M.I.A.
OPINION: The previous government spent too much during the Covid-19 pandemic, despite warnings from officials, according to a briefing released by the Treasury.
OPINION: No one can doubt the great job that Dr Ashley Bloomfield has done in protecting New Zealanders from COVID-19.
It hasn’t been perfect, but we are one of the luckiest countries in the world thanks to him and his team.
However, in the last few weeks, some cracks have appeared with all sorts of problems in the isolation facilities and the disconnect between the politicians’ expectations and what the Ministry of Health and the others managing the isolation facilities have been doing. The ministry is great when it comes to straight health but is woefully out its depth when it comes to managing things out in the field.
The classic example is their dealing with Auckland’s latest lockdown. It has been an unmitigated shambles of the highest order. Dad’s Army would have done a much better job! Farmers and a whole range of people who work in the rural area around the border of the super city are rightly frustrated, enraged, dumbstruck and in a state of despair at the incompetence of the MoH’s management of the border.
In Auckland it seems a trip to Waiheke Island was okay – no penalty, just the usual slap on the wrist with a wet bus ticket. But trying to look after your calves or other stock, get a vet to sick animals or move your produce to other parts of the country was taboo. The penalty for trying to do your job – a five hour wait in a queue.
The inconvenience inflicted on the rural sector in Auckland at the border checkpoints was unforgivable. Yet Dr Bloomfield and the PM at the daily Jacinda/Ashley pantomime proclaimed that the exemptions were being processed quickly. Really? So, a farmer who calls a vet has to wait for five days until the vet gets permission to travel! Excuse us, but by the time he arrives the animal will likely be “dead, buried and cremated” – to pinch a phrase coined by former Australia Prime Minister, Tony Abbot.
It seems that agriculture – let’s call it food production – is not a priority for the MoH or the politicians running the COVID campaign. One feels for Agriculture Minister Damien O’Connor and MPI who seem to be bystanders in this whole fiasco.
MoH policy wonks are not experts in supply chain and food production. Come on Ashley – take the advice from MPI and the rural community and get it right. Aren’t we all in this together and wasn’t agriculture supposed to lead the economic recovery?
Phoebe Scherer, a technical manager from the Bay of Plenty, has won the 2025 Young Grower of the Year national title.
The Fencing Contractors Association of New Zealand (FCANZ) celebrated the best of the best at the 2025 Fencing Industry Awards, providing the opportunity to honour both rising talent and industry stalwarts.
Award-winning boutique cheese company, Cranky Goat Ltd has gone into voluntary liquidation.
As an independent review of the National Pest Management Plan for TB finds the goal of complete eradication by 2055 is still valide, feedback is being sought on how to finish the job.
Beef + Lamb New Zealand has launched an AI-powered digital assistant to help farmers using the B+LNZ Knowledge Hub to create tailored answers and resources for their farming businesses.
A tiny organism from the arid mountains of mainland Greece is facilitating a new way of growing healthier animals on farms across New Zealand.
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