Full cabinet
OPINION: Legislation being drafted to bring back the controversial trade of live animal exports by sea is getting stuck in the cogs of Cabinet.
While many MPs have been busy taking holidays in maybe exotic places, for Andrew Hoggard it's back to his old job as a dairy farmer during the so-called 'summer break'.
He says he's been using the time to fill in for his staff as they take their holidays, but some of his plans have been thwarted by the rain which has been something of a constant in the Manawatu.
He says he planned to reinstate some fences that got taken down when he had new staff accommodation built on the property. But he says doing carpentry with power tools in the wet was not a goer and his plans were running behind schedule.
But the transition from Feds to Parliament has allowed Hoggard to indulge in politics for a little longer.
He admits that life without some involvement in politics would have driven him 'stir crazy' and forced him to watch TV news and scream at the television.
Parliament is described by some as a 'zoo' and Hoggard has his own unique way of winding down after a week in it.
"I call it tractor therapy - recreational cultivation - something that involves me going around and around in circles on the tractor. After spending all week listening to the screaming and squealing from across the aisle in Parliament, it's good to listen to the diesel engine just purring away," he says.
NZPork has appointed Auckland-based Paul Bucknell as its new chair.
The Government claims to have delivered on its election promise to protect productive farmland from emissions trading scheme (ETS) but red meat farmers aren’t happy.
Foot and Mouth Disease outbreaks could have a detrimental impact on any country's rural sector, as seen in the United Kingdom's 2000 outbreak that saw the compulsory slaughter of over six million animals.
The Ministry for the Environment is joining as a national award sponsor in the Ballance Farm Environment Awards (BFEA from next year).
Kiwis are wasting less of their food than they were two years ago, and this has been enough to push New Zealand’s total household food waste bill lower, the 2025 Rabobank KiwiHarvest Food Waste survey has found.
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