is over and now is the time for dairy farming families to register with a medical practice in their new district.
The Voluntary Bonding Scheme needs to be more focused on delivering better health services for rural New Zealand, Labour spokesperson for Rural Affairs Damien O'Connor says.
The scheme was set up in 2009 to encourage newly graduated doctors, midwives, nurses and vets to take up placements in hard to staff areas and specialties. However, there is no system in place to track how many of these graduates end up in rural areas.
"Measures must be put in place to establish how well the scheme is working for rural communities and whether there needs to be another tier added to further incentivise graduates to work in rural areas," Damien O'Connor says.
"High vacancy rates and reliance on expensive locums takes a toll on the quality of service that can be provided in rural areas and places stress on medical and veterinary professionals and their staff.
"The nature of these jobs is also different in a rural setting, as compared to those in towns or cities.
"It is therefore important that we have separate statistics for rural voluntary bonding and that it is not lumped together with all hard to staff areas.
"Rural communities are the beating hearts of our primary industries, which contribute hugely to our GDP. We have to look after them," says O'Connor.
Two butcheries have claimed victory at the 100% New Zealand Bacon & Ham Awards for 2025.
A Taupiri farming company has been convicted and fined $52,500 in the Hamilton District Court for the unlawful discharge of dairy effluent into the environment.
The Climate Change Commission’s 2025 emissions reduction monitoring report reveals steady progress on the reduction of New Zealand’s climate pollution.
Another milestone has been reached in the fight against Mycoplasma bovis with the compensation assistance service being wound up after helping more than 1300 farmers.
The Government’s directive for state farmer Landcorp Farming (trading as Pamu) to lifts its performance is yielding results.
The move to bring bovine TB testing in-house at Ospri officially started this month, as a team of 37 skilled and experienced technicians begin work with the disease eradication agency.
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